Picture this: The year is 1975 and your morning has been ruined by a broken toaster. You carve out the rest of your day to fix it. You hop in your car, drive to the library, and spend an hour combing through manuals before a librarian points you in the direction of a book on basic appliances. You copy a few pages by hand before driving home and putting your newfound knowledge to the test. Success! You fixed your toaster.
Fast forward to the 90s. Your toaster breaks again. But thankfully, this ‘internet’ thing is really taking off, saving you a trip to the library. You sit down at your desktop and launch Netscape Navigator. After 10 minutes of screechy dial-up, you find a forum where someone has posted instructions. Neat! Information is really becoming easier to access!
Now it’s the year 2024 and the same toaster (you should consider getting a new toaster) breaks AGAIN! Without missing a beat, you pull out your smartphone and within minutes, you have found a YouTube video showing you step-by-step instructions. You’re able to watch this video as you’re fixing your toaster.
Fifty years has completely changed the way we access information. According to stats, over 60% of all web traffic comes from mobile devices. Probably because it is the easiest, most accessible way to access information. So, if your site isn’t optimized for phones, you’re practically ignoring more than half your potential audience.
As designers, it might be tempting to work with a bigger screen first so that we have all of the space for our creative ideas. But think about how much harder it is to condense the design into a much smaller layout. Mobile design becomes secondary and less appealing than its desktop version.
If you design for mobile-first, you are prioritizing and thinking first about how it looks in that smaller format. It’s much easier to expand on the design rather than condense.
So, moral of the story? We don’t live in the 1900s anymore! Design for the majority of your audience. And the rest will flow from it.
