Having written an initial post with my cocky remark about the webmaster’s children going barefoot, and having passed all the vetting — by the graphic designer, by various copy editors (read: family & friends), and everything else we could think of, the site was ready to go live.

I ran one final check on my android phone, thinking of it as a “sanity check” since WordPress should behave well on mobile, at least to a first approximation.

I could not have been more wrong, the site looked awful. Ditto on iphone, ipad, etc. And it was amazing the number of ways the site was ABLE to be awful, rendering with overlapping divs, missing elements, whitespace, etc.

Humbled, I am reminded that even a web and mobile shot such as ourselves can fall into the trap of not checking enough, on enough browsers, enough platforms, etc. This is where development shops need to be in tune with client needs. Is this a site that will never be viewed on mobile? (Hard to imagine these days.) Is this something that needs to work well on ALL android devices (a real challenge, at the various phone and tablet sizes available), on all versions of Android OS? Does this need to work equally well on iPhone, iPhone Retina, iPad, and whatever other size Cupertino decides that we as consumers absolutely need even though we don’t know it yet? (Probably.)

So we ourselves navigated these choices, and the result is viewable and usable on the important mobile platforms, even if not perfect or separately designed. At some point our project load and budget will allow us to create tailored mobile experiences for our site, balanced against our other commitments and needs. In short, we are our clients. Good to walk a mile in your shoes.