How Mobile First Design Helps Businesses Create Better Experiences?

Did you know?

Mobile accounts^[i] for over half (58.99%) of the web traffic worldwide.

By 2025, it is expected^[ii] to reach nearly three-quarters (72.6%) of the global population.

This clearly indicates that mobile is taking the center stage in the internet usage marketplace.

And for digital-first businesses, this means prioritizing mobile is now key to enhancing their customer experiences.

Businesses need to implement a mobile-first design from the get-go to build effective mobile-friendly solutions for their customers.

But what does a mobile-first design actually mean and how can it benefit businesses? Let’s explore it in this blog post.

What Is Mobile First Design?

Mobile-first is a web design approach that prioritizes smaller screens. This means, the design process begins with mobile devices first and is then adapted to larger screens like tablets and desktops. The design is optimized to offer the best possible experience to users on smartphones and serve them on the go.

Since mobile screens have space limitations, mobile-first designs only include the key website elements and eliminate the rest. It follows the progressive enhancement approach where design begins with core features that fit into the smallest screen and gradually secondary features are added to adapt to larger screens.

Why Mobile First Design Is Important?

With the changing user behavior and internet trends, mobile has become the go-to device for accessing the web. Hence, making your website/web app mobile-friendly has become the need of the hour. Listed below are some of the reasons why mobile-first design is important for businesses.

1. Mobile users (5.34 billion)^[iii] have surpassed desktop users (4.53 billion)^[iv] and people are increasingly spending time on the internet via mobile.

2. Google’s algorithm favors mobile-optimized websites for ranking on its search engine.

3. Mobile-first design prioritizes only the essential elements, thus, making the software easy to use.

4. A superior mobile-first design leads to a better website/web app design across all platforms.

Best Practices of Mobile First Design

Every website is unique, and therefore, requires a tailored approach to designing. However, all high-performing mobile-first sites have certain aspects in common. Listed below are some of the best practices for designing impeccable mobile-first solutions.

Put Content First

For a mobile-first design, leading with content is key. Content helps you create a purposeful product that delivers exactly what your audience needs without cluttering their experiences.

Since content is dependent on the context of use, you need to ensure that the most critical content elements are prominently displayed. Planning your content according to its usability can help you create a user-friendly design with no fluff.

Make Pages Easy to Navigate

Successful mobile sites have little to no distractions in their user interaction. So, you need to minimize the friction by implementing a simple and easy-to-navigate design. Intuitive navigation can help you ensure a smooth traffic flow from page to page.

As there is already space restriction on smaller screens, it’s best to stick to tried-and-true navigation features. For example, most users recognize the hamburger menu and would click on those small corner horizontal lines to access more options.

Faster Page Load Time

When it comes to page speed, every second counts. According to reports^[v], a 1-second delay in page response could lead to a 7% loss in conversion. So, you need to ensure a fast page loading speed on your mobile site by –

• Optimizing all your website elements
• Eliminating cumbersome design components
• Streamlining the overall experience
• Cleaning the code and database

Have Bold and Consistent Calls-to-Action

Being the final step to conversion, call-to-Action (CTA) is one of the most important elements. For your CTAs to be effective, make sure they are easier to locate on your mobile site.

The CTAs should be clear, simple, and striking, which take the users exactly where they are meant to be, such as buying a product, downloading a lead magnet, or booking a demo.

Benefits of Mobile First Design

Now that you know the basics and best practices of mobile-first design, it’s time to understand the benefits it offers for your business’s digital presence.

Ease of Access

Mobile first design assures that your website is responsive and can be accessed from different devices and platforms. The design always loads correctly without any distorted images and text breaks.

Furthermore, with a mobile-first design, you already have the main functionality of your website. So now you can add more features to this basic design to make it compatible with larger-sized screens.

Attract More Customers

As mentioned earlier, the Google algorithm considers the mobile-friendliness of a website as a crucial ranking factor. So, with a mobile-first design, you can improve your website’s discoverability as well as KPIs, like traffic and conversion.

Moreover, ranking higher on SERPs will help drive more traffic to your website and acquire more customers.

Stay Ahead of the Game

Scaling up to larger screens is easier than scaling down to smaller screens. And with a mobile-first approach, you are designing for the smallest screen first. Hence, it’d be easier for your business to evolve seamlessly with the changing mobile technology.

This means, your website will continue to look fresh for longer. And instead of making any haphazard website fixes to keep up with the industry trends, you would have the opportunity to experiment and stand out from your competitors.

The Bottom Line

Given the widespread use of mobile to access the web, mobile-first design is no longer just a nice to have but a critical website aspect to sway your customers. Being useful, functional, and dynamic, it has the ability to futureproof your business and improve its performance.

Want to Design a Mobile-First Website for Your Business? Schedule a Free Consultation.

References –

[i] Statista – Share of global mobile website traffic 2015-2022

[ii] CNBC – Nearly three quarters of the world will use just their smartphones to access the internet by 2025

[iii] DataReportal – Digital Around The World

[iv] Research – Mobile vs Desktop Usage Statistics for 2021/2022

[v] Neil Patel – How Loading Time Affects Your Bottomline