Mobile First Approach

Mobile-first design?is the process of planning and developing a website keeping in mind the mobile-users first. This methodology of development changed from desktop-first, which has always been the way, reacting to the surge in mobile internet users around the world.

It is an approach in which web designers start product design for mobile devices first. This can be done by sketching or prototyping the web app’s design for the smallest screen first and gradually working up to larger screen sizes.??

Prioritizing design for mobiles makes sense as there are space limitations in devices with smaller screen sizes and teams need to ensure that the key elements of the website are prominently displayed for anyone using those screens.?

Consider the following example for mobile first:

Here we have green background color green for mobile device where as we have override mobile CSS with media query min-width for desktop.

Another hand desktop first css:

We have green background color green for desktop device where as we have override desktop CSS with media query max-width for mobile.

Advantages of Mobile-First Design:

Like all things, there are advantages and disadvantages to mobile-first design. Let's start by taking a look at five big advantages.

1.?Appeal to a Majority of Users

Since the days of desktop superiority are over, the most important advantage of mobile-first design is that it appeals to the majority of users. Today, over 50% of internet users are on mobile devices. Rule number one of marketing is to know your audience in order to meet them where they are. Since mobile users now comprise the majority of internet traffic, it makes sense to start your design using mobile screen dimensions, reflecting and optimizing the site content based on consumer conventions.

2. Prioritized Content

Mobile-first design forces website designers to prioritize information. Since you don’t have much space, you need to pick and choose only the most important content to include. This helps you eliminate fluff that only bogs down your website and distracts users. It’ll make your website designs cleaner, more efficient, and more concise. In practice, mobile-first design makes you a better website designer.

3. Less Buggy

Mobile websites are simple. They use a simpler code and less of it. Desktop sites are complicated. They use a complex code for more styling options. When you start with a complicated desktop site and boil it down to a mobile site (desktop-first approach), all that complicated code needs to be reorganized to work on mobile. Do you know what that means? You should bring some mosquito spray because your mobile site will be full of bugs.

When you begin with the simple mobile code, it ensures all your design elements will work on mobile devices because that’s what it’s built for! You won’t have to worry about pesky bugs hurting the UX of your website. As you “progressively enhance,” you can add more content and complexities, but your simple mobile code stays the same.

4. More Responsive for Better UX

Users interact with mobile sites much differently than with desktop sites. When’s the last time you swiped your computer screen? When you build a website specifically for mobile, you can create a user experience that’s designed for mobile, not just adapted from desktop. The better the UX, the more likely users are to visit your website, and the higher your conversion rates will climb.

5. Faster Load Times (and Therefore SEO)

The more content you have on your website, the longer it’ll take to load. When you start with a desktop site, you cram in all the pictures, videos, long-form content, and graphics you can find to pretty it up. While that’s perfectly acceptable, it could hinder your mobile site’s performance.

Disadvantages of Mobile-First Design:

Despite all its amazing benefits, there are actually some disadvantages to mobile-first design. Here are two of them.

1. Not Easy to Work With

Change means learning to do things in a different way. Starting with a mobile-first design has been described as “neither fun nor easy” by several website designers around the internet.

Taking a mobile-first approach requires a different way of thinking. You’ll have to take the time to learn the tricks, experiment on what works, and figure out new design methods if you really want to create a memorable mobile-first experience.

2. Restrictive for Both Space and Creativity

Obviously, mobile sites don’t have as much space as desktop sites. This means you’ll have to be selective with the content you include. Plus, it restricts many of the creative design elements you can use for desktop sites, which can be quite frustrating.

So when should you choose mobile-first design?

It’s important to consider the specific case when choosing between a desktop-first or mobile-first approach, but here are some broad recommendations to help you get started:?

• The primary use will be on mobile
• The user flow is simple
• The industry in question is using mobile-first design
• ?Users tend to use your website or app on-the-go
• ?Your app or website requires simple features

CONCLUSION:

At this point, I hope the small idea of designing and building for mobile first has given you lots of big ideas for the web. Today’s mobile device is our true personal computer: always with us, connected to the network, and filled with new capabilities for getting things done, communicating with each other, and just killing some time. Starting with this personal and portable device in mind first allows us to:

• Take advantage of the enormous growth in mobile internet usage and find new ways for people to use our websites and applications.
• Embrace mobile constraints to focus and prioritize the services we’re designing and building.
• Use mobile capabilities to innovate the complete customer experience.
• Take what we know about designing