Mobile-first approach to website design is an approach that first sketches and prototypes a website for the smallest screen possible before scaling up to larger screens. Recent statistics show that there are some thirty billion connected devices on earth today. By 2020, Cisco projects that figure will hit fifty billion! The “message” is very clear: businesses should adopt a mobile-first approach in designing their websites or else, go out of business; literally!
Connected devices have impacted our lives in several ways: the way we socialise, what we do in our leisure, how we communicate with family and friends, how we engage with brands, how we experience websites … and so on! In this blog post, we will share with you four reasons why your business should adopt a mobile-first approach in getting her website designed.
THERE ARE NOW MORE MOBILE USERS ON WORTH THAN DESKTOP (OR LAPTOP) USERS
Going by available statistics, mobile Internet usage surpassed desktop (or laptop) usage in 2016. Tens of billions of connected devices means then that there are at least several hundreds of millions of users! More importantly, these users are engaged with these devices persistently for several hours in the day checking emails, browsing the Internet, searching for one information or the other, or even buying a product or service.
A business that doesn’t have mobile as “front and center” in its strategy for marketing is setting itself up to fail. For instance, it’s been proven that half of all online searches, 6 billion of those everyday, are conducted via a mobile device. These are audiences a business needs to learn to engage effectively and generate leads (and eventually, customers) from; in order to generate good profit. Again, any business that ignores this does so to its own peril.
MOBILE-FRIENDLY DESIGN IS NO LONGER GOOD ENOUGH, USER INTERFACE IS IT!
In the early days of the mobile revolution, just having a mobile version of your business website was considered adequate representation in the new media. Nowadays, mobile-friendliness in your website design is not enough, the user experience is the deal maker or breaker!
The connected devices being manufactured today are very powerful and capable of doing several things a desktop or a laptop does; for example, word processing, excel worksheet creation and manipulation, sending and receiving of messages, watching movies; etcetera. The implication is that mobile users have become intolerable of average user interface experiences, even on mobile.
GRACEFUL DEGRADATION HAS MORPHED INTO PROGRESSIVE ENHANCEMENT
Back then when desktop computers and then laptops were common, graceful degradation was the best-in-class practice in website design. Graceful degradation meant that website design companies designed such that websites functioned on as many browsers and interfaces (platforms) as possible. The aim was to include as many users of the Internet as possible; including those with archaic computer setups. Thus, the full stack design experience was created and then functionalities scaled down to accommodate less robust computer infrastructure. This was okay for a while, until mobile came on scene.
With the advent of mobile Web design, progressive enhancement became the new standard in website design. Simply explained, it means creating the best design experience for mobile first, and then scaling up – in aesthetics, in complexity – the design for other platforms.
No doubt, progressive enhancement makes good business sense in a world filled with tons of devices that are internet-connected.
MOBILE-FIRST ALLOWS YOU TO SELL WITH CONTENT
Content is left, right and center in any mobile website development effort. In today’s world of mobile devices, giving your (mobile) website visitors the content they need is the holy grail. If you cannot engage your (mobile) website visitors with engaging content, you lose their attention and the business they would have given your company. On the flip side, if you go mobile-first in your website design, and you have compelling content to keep your visitors engaged as they travel down the road dictated by your online leads conversion and sales process, you will achieve some amazing business results.
So is your website design mobile-first compliant? Great mobile website design puts your content (the product or service you are selling) right in front of your prospective customers!
Contact Inizsoft Technology to have your mobile-first web design done by professionals.