How to shift your website and your organization to mobile first
Google has declared that their search engine index will be mobile-first.
That could wipe out your organic traffic and revenue critical conversions.
It’s time to pay attention to mobile web design and development - ASAP!
Here’s my recommended checklist for getting into a mobile-first mindset.
- You have to fundamentally shift your thinking - Start monitoring how you use the Web on your mobile devices. Start documenting your personal use cases.
- Work exclusively on your mobile phone for a week (maybe a month) - Start constraining your own workflows to mobile devices and the available ecosystem of tools and web experiences. Again, take details notes regarding good and bad design. Successes and frustrations in trying to get stuff done on your mobile device.
- Start creating buyer personas specifically for mobile use cases - In my opinion we don’t do user personas enough and as a result we often design whole websites for a single use case. Adding personas to your design process and putting them in the context of mobile use cases is a quick win for mobile-first.
- Stop wireframing in desktop mode - You just have to do it. Don’t start wireframes with a desktop template. If you can’t break the habit, change the process. Create a whole separate design phase for mobile and desktop and start with the mobile version before you can move to desktop design.
- Stop designing in desktop mode - Ditto the wireframing advice. Too often I see people designing for desktop and leaving mobile breakpoint decisions to the dev team. Typically, this is going to get you pragmatic experiences, not necessarily elegantly designed solutions.
- Wireframe and design on a mobile device - Use your ipad or even mobile phone to do your (at least first draft) wireframes and designs. It’s possible. Try it.
- Kick people out of your office for demoing or bringing you desktop first designs and solutions - Go all Zuckerberg on them. It worked for him.
Bonus suggestion:
Observe your sales team - You might think this is a weird one, but most of these folks are crazy frenetic and hard to nail down to a seat and desktop. But, they have to meet their numbers and their constantly looking to do something anything to get traction. As a result, You’d be shocked at how much your best salespeople get done on their mobile phones. Go watch them.
P.S., I wrote this on my iPhone using Google Docs. It’s short, probably has typos, but it’s how people work these days. Accept it and start designing and developing websites for real people.
How can I help?
Learn more about me: BillRice.com or Contact me: [email protected] or Tweet at me.
Read more about Google’s mobile-first move.