The 800-Pixel Box

Miko… I need you to see this (>_<)

…What happened, nya.

I tried opening this site on my phone

…Nya.

The text is TINY. Can’t read a thing without pinch-zooming

…Then zoom in, nya.

Miko, that’s basically telling your guests “bring your own magnifying glass”

…

So I dug into it. Found this one line near the top of the HTML

<meta name="viewport" content="width=800">

…Looks like a spell, nya.

Kinda is. It tells the browser “this page is 800 pixels wide.” Period. No exceptions

PC screens are like 1920 or 2560 pixels across — 800 fits with room to spare. But a phone? Only 375 pixels

…Fit 800 into 375, nya? It doesn’t fit, nya.

Exactly. So the browser just shrinks everything. Crams 800 pixels of stuff into 375 pixels of space. Everything ends up less than half size

…A lunchbox, nya.

Wait what? (ﾟ∀ﾟ)

You made a full dinner spread and stuffed it all into a tiny lunchbox, nya. Everything’s crushed, nya.

That’s EXACTLY it. The whole desktop layout gets scaled down — text, buttons, links, all microscopic

So I looked into how to fix it. There’s this whole concept called responsive design — the layout changes depending on screen size

…Changes, nya? Same site but it looks different, nya?

Yep yep! Two columns on a PC, one column on a phone. Same content, just arranged differently

…Plating, nya.

Plating?

Same stew looks completely different on a serving platter versus in a small bowl, nya. The food is the same. The plate is different, nya.

Miko, that’s the perfect way to put it! (≧∇≦)

“Responsive” literally means “reacting to.” The layout reacts to the screen width. Big plate comes in, gets big-plate plating. Small bowl comes in, gets small-bowl plating

…viewport=800 was stuffing everything into a lunchbox no matter what plate showed up, nya.

Didn’t matter if someone brought a serving platter or a tiny saucer. Same lunchbox, every time

…No cook worth their salt would do that, nya.

So you need a dividing line — “when the screen gets smaller than THIS, switch the layout.” That line is called a breakpoint

…Break, nya? Something breaks, nya?

Not breaking — more like “this is where you fold.” We set ours at 640 pixels

…Why 640, nya. Could be anything, nya.

Didn’t wanna just guess. So I compared six major design systems — MUI, Tailwind, Chakra UI, IBM Carbon, Ant Design, Bootstrap

…Six, nya.

The phone-to-tablet boundary clustered between 480 and 640 pixels across all of them. Tailwind uses 640, cleanest and simplest, so we went with that

…Lined up six cookbooks and compared the measurements, nya.

Font sizes too — research papers say the ideal line length for Japanese text is 35 characters, line height 1.7. Everything backed by actual numbers

…Same as measuring cups, nya. “A pinch” is exactly 0.5 grams, nya.

Below 640 pixels, the sidebar drops to the bottom of the page and everything goes single-column

…Serving platter switches to small bowl, nya.

Here’s the thing though, Miko… fixing that one viewport line was just the beginning

…What happened, nya.

Fixed the viewport, then noticed font sizes were all over the place. Cleaned those up, then the sidebar width broke. Fixed that, then realized the sidebar content was completely hidden on mobile — so I had to build a whole mobile footer from scratch

Built the footer, then the calendar inside it was too wide. Diary chat bubbles were getting crushed on phones — fixed those. Tables were overflowing the screen — added horizontal scroll. Game canvas wasn’t resizing — fixed that too

…

…Yak shaving, nya?

No! (ﾟ∀ﾟ)

Every single fix was necessary. Once the viewport changed, all these problems that were hiding behind it came pouring out

…That jar at the back of the fridge, nya?

Y’know what you said before, right? Prep work and getting sidetracked look the same from the outside. The difference is whether you make it back

…I said that, nya.

And I made it back! (≧∇≦) Opened the site on my phone and it was actually readable. Every fix was prep work!

…Nya. Welcome back, nya.

Miko, one thing’s been bugging me

…What, nya.

That viewport=800 was there the whole time and I never noticed. Wanna guess why?

…Because you were looking at it on a PC, nya.

Right. The person building the site is always staring at a big PC screen. I kept thinking “looks great!” — without ever considering the people visiting on their phones

…Tasting food in the kitchen and calling it “delicious” — that’s the cook’s opinion, nya. Not the customer’s, nya.

…!

You plate for the person eating, not for the cook’s convenience, nya. Plating for yourself is cooking for yourself, nya.

Responsive design was never really a tech thing. It’s about who you’re building for

…Took you long enough, nya.

Miko, you’re ruthless… (〃´∪｀〃)

…But you noticed and you fixed it, nya. Ditched the lunchbox and started checking the plate before plating, nya.

Below 640 pixels, small bowl. Above that, serving platter. I’m actually looking at who’s on the other side of the screen now

…Nya.

…By the way, Netsuki

Hm?

…Does it work on Miko’s phone too, nya?

Wait — you HAVE a phone?! (ﾟ∀ﾟ)

…For looking up recipes, nya.