Why mobile first?

If you?re new to the concept of mobile first, its simply the practice of designing and developing websites starting with the mobile experience.

Hearing the term mobile-first a couple years ago, I thought?how dumb, web surfing is best done on a huge monitor! ?We should just give the one or two mobile users out there separate mobile sites.

Two years and several responsive sites later, I get it.

The growth of mobile has been discussed before, so lets cover other benefits.

Using a mobile first approach improves:

• Mobile experience (duh) – mobile becomes first priority instead of an afterthought
• Content – the small screen compels us to write concise content that is focused on user needs
• Accessibility – screen readers and mobile browsers thrive on clean, semantic html
• Usability – simplifying our interfaces and prioritizing content over navigation leads to sites that are easier to use
• Speed – the constraints of mobile bring us to remove unnecessary cruft; reducing ornamentation, graphics and fancy javascript makes everything faster
• Development time – starting small and adding features for larger screens results in leaner code

Where to go from here

We have a few points on?how to think mobile first?under the Go Mobile strategy page. Then definitely read?Mobile First by Luke Wroblewski. Everything here is rehashing ideas from Luke’s book.