Mobile-first web design, which promotes mobile-friendly design on mobile devices, is a new method of development influenced by the widespread use of mobiles to access websites. This guide helps you to incorporate the mobile-first design strategy when building mobile apps and websites.
What is Mobile First?
Mobile First Design Development was coined by Luke Wroblewski in 2009 and popularized by Eric Schmidt in 2010. It refers to designing first for mobile devices. Mobile First is a process which prioritizes designing for mobile over desktop versions of products or websites.
Developers have the flexibility to scale Mobile First as needed. When designing for desktop platforms, there is typically more real estate available and therefore creating an excellent user experience with core design elements may provide great user satisfaction; when this design is transferred onto mobile however it quickly becomes apparent that technology which made desktop experience so unique cannot be scaled down appropriately; leading to mobile versions which might feel inferior compared to their counterparts and may feel more like afterthought for certain users.
By being able to scale up your design, scaling gives you greater adaptability for adapting it. Once you've prioritized features and abilities and identified core elements for a mobile platform, adding or subtracting components becomes much simpler in meeting desktop requirements - making for an engaging platform.
What is the Mobile First Design Strategy?
Websites were developed in the past, assuming that desktop computers would be their primary access point. Developers tried to reduce some features to make the websites more user-friendly on tablets and mobile devices.
Graceful degradation or Desktop First approach is the popular name for scaling down websites.
- This approach has a downside: some web elements don't adapt to smaller screens. This results in a degraded visual experience on small devices.
Developers developed a new approach to address the problem - Progressive Advancement, or Mobile First Design.
- The mobile-first approach encourages designers to start the website's design process for the smallest device and add functionality for larger screen sizes later.
Why Is Mobile First Design Important?
The mobile device is a vital part of today's web and will be in the future. As mentioned at the start, mobile devices account for approximately half of all web traffic.
It is important to remember that mobile users have surpassed desktops. Statcounter GlobalStats shows that mobile users are growing, with an overall market share 60.43% higher than desktop users.
Mobile First Best Practices
To ensure a mobile-first approach, web designers and UX/UI specialists must keep in mind these best practices:
1: Prioritize Page Content
Content is key when it comes to designing for mobile devices. Web designers should ensure they display the most important elements prominently on small screens due to space limitations.
2: Deliver Intuitive Navigation
When creating a clean and neat user experience for mobile devices, intuitive navigation is key. Designers can use features such as navigation drawers to show secondary website elements. It will make it easier for users to locate the information they need.
3: Avoid Disruptive Popups
Mobile devices are space-constrained, and users prefer to avoid pop ups or ads taking over their screens. Designers or website owners must focus only on the most important things for the users.
4: Test Real Devices Under Real Conditions
Testing a site on actual devices will ensure that it delivers the best user experience across all devices. It allows designers to verify that the site renders correctly on mobiles, desktops, and tablets. BrowserStack's cloud of real devices provides testers and teams with over 3000 real browsers and real devices for real-time testing.
What is the Mobile First Approach?
Let's now understand how to put mobile-first design into action.
Imagine a designer working on the website of a restaurant. The designer must consider the user's expectations when designing a website for a restaurant on mobile devices since they need to adhere to the "mobile-first" approach.
The designer must determine what the end user is searching for when they access a website from a mobile phone. It is safe to assume, given that the mobile user will be searching for information such as operating hours, location, and contact info (or a call button if it's a mobile device).
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Why is Mobile Important?
We all now use cell phones on a daily basis. Whether we're checking emails on the train, listening to music in the gym, or browsing the web in the mornings, they are ingrained in every aspect of life. We can take advantage of every moment to stay updated with the latest news and our social network or order something from Amazon. Our mobile devices are a major part of our daily routine, mainly due to the applications we use. The use of mobile applications grew by 6% in the last year. There are also interesting changes to how people spend their time on their phones.
In the past year, users have moved away from applications that occupy their time with games, sports, and lifestyle applications to apps for entertainment, shopping, news, and business applications. Mobile applications help us manage our everyday tasks, such as ordering groceries, reading news and stock quotes, or listening to music.
What does this mean?
Mobile devices help us to live more efficiently. We rely more on our mobile devices and apps to be a part of everyday life rather than just as an "exploratory" or "escape" outlet. This increasing dependence on mobile devices and apps will change our expectations and perceptions of what these apps can and should deliver. The trend of SDLC has been affecting the SDLC ever since Google announced its Mobile First approach in 2010.
Software Development Life Cycle & Mobile First
When you choose a mobile-first approach, knowing whether or not you will move on to a desktop platform can help you plan and execute your design. Once you have finished developing and testing an app, you can layer in the desktop design with your application.
We don't have to tell you how important it is for DevOps organizations to monitor early and often. If you don't have a DevOps-enabled organization and are looking to adopt a mobile-first approach when designing and developing applications, monitoring sooner can streamline your deployment process.
The phases in a Mobile First Design might look like this:
- Vision Crafting: Research, plan, and research the functionality of your app. In this phase, you organize and create a strategy for the problem that the app will address the audience, and the main functionalities. You can do this by creating a vision board or a prototype. This can ensure your idea can be digested, and you can map out a timetable. The first phase is the foundation for all the subsequent steps. If you already have an idea for your app, you can begin planning the desktop version.
- Technical Evaluation: Analyze which systems your application will rely upon. What data will be sourced? Are you going to rely on APIs, public or private ones? Which platform will your application be built on? It is important to understand the elements of your application that form its foundation.
- Prototype and Design: Transform your ideas onto paper into tangible, visual representations of how you would like to see, feel, and accomplish your application. The user experience is key. Consider mobile design when designing - what flow will make it easy and intuitive for users on their phones?
- Development: Here, you can give life to your design. Here is where the coding of your app starts!
- Tests: Our model is unconventional in this area for certain organizations. You can test your application manually, automate it, use a beta, or host an event to gather feedback. Please start monitoring your application now. Pre-production monitoring offers several benefits, including:
What is the difference between Responsive Design and Mobile First Design?
Many people mistakenly believe that responsive design and mobile-first design are synonymous. They are both similar, but they have some big differences.
As mentioned, the reactive method is responsive web design. This means webmasters create their websites first and then make them mobile-compatible.
In technical terms, in the responsive web design approach, every decision, from large ones like grid types to smaller things like font sizes, white space, forms, buttons, accordions, and media elements such as cards, carousels, or navigation, is made with desktops in mind. The developers then shrink, refactor, and rearrange this design to make it fit on the smaller screen.
In the Mobile First Design Strategy, instead of just reacting by creating websites that adapt to different devices, as in responsive design, the team first makes design decisions for the size of the device and then moves up the scale for the Desktop.
Every year, dozens of new smartphones are released. Even if your site looks great on one phone, it will look great on other devices. It's crucial to test your site for responsiveness on mobile devices.
Mobile First Design Strategy is all about Content
It is important to consider content when designing mobile apps. Designers should focus on content first, ensuring that users only receive the information they need, and avoid including redundant information which could distract from their mobile experience.
Mobile-first design is subject to constraints such as screen size and bandwidth. The constraints that designers face can lead them to prioritize design elements in a way that could be more optimal.
Designers must remove all elements that are not essential and focus on key design components to overcome this constraint. Note that an extraneous element does not mean the design is completely unnecessary. Instead, it simply means this element is not crucial to the design.
It is common to find that certain website elements are removed in the mobile version but remain on the desktop version. This is because the context is dependent. Mobile users have different needs than desktop users.
Mobile First Design Principles
The mobile-first philosophy acknowledges that most internet users access their websites via mobile devices. Therefore, A mobile-friendly website is essential to provide a seamless experience for all users. These key concepts will assist designers in creating mobile-first web designs that give users a seamless experience and help them stay relevant within today's digital mobile landscape.
Prioritize the User's requirements
In general, application leaders in many companies have chosen a mobile-first design before defining the use cases. This is not true. The application leaders need to shift their focus from defining requirements and instead study usage patterns using a design thinking approach. The requirements do not define tasks that will lead to innovation or productivity. Finding the stories of users that make up an app is best done by looking at various workplace practices to see patterns. These include how people interact, use, work together, or create content.
A Clear Visual Hierarchy for Mobile Content
Visual hierarchy is the arrangement of elements that guides viewers' eyes through the design. To achieve this, design elements' size, contrast, color, location, etc., are altered to create a hierarchy. In mobile-first web design, it is of great importance.
You can use the following principles to leverage visual hierarchy:
- You can use sizing techniques to focus users on the most important elements of a web page. To get users' attention, you can increase the size of some elements. More important elements on your website can be a good idea.
- Color and contrast can be used to emphasize a particular aspect. A color with a higher contrast will create a uniqueness that grabs users' attention.
- The right typeface combination can give your website a unique look and help draw visitors' attention to certain sections. Different widths and types of weights are also a great way to increase the hierarchy on your website and emphasize more important text.
- Whitespace can be used to guide users. Whitespace is the negative space between elements of a design. The whitespace can be used to group or separate elements to highlight their importance.
Keep your Web Design Simple
A simple web design makes it easier to read and navigate. It's best to include the information users need, not to distract them with extraneous elements.
Users of mobile devices are often on the move and have smaller screens. They need more time to engage with the design. A simple design that concentrates on content and functions helps consumers quickly and easily find what they're looking for quickly and easily.
You can simplify your web design by using these methods:
- Please focus on the content of your web page and ensure that it's presented properly.
- Use a navigation system that is easy to use and accurate.
- Use a limited palette of colors to make the design visually pleasing without overwhelming the customer.
- Use a typeface that is easy to read, even on small displays.
- Use responsive videos and images that adapt to the screen size.
Read More: What is SDLC?
Mobile First Design: Phases of Development
You should decide whether to migrate from a mobile-first design strategy to an integrated desktop platform. These details will help you develop and implement design strategies.
You know early monitoring is important if your company uses the DevOps method. Suppose your organization still needs to be DevOps enabled, and you plan to develop and design your application using a mobile-first strategy. In that case, early monitoring will help streamline your deployment process.
The steps to mobile-first design:
List Content
Make a list of elements you would like to include in your site. Creating a list of all content you want to use in the design is best. This list will give you a good idea of the type of content to include in your design.
This phase has the goal of ensuring that you get all important aspects and also to make sure your design covers all content. A detailed content list allows you to prioritize your design and allocate resources accordingly. Inventorying material can help you create a successful and well-organized design.
This step will manage the visual hierarchy. The spreadsheet can prioritize items and determine how you want them highlighted.
Use Thumb-Friendly Elements
Next, the website should be thumb-friendly. The size of clickable elements like buttons, hyperlinks, and icons must be big enough for users to easily tap them with their thumbs (or sometimes even fingers).
Users may accidentally tap the wrong item if clickable components are too small. This is because thumbs are much larger than mouse cursors that are pixel precise. Clickable elements should have a minimum height and width of 44 pixels.
Clickable items should be close enough to each other if you want the touch target size to increase. You can also slightly increase their size to make it easier to click on interactive elements and buttons. Last but not least, make sure you leave sufficient space between all interactive components to prevent accidental taps.
The "thumb zone" is another thing to keep in mind. Users only sometimes have access to all of the screens. Some areas are easier to reach than others. To increase your CTR, ensure the CTA is in the easy thumb zone. The thumb zone on mobile devices is illustrated in the following illustration.
Avoid using Hover
In the context of a mobile-first design, it is best to avoid mouseover effects and CSS hovers because mobile devices do not support them. Mouseover and hover effects are animated design elements when the mouse moves over them. They are commonly used in desktop interfaces.
For a mobile-first web design, focus on simple and intuitive interfaces that use tapping, pinching, and swiping. Include interactive elements designed specifically for mobile devices, such as menus and buttons.
Create the User Interface as if it were a Mobile App
Consider creating a mobile application instead of a desktop site. Mobile users have become accustomed to more interactive features like off-canvas navigation and expandable widgets.
- Offscreen Navigation: A navigation menu is hidden offscreen and only revealed when the user clicks a button. Offscreen navigation is popular for mobile apps, as it lets users access navigation without consuming too much space.
- Expandable Widgets: Interactive features, like an accordion-style menu, allow users to compress or expand the content. The mobile interface uses this widget to conserve space. It also allows users to quickly access information without scrolling through long pages.
- AJAX: Asynchronous requests from the server allow the user to interact with an interface without reloading the page. Mobile devices often use this type of interaction to provide a fluid, responsive experience.
These features in mobile interface design will provide users with an engaging, dynamic experience. Moreover, creating mobile interfaces like apps makes it easy for users to access and explore the information they need.
Don't use Larger Visuals
Avoid using large-sized graphics that are difficult to view on smaller devices. This includes landscape images or graphics which have complex graphics. Instead, you should cater to mobile users by using clear and readable graphics on portable screens.
Mobile devices are smaller than desktops, so large visuals may take up too much screen space. This can make it difficult to navigate the UI. Moreover, large images may take longer to download, slowing the interface.
Also, consider the context of the photos. Suppose you are creating an interface to a website for news. In that case, you can use graphics that relate to the contents and help the users understand the information. When creating an interface for an online store, use images to highlight products and assist the customer in making a purchase.
Test on a Real Device before Deployment
Testing your mobile interface on real devices is the most important step in a "mobile first" design. This will ensure that it works well and is friendly on all devices. You can evaluate the performance of your mobile interface by testing it on an actual device. Test how fast the site loads, how easily you can navigate, and if text and images are legible on small screens. Also, you can test if your interface is responsive to inputs using touch and whether there are problems with links or buttons.
You can also identify flaws on desktop computers by testing on actual devices. The text size may be too small on your mobile device, or the buttons are too closely spaced and hard to press.
Cisin is the perfect solution for testing your native mobile app or website on real devices. This eliminates the need to have in-house Android/iOS device labs.
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Conclusion
The increasing number of users switching from desktops to mobile devices will be around for a while. It is logical for web designers to design websites with mobile users in mind.
A mobile-first approach will help companies reap the benefits of the mobile boom today and prepare for the growth predicted over the next few years. Cisin a web designing company, is ready to help you.
