The words responsive and mobile first are thrown around quite often in discussions about web design. Responsive technologies help create websites that look and behave well on every device — desktop or mobile. Mobile-first design focuses on the website’s look and behavior on mobile devices above everything else.
If you’re wondering whether to emphasize responsive technology or mobile-first design in your own web-development strategy, the good news is that the two categories are deeply intertwined — even feed off one another. Responsive technology is a crucial aspect of mobile-first design, and mobile-optimized websites are highly responsive.
Today, I’ll explain — and hopefully, clarify — how brands can leverage responsive technologies to drive engaging mobile-first user experiences.
Responsive Tech Vs. Mobile Design
The word responsive doesn’t actually refer to a design strategy. Instead, responsive describes a technical approach with a specific goal: no matter what type of device a visitor is using to browse the Internet, the website will look equally amazing and offer an equally engaging user experience.
One of the most widespread, responsive web technologies is a simple algorithm that detects what type of device a visitor is using. The algorithm then inserts that device’s ideal versions of graphics, page layouts, and other elements — in other words, responsive technologies enable and enhance mobile-first web design.
Mobile first, on the other hand, is not a specific set of technologies, but rather, a concept — a different perspective on design. Luke Wroblewski’s 2009 blog post titled, “Mobile First,” woke up many designers to this concept. The premise is that a website should adapt image sizes, content lengths, page layouts, and other design elements to optimize the experience for a customer viewing content on the screen of a mobile device. This wasn’t an issue in the past when most people browsed the Internet from computer monitors; however, with the wide range of mobile screens now available, this type of design thinking is essential.
Wroblewski‘s blog post was published at a time when mobile users still accounted for less than 10 percent of all web traffic. Today, however, the vast majority of business-to-consumer (B2C) traffic moves through mobile — and any company that lacks a mobile-optimized website will lose significant business as a result. Furthermore, mobile customers browse and make purchases in very quick time slices — while waiting in checkout lines, during lunch breaks, and so on — heightening the need for attention-grabbing, fast-paced, and delightful mobile experiences.
As you can see, every mobile-first design strategy needs responsive technology.
Graceful Degradation and Progressive Enhancement
Web-design expert, James Archer, points out in his article, “Why Is It So Easy to Get ‘Mobile First’ Wrong?” that mobile and desktop optimization must go hand in hand. It’s possible to take the mobile-first idea too far, creating an ideal mobile experience alongside a painfully limited desktop experience.
Mobile first provides a wealth of opportunities to integrate with the capabilities of various devices — location services, built-in scanning, and so on. However, those features should be bonuses and not essential components of your user experience. It’s easy to fall into the habit of “graceful degradation” — designing for the most powerful devices first and gradually stripping features away from the user experience on less-powerful devices.
By the same token, it’s very simple to become trapped in a “progressive enhancement” mindset in which you start with the most restrained approach, leaving even the desktop version of your site looking like a touch-friendly mobile app. The last thing you want any user to think is, “Ugh, this is probably another one of those stupid mobile-first designs.”
Both of these methods, however, miss the core of the problem that responsive technology is designed to solve: above everything, the user experience should be consistent — and consistently great — across all devices.
The Bottom Line
In short, starting from mobile isn’t the solution to a universally great user experience. The solution is to use responsive technology to build a website that works great on mobile devices — but also adapts to desktop screens. The more responsive your website is, the more you’ll be following the mobile-first philosophy. And, the more your website is optimized for a variety of mobile devices, the more you’ll realize how essential responsive technology is to creating engaging web experiences.
The post Digital Marketing 101: Should Your Web-Design Strategy Be Responsive or Mobile-First? appeared first on Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe.
from Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe https://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/mobile/digital-marketing-101-web-design-strategy-responsive-mobile-first/
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