With over half the users online browsing from a mobile device, considering how webpages are designed for different formats is more important than ever before.
What is Mobile First Design?
Mobile first design is when you create a webpage and consider the mobile layout as a priority and work from this to design a larger screen layout. By using mobile first design you’re ensuring your webpage can be viewed clearly on mobile, where the majority of users will be viewing your site from.
Why is Mobile First Design Important?
Mobile first design puts your user first and allows you to put yourself in their shoes to create the best experience possible. By creating a website with mobile users at priority, it allows users to easily navigate your website making them less likely to leave and go to another brand/ companies site.
In 2015, Google announced an update to their algorithm which prioritises mobile friendly and responsive websites in search rankings, then more recently in July 2019 they announced their mobile first indexing algorithm. Mobile-first indexing means Google predominantly uses the mobile version of the content for indexing and ranking for any new websites.
With over 50% of website traffic now coming from mobile devices and 90% of mobile searched happening through Google, this makes creating a mobile friendly website a must for usability and SEO ranking.
How to Create a Mobile First Website
Keep your Website Simple
By keeping your website simple this will focus the users attention on what is important. Don’t fill your website with elements that aren’t needed and keep to as few pages as you can, to make it as streamlined as possible. Ways to simplify your website design are; use a simple and readable font, use large borders and spacing to break up your content and integrate a search feature to your site to limit the number of buttons and tabs needed.
There are many more ways to improve and simplify your site, which in turn will make your user experience much more enjoyable and make them more likely to revisit.
Establish the Visual Hierarchy
When making your website you should make sure the content is as concise as possible. By establishing a hierarchy, you can make your website straight to the point and this can save the user’s time.
For example, by putting headlines to the top and a summary just below and only using images where needed, users are able to see if the page is relevant, take in the information much faster and make their overall experience easier.
Make CTAs And Other Mobile-First Elements Consistent And Bold
By making your CTAs and other elements stand out, it will add to the overall ease of function of your site. To make your CTAs stand out it is recommended to use button elements or use contrasting colours and bold fonts.
Work On Your Site’s Loading Speed
Having a website which loads fast, will make a user more likely to stay on your site and not leave to go elsewhere. Research shows that visitors will leave a website if it takes more than three seconds to fully load, so it is important that your site is speedy.
There is a handy tool by Google which analyses your website speed and can recommend ways to improve.
Conclusion
When designing your website, the main thing to consider is your user and how they will navigate your site. By putting the user at the forefront of your design, it will allow you to create a website that is user friendly, easy to use and highly ranking.
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