If You’re Considering Site Redesign, Think Mobile First

Cassandra is the Director of User Experience Strategy at Piehead

Luke Wroblewski has a “small” idea.  Design for mobile first. In his latest book, Mobile First, he makes a strong case for designing for the small screen before designing a desktop website. The reasoning goes like this:

The number of people accessing the web via mobile devices is growing at a furious rate. Mobile devices are getting better and cheaper; people who might not be able to afford a laptop or desktop are accessing the Internet using inexpensive mobile devices. The average user of these devices visits 24 sites a day; the top 50% of sites only account for 40% of all mobile visits (MobiADNews). With so many people accessing so many websites via mobile, your site is likely to be one of them, so having a mobile version of your site makes good business sense.

However, mobile devices come with constraints.  With only 320×480 pixels to work with rather than 1024×768, designs have to be stripped down to the bare essentials. Teams must identify the crucial tasks to be accomplished on the site and focus on them. This constraint, Wroblewski maintains, is not a bad thing but rather an opportunity. Minimizing the amount of functionality on a mobile site not only creates a good mobile experience but also prepares you to create a more streamlined desktop web experience. Simplifying the experience is good for the user and thus good for business.

Mobile devices also provide innovative ways to meet user needs. The most basic GPS capability is changing the way websites are used, putting information about local restaurants, businesses, weather and traffic, etc. at your user’s fingertips. Even sites like Zillow are now being accessed via mobile devices while potential buyers are driving around a neighborhood.  Capabilities like the accelerometer, compass, proximity detection and more are available via mobile apps.

Speaking of fingertips, no discussion of mobile capabilities would be complete without mentioning the virtues of direct manipulation of objects on the screen.  With a wealth of new gestures, interacting with a well-designed mobile application can be entertaining as well as useful. Consider UrbanSpoon’s restaurant slot machine or Sketch a Search by Yahoo! that enables users to circle an area with a fingertip and see restaurants inside the selected region.

So if you’re considering a mobile website, by all means do it, and if you’re considering a site redesign as well, consider doing mobile first.