What is mobile-first design?

Once upon a time, in the early days of the internet, you could design a website on your desktop computer (Geocities, anyone?), hit “publish”, and pat yourself on the back for a job well done. One site, one version, roll credits, you’re all set. But long gone are the days when desktop ruled. Mobile traffic has grown from just 31% of web traffic in 2015 to 55% in 2021. While that number varies from country to country (comprising 49% of traffic in the US and a whopping 74% in India), simply put, these days, you ignore mobile traffic at your own peril.

Here’s what you need to know about mobile-first design and why it matters.

What is mobile-first design?

As you can probably guess from the name, mobile-first design is a principle in which websites are designed with mobile users in mind first. Designs are then adapted to scale up to larger screens. In mobile-first design (sometimes referred to as progressive enhancement), the idea is that the design with the most restrictions should be done first, and then other versions done next, adding extra features as capabilities allow.

When designing for desktop, the sky’s the limit. You can have all sorts of fancy features and crisp high-res images. But mobile devices, with smaller screens and lesser processing power, require designs to be simpler. Most designers know the sinking feeling of designing a website that looks incredible on computer screens, only to realize that you need to pare things down – WAY down – in order to give the site a chance to load on mobile. But you can sidestep this issue easily by simply designing for mobile first.

What are the benefits of mobile-first design?

Faster load times (lower bounce rate)

Over half of websites are abandoned if they take more than three seconds to load on mobile. Designing for mobile requires you to keep load times short, which will reduce the number of times people rage quit your site due to your site not loading quickly enough.

Increased accessibility

There is a significant overlap between mobile-first design principles and accessible design principles. Bonus? If you make your design easier to navigate by people with visual, auditory, or motor impairments, it will become easier for everyone else to navigate, too. (This is known as the curb cut effect.)

Better SEO

Google gives preference in search results to sites that load quickly in mobile. And if Google prioritizes something, you should too. Even if you made no other changes to your site except making it mobile friendly, you would likely see your search result ranking go up.

Cost-effectiveness

If you design for mobile first, you can avoid wasting time on going back and revising your design to be mobile friendly. This saves you time and money.

Consistent user experience

Have you ever visited a site on desktop and later gone to check out the mobile site, only to find that it has a very different look and feel? If you have, you know how jarring it can be. Mobile-first design principles can help you build a consistent look for your site on desktop and mobile, thus creating more trust with site visitors.

So does that mean I should design for mobile only?

While making designs mobile friendly is critical, it’s not the best idea to exclude other versions entirely. Users tend to spend longer amounts of time on websites when they’re using a desktop computer as opposed to mobile. (However, this could at least partially be a result of high bounce rates on mobile sites. If a website takes too long to load on your phone, or if the design is a jumbled mess on the small screen, you’ll likely bounce quickly.) So, while mobile design is incredibly important, it would still be beneficial to make sure that your design is also desktop friendly. Your best bet is to prioritize mobile design, and then do your best to create a seamless experience between mobile and desktop.

If you’re reading this post and panicking because your site was designed for desktop first (or only), don’t worry! Mobile-first design is probably the best way to go about designing your site, but it’s not the only way. Even if you have no plans to completely overhaul your site, it’s never too late to look at your site with fresh eyes and make improvements to the mobile experience. A good marketing partner could even audit your site to see what improvements you could make – it never hurts to ask! And when it does come time to redo your site (it’s always when, not if), give mobile-first design a try. Your user base – and your budget – will thank you.