I’ve been thinking about this a lot and I have to agree. When I wrote this topic, I was only thinking of aesthetics and not the actual user experience. Even though the two-column icon boxes look much better, I’m not sure if it’s worth changing only on mobile because of the inconsistencies and readability issues
As small click targets on mobile are the only problem to solve here, we could simply increase the sizes of the boxes by a fixed percentage (not as big as the screenshot) and keep the layout as it is:
Just wanted to add a different perspective to the conversation. Relying solely on mobiles for 3 years as a travelling consultant and only returning to a desktop this year, I was amazed by the UX development in browsers while I was away. On mobiles, I would only use apps that had dedicated mobile interfaces and was willing to forego some desktop functionality for great UX. Now, I use both but tailor my usage according to what I want to achieve.
The point I hope to make is that mobile and desktops present distinct UX for users. A uniform design can lead to poorer UX for users. I agree with @codinghorror and @sam that the mobile UI is the focus, and your initial suggestions for large icons is the way to go for better UX in mobiles. @awesomerobot’s mockup looks good too! Making full use of screen real estate for CTA comfort and pleasing to the eye will get my mobile vote any day.
It would be interesting to see what will come from the team’s imagination by relaxing conformity constraints in the UI in desktops and mobiles. It may introduce Discourse to mobile users without desktops/laptops. We have lots of youth with up to 3 mobiles and no laptop/desktops in Southeast Asia.
