Did you know that approximately half of the overall web traffic comes from mobile devices?
The world is going mobile-first, and so should your business. In order to stay relevant in this everlasting digital revolution, let’s go over some steps to ensure your mobile-first strategy is on par. Even though the usage of laptops and desktops are still high, most individuals that are seeking out products or services tend to do so on their mobile device. There is a constant increase in buying decisions that are being made on mobile phones.
Having a website that is optimized for mobile phones translates better to all types of devices. On top of that, the mobile-first approach also follows the content-first approach. With all the limitations of mobile, designing within these parameters creates a process that keeps screen size, navigation, and bandwidth in mind.
With the usage of mobile devices continuously increasing, a mobile-first approach helps maintain brand relevance while staying top-of-mind for consumers.
What is a ‘Mobile-First’ Approach?
In short, a mobile-first approach means designing a digital presence with an emphasis on the mobile experience, in some cases, before desktop and tablet devices.
When designing for mobile-first, designers save time, improve productivity, and have a simplified process, allowing designers to pay more attention to content being made, and helping them create more practical and comprehensible designs.
Here’s how:
Doing It Right
When designing for mobile-first websites and products, it’s important to keep the following in mind:
- Prioritizing Content is key when designing for mobile-first. With more restrictions on smaller screens, it’s important to ensure crucial elements are displayed. Having important content displayed creates more opportunities for user engagement, keeping their sessions open longer, and reducing bounces.
- Providing Intuitive Navigation is critical when it comes to delivering a mobile-first presence. Designing a digital product that simplifies navigation by displaying secondary elements helps clarify pathways for users. This helps create a digital experience that is easily digestible while feeding users necessary information.
- Avoiding Disruptive Pop-ups helps limit issues with space constraints. No user likes to be disrupted with pop-ups and advertisements taking over the screen. When creating a website, it’s important to provide users with the corresponding information they are ultimately seeking.
- Testing on Real Devices is an extremely effective way to ensure a website delivers optimal user experiences. Taking this step minimizes the risk when launching a new digital product. Testing on real devices also helps to ensure that the site renders as expected across different device types. It’s also worth noting that testing should extend to different browsers and connection types for a more accurate test of a presence’s mobile performance.
Benefits of ‘Mobile-First’
There are so many benefits to creating a digital experience using the mobile-first approach, here are just a few:
- Better Performance – Once a successful mobile-first product is launched, the content will load quicker since there are only crucial elements. Having faster page load times is important when it comes down to maintaining SEO and having good usability. Further, since the majority of users use Google Search engines on their mobile devices, Google indexes mobile pages over desktop. Having your site optimized for mobile helps with SEO and rankings as well.
- Decreased Bounce Rate – In general, mobile bounce rates are 20 to 30 percent higher than desktop bounce rates, and the conversion rates are lower. This is due to the fact that individuals who use mobile devices are usually looking for something while they are in a rush or in transit. However, everyone experiences mobile sites that are so unbearable they end up leaving; keep bounce rates lower by using a mobile-first design to encourage longer sessions, maintain a larger percentage of consumers and deliver a better overall user experience. Kaity Ayuso, Big Drop’s Business Development Manager, stated the following:
“Lead attribution understandably complicates the idea of adopting a mobile-first strategy. Companies want to maintain a clear line of sight on where conversions are coming from, which becomes tricky when users visit a site on multiple devices. However, a common theme to keep in mind is that users who initially browse a mobile site often will make a purchasing decision based on that mobile experience, even when they bounce off of the mobile site and later convert from a desktop session. While this makes attribution more difficult to determine, it reinforces the importance of making a great first impression through mobile-first design.”
- Improved User Experience with UX Design – A mobile-first strategy necessitates greater emphasis and attention on users’ needs alongside the most important information. At the same time, mobile-first requires greater usability testing in order to deliver not just the appropriate material, but the right quantity of content, with the flexibility to provide more content when consumers require it – and something that is simpler to use on mobile devices’ smaller screens. Big Drop’s Senior Director, James Weiss, says:
“An unsatisfactory mobile experience reflects poorly on the brand serving it, and consumers are savvy enough to quickly, and easily, find an alternative. The user standard for digital experiences gets higher daily for desktop alone, but because mobile devices are such dominant forces in our lives, brands owe it to themselves to invest in optimizing their presences for each screen their audiences use to engage. Missing out on the potential life-share to be gained from an intuitive experience is a risk that brands ought to avoid, especially in the world of digital.”
Effects of ‘Mobile-First’
The percentage of global web traffic on mobile phones has surged over the past decade. As of January 2022, 54.98 percent of all web traffic came through mobile phones. The distribution of mobile vs desktop internet usage in the United States over the past ten years reflects a similar pattern, where the percentage of web traffic on mobile has also surged. As of January 2022, 48.40 percent of the total web visits are currently mobile, compared to 48.35 percent coming from desktops.
Americans spend an average of 5.4 hours each day on their phones, checking them an average of 63 times each day and 6.5 hours each day being online in general. 13% of millennials spend over 12 hours on their phones daily. Baby Boomers spend 5 hours using their phones.
Statistics show that 40% of users will go to the competitor after a bad mobile experience. Around 84% have experienced difficulty completing a mobile transaction. These high numbers show just how great the opportunity is for companies to capitalize on consumer conversion just by creating mobile responsive and user-friendly websites. Making a conclusion from all the statistics given above, a mobile-first approach is a well-promising trend to follow. So, if you have any questions and need help, feel free to contact us. Big Drop is a NY website design agency that helps customers cope with issues of any complexity.