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Quartz.com is a responsive design content site, and a journalist seems baffled by this fact

Feb 11, 2014 story titled Does it matter that mobile-native Quartz has a mobile-minority audience?

Another idiotic piece of journalism. From the title, it would seem that Quartz must only receive about 10 to 20 percent of its traffic from mobile users (tablet and phone).

From the boneheaded story:

A year ago [2013], around 30 percent of its unique visitors arrived at fast-growing Quartz on mobile devices; its latest three-month average stood at 41 percent.

11 percent growth in mobile traffic in 12 months. What's the problem? Those numbers seem similar to many media or content sites. It's not as if most sites are averaging 70 percent traffic from mobile users.

And remember, Quartz could still be considered a startup because it has only existed for 18 months!!

As overall traffic increases, and more people use their phones to read content everywhere, Quartz will probably top 50 percent in mobile traffic by February 2015 if not by the end of 2014.

More from the unnecessary story that seems be looking for a story:

Nothing’s broken about Quartz on a desktop browser, but as with some other responsive designs I’ve highlighted, it only takes one glimpse to realize it was built primarily for smaller devices.

Yeah, so? It's a startup media company. Why would they not create their main distribution method as a responsive design site that works well on ALL devices?

As much as mobile is poised to keep growing in 2014, old desktop habits die hard — especially during business hours.

Boom! This is not a news flash. People who enjoy the type of content that Quartz produces may consume it, unfortunately, during business hours, using company computers.

It seems like the writer of this story uses nothing but Snapchat-type apps.

Of the 41 percent of unique visitors coming from either tablets or smartphones, three-fourths consist of smartphone users. That means, in its effort to be as future-oriented as possible, Quartz optimized its site first for a tablet platform that still accounts for only about 1 in 10 of its 5 million monthly unique visitors.

Well, as pointed out in January 2014, many more users than expected are consuming longform type articles on their phones when it was assumed that tablets would be used.

And within the past week, a Re/Code writer wrote about how tablets may be on their way out. Tablets will exist for a long time, I think. But for most people, they will access the Web or content sites with their phones and laptop/desktop computers. I think that many will head toward a two-device preference, leaving the tablet behind.

I believe that our preferences can change rapidly. In 2011, 2012, and for much of 2013, I was a big fan of tablets, even the large version tablet. But now, I only like the smaller tablets, and I think that I could replace my longform tablet reading with a smartphone.

If the bulk of Quartz's mobile traffic comes from phone users, then Quartz's users may be on the leading edge of a future trend. All that means is that an 18-month-old startup may need to make a few design changes.

In 2013, I thought that content sites may need to design for the tablet first and then outward for phone and desktop/laptop. But it appears that phone first and then moving upward is the correct way to design a text-heavy site.

A startup like Quartz will adjust quickly to design needs if necessary.

A spokeswoman did say that the percentage of total visits coming via mobile was in line with the percentage of unique visitors coming via mobile, so it doesn’t sound like desktop users are any less engaged than their mobile counterparts are.

A neat thing about Quartz is that it constantly tweaks its code to adjust to how readers are using the site, and Delaney said Quartz would be rolling out some navigation changes this year that would have the biggest impact for users on large screens.

A startup can certainly get information about general Web usage from other companies or analysts, but for Quartz's purposes, it needs time to exist in order to learn how its users access the site. It has only existed for 18 months.

#moronism - #mobile - #media - #design - #startup

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