My Responsive Design Philosophy
Monday, 5 August 2024I don't like mobile first web design.
Yeah, I said it⸬.
Yeah, I know mobile design is really important. Perhaps more important than desktop. Everyone is on their phones, and frankly, most people don't even require a personal computer these days (growing up, everyone had one because everyone needed one). Phones are the personal computer of today (sadly), and so most internet access will be on those devices. No, I don't have stats to back this up (yet).
Even Google's search indexing takes the mobile layout first into consideration - if your site doesn't look good or work well on mobile, it ain't shit.
So why do I dislike it?
Practically speaking, it's a lot easier and straight forward to shrink a website down from desktop view then to expand it from mobile view. When you start with desktop view first, you have a lot more creative space and room to breathe. You can then shrink this down to suit a mobile viewport, leaving things out if necessary (but for good SEO, you should have the same content no matter the viewport).
However, when starting in mobile, you are limiting yourself right from the start. Even with the layout, which will only be a single column, and can never be more than that. So why not start at the most basic? Let your page (and mind) be free, and then optimise for mobile. Trust me, web development is a lot more fun this way.
Would I ever design mobile-first?
Yeah, if the website was intended for mobile devices.
Just give it a go. Ignore what everyone tells you about the importance of mobile first design. Don't ignore the importance of responsive design.