@Brian: Well, you certainly get the land-speed record for commenting… :-)

There is nothing about that NPR graphic that looks simplistic to me, and I think that’s what I’m trying to get around, but maybe it’s simply moving the work from one poor bugger to another…

To me, the reason for having a single shot is to minimize the number of moving pieces (systems, templates, processes, etc.) that are needed to publish a website. I realize that the experience of being on a mobile phone is completely different than sitting at a desktop: what you want, and need, are likely very different, and I think that plays into this as well.

If you’re out-and-about with your fancy iThing in your hand, and you conduct a search for a movie title, you’re likely looking for the nearest theater showing the film, the next available show times, and possibly a way to buy tickets for that show, right now.

On the other hand, if you’re sitting on your couch, flipping through your iPad, you might actually be looking for background info, reviews, actor bios, etc.

So, I get the idea of “different device, different experience”, but I think we can manage all that in a similar fashion. And maybe it doesn’t matter whether the client or the server makes the decisions, but I think it is vital that connection speed, viewport size and device capabilities be a part of that decision.

And I think one of the other ideas that perhaps I didn’t illustrate as well as I had intended was that the JS config file would be able to create varying DOM orders to better fit portrait versus landscape orientation, without having to duplicate content (something I have seen done).

Again, thanks for the reply, exactly what I am looking for,
Atg