The Philosophy Behind Mobile First Development
Before we discuss the reason why smartphones are the way to go, we need to understand the philosophy behind mobile first development. You design from the smallest screen and work your way up to the larger screen, a desktop.
What Does Mobile First Development Mean?
As you can guess in the name, mobile first development means that when you’re designing a site see how it looks on mobile first. This includes before even designing it for the desktop.
Why Mobile First?
Initially mobile design used to be an afterthought. More and more people are using their smartphones to make purchases and social networking. For example nearly 50% of people use their smartphone as the first point of contact when they’re searching for something to buy. Mobile devices have now become the primary means by which someone searches for something. Be it a place to eat, shoes to buy, what movies to watch, the handheld device is the first place to check. Smartphone sales have actually surpassed desktop sales.
It doesn’t make sense anymore to create a website for a dying medium and try to force it to fit with a new, more popular, technology. In other words create a website specifically designed for handheld devices, and then design it for a desktop. And now it’s better for your business and sales to design your website the other way around instead of the original desk top first mentality.
Companies Have Already Made The Change
In fact there’s a pretty good chance that you’re reading this article on a mobile device right now. About 52% of internet traffic alone is accessed via mobile devices. Because of this alone companies are realizing consumers access most of their content via mobile devices. Thus most companies are now designing for mobile. Now companies look at how their website looks like on mobile devices first. From there they work up in screen size.
Ever since the introduction of mobile devices they’ve taken over. Things have changed, and they’re still changing. Handheld devices are convenient. It’s easy to take them with you. After all they easily fit in your pocket. Desktops on the other hand aren’t. Many companies have embraced the mobile first strategy.
If you want your business to keep up and flourish this is a strategy that cannot be ignored. Even Google has made it very clear that mobile first isn’t just the future, it’s the now. A digital strategy that considers the design and development to a variety of devices will be essential for your business.
Talk to us today about developing a mobile first website for your business.
