WordPress Theme Authors’ Big Mistake

I have purchased and used many themes and they all suffer from very similar limitations.  The most egregious is mobile support – for the purposes of this article this is the only limitation I will touch on today.  99.9% of configuration options I have seen in theme control panels are limited to a single value.  But, we exist in a world with multiple form factors.

At the very least you need three values for most configuration options – separate values for full size screens, tablets and phones.  Ideally, you would be able to set your own break points for each configuration option and have unlimited breakpoints for each option.  I know that’s a performance nightmare but I am sure that many of the bright theme developers can figure a way around that.

Here are some examples of where the lack of this kind of control makes the theme fall apart:

• Logo – different sizes are needed for each form factor.  A large one looks great on a desktop but on a mobile phone you would probably specify a different logo – or none at all to save screen space.
• Widgets – many themes include their own custom widgets to display posts and products and allow you to control the number of posts that is displayed.  Some even allow you to control the number of rows and columns.  But just because you want 9 posts in a grid on a desktop doesn’t mean you want 9 posts in a large vertical column on a phone.  You might want three rows of something on a desktop but only one row on a phone and two rows on a tablet.
• Product Layouts – what looks good on a desktop usually does not work for a phone type form-factor.

What do you think? Am I way off base here?