Traditionally, websites are designed for the PC and then, through the magic of responsive design, the layout is resized for mobile devices. Since searches on mobile devices now outnumber those made on desktop search, as Google announced in May 2015, making sure that your website looks good on mobile devices is more and more important, especially for restaurants and storefront businesses. Time spent using the Internet on mobile devices surpassed desktop back in Jan 2014 and has shown no sign of slowing down. So why not future proof your website and design for mobile first?
This development approach is gaining momentum as deeply ingrained design habits are slowly changed. But what does a mobile first design look like? Since this is an approach rather than a technology, there are not marks or clues about whether or not the design started out favoring one form factor or the other. You need to do some research to find articles that specifically mention websites that were developed using Mobile First design. Those that I can confirm are:
Plus, there are more frameworks that are providing for Mobile First design such as:
There is enough customer demand that WordPress theme makers are promoting their Mobile First themes like Cyberchimps.
There’s no reason why these websites can’t be as optimized for mobile search as responsive websites designed first for desktop viewing.
So, the next time your design team adds mobile as an afterthought, give them another thing to think about.