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This is the first time I design a website that has a mobile version.

This is the original size of the images (well, they are a little bit bigger):

enter image description here

This is the size when they are displayed in mobile phones:

enter image description here

I think the picture became too small. I was wondering if it is a better idea to cut the picture instead (or is there any other suggestion?)

This is my live site:

http://alexchen.info/

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  • For display thumbnail would be better, when user zoom it show them the original picture.
    – Pir Abdul
    Sep 6, 2011 at 6:25
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    What would you do if designing for mobile first?
    – Roger Attrill
    Sep 6, 2011 at 7:30
  • Why are you displaying a whole web page as an image? If this is your intended usage, you need to fix that first, because it's a very very bad idea for so many reasons. If you intend to use this with actual pictures, then please describe better what types of pictures you'll be dealing with. Photos? Diagrams? User-generated or your own? ...
    – R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE
    Sep 6, 2011 at 12:36

2 Answers 2

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Is there a reason that you need to show what appears to be the full website on a mobile version? Mobile isn't just a smaller version of pc usage. It's a different way of interacting, and so you need to rethink what is needed for someone to achieve whatever you believe their purpose is on the mobile site.

In answer to your question on images, mobile bandwidth is often limited and slow, so making someone download a full sized image only to show them a lower res version of the image wastes bandwidth and will make your site slower.

If you absolutely have to show the image, show a thumbnail and let people click on it for the full sized image. But make sure the image is needed in the first place.

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    Excellent response, and one that deserves to be noticed. Connecting via mobile isn't just like connecting via PC whilst on the move. Mobile users are often trying to access different types of data and interacting differently too. For instance, in many situations, a PC user might both browse content and upload their own. But that same user, stuck on a train, might open the site in their phone purely to read new content and updates. In this case, mobile users have a different set of needs. For your app, this might mean that in the mobile version, images become irrelevant altogether!
    – Jimmy Breck-McKye
    Sep 6, 2011 at 11:43
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I agree with the comment above. Think carefully about what information is required on the mobile version. If the image isn't required remove it. You are working in a limited amount of space so take this into account.

To answer your question: If you are going to keep the graphic, you need to make it readable. I would suggest presenting a different image for the mobile version.

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