Are you thinking about mobile first?

Historically when designing and developing websites and their usability, both the designer and the client would always look at the website as a desktop experience first and then leave the mobile experience as a secondary goal that is developed afterwards, whether that be through a responsive site or a dedicated mobile site.

Now with more and more users using mobile devices on a day-to-day basis, people are still thinking desktop design first, but should we be doing this?

Now, in some cases this is still the right way to proceed but in other cases this is probably not the best way to approach the development of your website.

Firstly, look at your website from the user’s point of view and identify what information and content is important to them. What are people looking for and what do they want to know?

Next we would suggest you need to look at your analytics and see how many users on your website are visiting from a mobile device and what type of devices they are using. This information can be extremely important. Then using this data, dig a bit deeper and look at what content on your website these users are searching for and looking at. If you are finding that most of your visitors are coming from a mobile device then this is a good reason to turn your website on its head and think about your site differently.

A perfect example for this could be a restaurant website. A person may be out for the day, looking for a lovely restaurant where they can go for dinner on that day; now these people, after searching the web (SEO is the key to this part), will come to a restaurant website in the local area. What information is important to them? The location, telephone number, the menu, reviews and images of the restaurant and food. These people may be short on time so the usability, ease of navigation and speed of the site is key. Sometimes simple and basic is the best way. Balance design priorities with performance requirements.

We are not saying don’t have a beautiful desktop and mobile experience but just think about the information and architecture first and then add in the exciting stuff on top.

Remember simple is the key.

So in short, these are the five things you should be thinking about…

1. Using analytics, are users to your website visiting more on a mobile device?
2. What content are the users looking at?
3. Is your navigation, usability and experience right for your users?
4. Can they get to the right information quickly and easily?
5. And most importantly, is the information clear?

Need any more information? We’re the Surrey Web Design Agency to call. Speak soon!