Mobile First

How does a web design actually come into being? Or in other words - where do you start? Certainly, every web designer has his own approach, which is adapted to the individual way of working. Leaving personal preferences aside, however, one could at least ask oneself for which end device the first designs should be created. Do you start with high-resolution screens for desktops? Or with notebooks? This is where the so-called mobile-first approach comes in. As the name suggests, you start with the design for mobile devices or with the smallest layout variant. After that, you gradually move towards the larger variants.

Mobile web design is becoming increasingly important

But where does the mobile-first trend actually come from? In the past, only or first a desktop version was created, to which a mobile variant was then optionally added. But as websites are increasingly used on mobile devices such as smartphones, priorities are shifting. For some sites, the mobile version has long been more important than its "big brother".

Google introduces a mobile-first index

At the latest after this announcement, it is clear how dominant the role of mobile web design has become: Google is introducing its own index that specifically lists mobile versions of websites. A fully-fledged mobile website is therefore more important than ever before if you want to continue to maintain good search engine rankings. The mobile-first trend could get an additional boost as a result.

Mobile First Advantages

The entire website can benefit from the mobile-first approach - after all, it is the content that is the focus here. The website is concentrated on the essentials and important content is positioned as dominantly as possible, i.e. as high up as possible. On this solid basis, the desktop version can be created in a later step and supplemented with additional functions. At best, this also increases the usability of a website.

Implementation

There are several ways to develop a mobile-first website. In practice, the following has proven to be particularly effective Responsive web design which can be optimally combined.