For optimal user experience, material design user interfaces should adapt layouts for the following breakpoint widths: 480, 600, 840, 960, 1280, 1440, and 1600dp.Resizer follows the same principle: it offers laptop and mobile previews at set breakpoints. Laptop (or desktop) screens can be 480px, 600px, 840px, 960px, 1280px, 1440px, or 1600px wide. Mobile screens can be 360px, 600px, 720px, or 1024px wide. Whilst that is a good cross-section of sizing—although notably doesn’t come close to the full range of Android devices—there is a fundamental error in the approach: Good responsive design uses content breakpoints, not viewport breakpoints; it shouldn’t matter what size Samsung makes its next phone, what matters is at what size your content breaks. Most site design applications—the latest Adobe Muse for example—correctly allow for custom breakpoints, which ensures that media queries are written for your content, not a hypothetical device. Resizer is specifically designed to test for (some of) Material Design’s viewport breakpoints. The danger is that Resizer, with Google’s endorsement, will perpetuate the myth of responsive sites as a series of viewport sizes, rather than as fluid device-agnostic content.
Ben Moss
Ben Moss has designed and coded work for award-winning startups, and global names including IBM, UBS, and the FBI. When he’s not in front of a screen he’s probably out trail-running.
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