Mobile Desktop for Reddit
Be warned, this is an image-heavy post! In this post, I will be comparing the desktop view (left) of the website reddit.com and its desktop view on mobile (right). This is not a comparison of the website to the mobile app, this is just an analysis of viewing the webpage on different mediums.
To begin, I’ll start with the landing page that is first encountered when visiting this site. The website itself uses a different header on the desktop site, which includes access to your profile and the search bar as well as immediate access to other features that are only viewable via the dropdown menu with the mobile view. Just below the header, the desktop version of Reddit promotes other communities on the website, a feature that doesn’t exist on the mobile desktop view. The desktop view also features community guidelines and rules specific to each community, which isn’t normally able to be seen on the mobile view.
The desktop view also has easier access to sorting options, while on mobile these options are hidden behind a gray chevron that brings up yet another dropdown menu. The front page of Reddit on desktop uses a tiling system, with a gray background to separate each region of information/post, while the view on mobile is a list
There are other viewing types, but the desktop version of Reddit defaults to a “card” system that displays images and videos immediately below the post title and minor text previews, but the mobile view defaults to “classic” and is unable to access the “compact” view.
When actually trying to view posts and find other communities, both the desktop and mobile view display these options through a dropdown menu. The desktop dropdown includes all of the communities that you subscribe to, as well as some additional “feeds” that the website view can’t access. The desktop also has some redundancies in this menu, such as “popular” being displayed twice, and also uses vague iconography, whereas the mobile view has accompanying text with each icon to tell you exactly where you are going.
The layout of posts varies between the two views with the most dramatic change being the upvoting and downvoting posts are also positioned differently, with not only their position being changed but also their orientation. The ellipses dropdown menu is also in a vastly different location between views, easily being lost when viewing on mobile.
When previewing images on a post, the desktop view constrains the image to the size of the tile, while on mobile it expands the image to horizontally fill the page.
When previewing the videos of a post, the desktop version provides additional video player options than the mobile view. In addition, though it can’t be seen here because provided images use a different host for their videos, some videos when viewed on mobile are restricted only to play/pause via tapping on the video itself.
During the actual previewing of posts, there are two different means to navigate the comments section. On desktop, clicking on the gray verticle hairline stroke causes the thread to collapse so that the next thread may be viewed, and this can be done on any level of hierarchy within the thread. On mobile, this option is completely disabled and the only way to navigate a thread is to scroll the entire thread until you reach the next one.
In addition, while the desktop view provides users with an array of tools to make comments on a post, the mobile desktop view provides users with only a text box and nothing else.
This contrast is especially evident when creating a post. The desktop view provides an array of editing tools and additional personalization options while, again, the mobile view provides only a barebones title and text field.
Lastly, and this is my biggest gripe with the mobile view and why this post became so biased against it, is that any time you want to follow a link, or video, or image to its source, the mobile view will always ask you to either download their mobile app. If you have it, then the mobile view will instead ask you which application you want to use to complete your action.
You might argue that I should just use “always” when selecting which app I wish to use, yet specific items such as links to a webpage or youtube are better viewed within a browser, while the interactivity and responsiveness of the Reddit app also causes me to switch between the two constantly.