There is nothing worse than getting automatically redirected to a mobile version of a site, and not having (or not easily finding) a "view normal site" link. It's not just that the mobile site is a scaled down version of the normal site, it's the unfamiliarity - the sudden 1-dimensionality of what used to be a 2-dimensional page and the obscene amount of scrolling required. The previous mental map of the site is no longer accurate.

On the Boston Globe site (the oft-cited shining example of responsive design), I find the amount of scrolling to be extremely painful if I am not looking to read in a linear fashion. With the retina display on an iPhone, the desktop version would be discernible and immediately navigable with a quick tap-zoom to any location of the page. As with most responsive designs, the "view normal site" option is not available.

**Should users be forced into a responsive design? Should they be able to toggle if off to "view normal site"?**

Below are the estimated viewport overlays of an iPhone on the Boston Globe site at each view:

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/cl4OZ.jpg)

**=== Update 2012-09-12 ===**

**Some prototypes have emerged recently:**

* [Opt Out Responsive Design](http://css-tricks.com/user-opt-out-responsive-design/)
* [Creating a faux ‘View full site’ button for responsive sites](http://neilcarpenter.com/2012/05/creating-a-faux-view-full-site-button-for-responsive-sites/)
* [View Full Site Link for Responsive Web Design](http://creativeandcode.com/responsive-view-full-site/)