Forget “mobile friendly” – today’s websites need to be “mobile first”

Mobile “friendly” was all the rage for years. This common phrase came to prominence alongside the rising use of smartphones to emphasize the importance of websites being viewable on mobile devices, evolving from a time when all websites were viewed on a desktop or laptop with a screen resolution wider than 1,000 pixels.

First, it was a completely dedicated mobile website, which evolved into responsive designs that could automatically adjust to any screen resolution. Despite the growing importance of mobile, websites continued to be designed as desktop websites that could reasonably be viewed on smartphones by adjusting the layout accordingly. This method posed certain problems, but desktop usage remained the priority.

Today, that’s all changed. In most cases, mobile usage outranks desktop and tablet usage. In some cases, the scale tips heavily towards mobile – in some cases more than 90% served to mobile devices.

Websites need to be more than mobile “friendly.” They should be designed as mobile “first” with the priority given to mobile layout and design, sometimes at the expense of desktop. The key difference is prioritizing a top-down design approach instead of a side-by-side column approach.

Desktop sites benefited from being able to lay 2 or 3 columns side-by-side, with all columns being above the fold with equal viewability. The challenge with mobile is that only one of these sections, known as containers, will appear on screen at any given time with the others being pushed down the page. Putting something in the “sidebar” will have high exposure on desktop sites, but extremely low exposure on mobile devices where the bulk of usage is.

Mobile websites have other considerations, including click-to-call features, that should be included. Our website development experts can help you with designing a website that holds up to today’s standards.

Tablets are generally better served by mobile-friendly designs as well.