Technology advances constantly which means that we need to adapt and follow trends. The best example is the smartphone. With most people owning a smartphone it makes sense how world wide mobile internet usage has now overtaken the use of a desktop. It looks like this trend will continue as mobile gains more market share.
Above is a chart from StatCounter which shows the comparison of desktop vs mobile vs tablet market share worldwide from May 2017 until May 2018.
SO WHAT IS MOBILE FIRST DESIGN?
Mobile First means you're designing an online experience for mobile before designing it for the desktop or for any other device. This is both a strategy and sometimes even a new way of writing code.
A few years ago, a desktop site with some adjustments was what you would see on your phone. Now a site is often created specifically with your mobile device in mind. Planning for your site layout is different for mobile than it is for a desktop, because you're forcing yourself to identify what's important about your content to your user. Designing mobile first makes you really think about specific design decisions, like fonts, right at the start of the project.
WHY SHOULD I CONSIDER MOBILE FIRST DESIGN
Google is a big reason everyone is developing mobile-first websites. Back in 2016 when mobile Internet usage first overtook desktop, Google was changing the way their search engine ranks sites – now, they will be ranking sites based on their mobile usability rather than desktop if the user is searching from their phone.
As a website owner, your goal should always be to make it as easy as possible for your visitors to navigate your site. So if your website visitors are using mobile devices more than anything else you should consider mobile first design.
If your visitors still heavily favour desktops, responsive design might be the way to go. With mobile first and responsive design, your visitors will always be able to access the information they need quickly and easily, which will keep them coming back.
Responsive web design allows sites to adjust to any type of screen size or device. It allows your content to be resized, enlarged, moved and shrunk to fit the user’s screen. So instead of designing in the order of phone, tablet, laptop, responsive design goes from desktop, tablet, phone.
