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Two themes for desktop and mobile?

by Myles Sinclair
4 replies
  • WEB DESIGN
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I'm building a theme for Wordpress, that has a slide show which includes some special text effects. For this to display properly I need to make the page a fixed width. If I make it reponsive, it doesn't look good.

This works fine on a desktop PC, but I also need to have a version for mobile users.

My solution is to create a second theme, cloning the design, but without the special effects, making it responsive for users of mobiles or tablets.

I think there might be a plugin that will switch theme to the responsive version if being viewed on a mobile.

I'm just wondering if anyone else is using a two theme system for Wordpress, to switch between desktop and mobile users, and if so, what plugin are you using?

Now I know some people won't read this properly and will probably advise that I just use one responsive theme. However, I can't do what I want to do with one theme, so not really an option I want to consider.

If there is a more elegant solution, I'd love to hear your ideas. But certainly any plugin recommendations for switching themes would be great!
#desktop #mobile #themes
  • Profile picture of the author JaMoke
    I haven't heard of anyone using two themes like that. Usually that goes like "I have a static HTML site and need a mobile site", so designers would add another / design a mobile website (m.yoursite.com)

    Have you tried something like this:

    @media screen and (min-width: 600px) { /* ...tablet styles here... */ }
    @media screen and (min-width: 900px) { /* ...desktop styles here... */ }

    and you might take off the special effects when the user gets below a certain screen size?

    I'm not sure if this answers you question or not, maybe it will give you some ideas, just trying not to give you the typical answer (that, um.. ::cough:: I would suggest)

    Originally Posted by Myles Sinclair View Post

    Now I know some people won't read this properly and will probably advise that I just use one responsive theme. However, I can't do what I want to do with one theme, so not really an option I want to consider.
    BTW, Im sure you know if you do have 2 themes and need to update the site you will have to update each one, instead of just the 1 responsive site
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    • Profile picture of the author Myles Sinclair
      Originally Posted by JaMoke View Post


      BTW, Im sure you know if you do have 2 themes and need to update the site you will have to update each one, instead of just the 1 responsive site
      Hi, thanks for your feedback. There is no existing html site, and I'm really looking for a way to keep things within Wordpress if possible.

      I'm only planning on one site, but with two different looks, depending on what it's viewed on. So only one set of pages for content to update if needed. I've found this plugin which looks like it might do what I'm thinking of - https://wordpress.org/plugins/any-mo...heme-switcher/

      I'll have a play with it and see how it works out.
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      • Profile picture of the author Jellypie Software
        Your taking the wrong approach. Google are passively penalising non responsive sites in the SERPS. The best way to do this is to have one responsive site that works on any browser. Otherwise you are setting yourself up for long term pain having to update and sync one desktop site and one mobile site.

        Also you can't see into the future (neither can I) so how do we know what sort of mobile devices are around the corner?
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        • Profile picture of the author Myles Sinclair
          Originally Posted by Jellypie Software View Post

          Your taking the wrong approach. Google are passively penalising non responsive sites in the SERPS. The best way to do this is to have one responsive site that works on any browser. Otherwise you are setting yourself up for long term pain having to update and sync one desktop site and one mobile site.

          Also you can't see into the future (neither can I) so how do we know what sort of mobile devices are around the corner?
          To be honest, I'm not too bothered about Google. I don't rely on them for traffic. For me, it's more about providing the best result for my visitors.

          As far as I can see though, having a site that redirects to a reponsive design if viewed on a mobile will give Google nothing to complain about.
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