As time passes we are bound to change. Many years before, software was created with desktop computing in mind, with mobile access viewed as an optional addition. But now smartphones have changed everything.
Mobile devices are responsible for more than 50% of global online traffic. This is something that makes designers and developers increasingly adopt a mobile-first approach.
Therefore in today’s article, we will dive into an in-depth analysis of the mobile first design strategy and its significance and implementation in product development.
What Is The Mobile-First Design Strategy?
Mobile first design strategy is an approach to web and app development that puts mobile device users at the center of their development strategy. As the proportion of mobile users grows, designers are focusing on mobile devices as their “main platform” for digital products. It means that the entire mobile first design process is focused on the small touchscreen.
However, In this strategy, your main focus is to start your design process by keeping mobile users in mind. Due to the extra popularity of mobile phones, your interface design for the application relies on small screens and then you scale up to larger screen resolutions. Your design and development strategy becomes successful at a point when you ensure that all your content and features are easily available on smaller screens.
To better understand the concept of the mobile first design, you should first be familiar with the two phrases listed below.
1. Progressive advancement
Progressive advancement means that when we construct a product, we first create a version for the lesser browsers (like that on a mobile phone). This version includes only the most fundamental functions and features.
Following that, we move on to the advanced version for a tablet or PC. It is particularly made by enhancing the basic version with interactions, more complex effects, and for a better user experience.
2. Graceful Degradation
“Graceful Degradation,” on the other hand, begins the product design from an advanced end. For instance a desktop, and produces a version with well-rounded features from the start. The product is then made mobile-friendly by removing some functionality or contents.
As the name implies, “mobile first design strategy” indicates that we begin the product design process with the mobile end. But it has fewer constraints and then enhances its functionality to build a tablet or desktop version.
Ideas and Best Practices
What exactly does a mobile first designer do? What factors contribute to a mobile-first development strategy? The following are the major features of mobile first design, in no particular order:
Keep the process user-centric
This applies whether you’re designing for desktop or mobile, although we’re focusing on mobile users here. Consider which design elements will be useful to them, make their life easier, and address their difficulties.
A concise content hierarchy
With a reduced screen size, it is critical to keep content to the point. Content should be presented in a logical order, with titles at the top and a preview option. The idea is to make it clear to the user what is available and where it is available without being too detailed or too large.
Clear CTAs
Calls to action should be consistent in design, difficult to overlook, and simple to click.
Avoid pop-ups
On a mobile device, pop-ups are more than just potentially annoying to the user. Furthermore, they can also block out much or all of the screen, giving users another incentive to abandon your site.
Consider loading speed
Slow-loading websites lose visitors quickly. By “slow,” we mean anything more than three seconds. Cut out everything outside the requirement, compress photos, and use ‘lazy loading’ to improve loading performance. It’s a technique in which website elements (other than the main content) load in the order of importance.
Test in real-world settings
Testing is a vital element of any digital development process. Testing your design with real users in real-world settings is the only way to know if you’re meeting your mobile first design goals. Along with this, you can also identify priorities for change or augmentation.
Why is the Mobile-First Principle Important in Product Design?
Despite, the above-mentioned success of progressive progression against graceful deterioration. There are more concrete grounds to assume that the mobile-first approach is vital in product design. That is, mobile usage is skyrocketing.
- A vast majority of users around the globe now own a mobile phone of some kind.
- From mobile ends, people are spending an increasing amount of time on the internet.
- Smartphone sales and shipments were added up to 1 billion in 2023 which is expected to rise by 8 billion in 2028.
The explosion of mobile ends forces designers to pay attention to the mobile end and build products with the “mobile first” rule in mind.
How to Put This Strategy Into Implementation?
The content-centered thinking is the key to the mobile first design strategy. The following section will show how a product progresses from a mobile phone to a PC. Let’s create a hotel booking application. We begin by categorizing the site’s material by importance:
- Domain name
- Hotel (Domestic Hotel, Foreign Hotel, Hour Room, Special Hotel)
- Time switch (check-in time, departure time)
- My Purchase
- Customer care
- Marketing and advertising
While using the mobile first design strategy for various websites or mobile apps, designers may rapidly begin with a useful prototype tool, It is used to test their design promptly, identifying and resolving any issues early on. Designers may construct a product for numerous purposes in a fluid and efficient manner this way, rather than mercilessly deleting good features to get an afterthought.
Final Thoughts
Last but not least, the “mobile first design strategy” idea is critical in product design. For both web and app development, you need to focus on this strategy to yield maximum results. On the one hand, it reduces product design time and increases designer productivity. Perhaps, it compels designers to pay more attention to a product’s content, allowing them to produce tidy and useful designs.
However, as cell phones get more powerful, the mobile end may no longer be deemed “lower end” in the near future, therefore the “move first” topic may no longer be relevant. However, for the time being, its importance in product design cannot be overstated.
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