What is mobile first design? Shift your approach by thinking about the user experience and functionality on a mobile device first before you start to create your website, application, etc. for the desktop experience. For many years we, designers, were taught and trained to design for the desktop first and then figure out how to transfer that experience on to a mobile device second.
However, since early 2014 the number of mobile devices and spent on mobile devices surpassed desktop devices1 and as the smartphones continue to advance at a rapid rate, this trend will continue to grow. Thus, we need to shift as designers and organizations to design for the small constrained area on a mobile design to get the essential information on the screen, as well as the bare functionality that we want users to do and experience or actions we want users to take.
Here are some additional reasons to why we should design mobile first2:
• There are over 1.2 billion mobile web users worldwide
• In the U.S., 25% of mobile Web users are mobile-only (they rarely use a desktop to access the web)
• Mobile apps have been downloaded 10.9 billion times
• Mobile device sales are increasing across the board with over 85 percent of new handsets able to access the mobile Web
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