Should your responsive strategy be desktop or mobile-first?

Responsive design relates to the adaptability of a website or app, in order to respond to the needs of the user and/or device they’re using.

This will be based on screen size, platform, and orientation – for example on a mobile, users would typically view the content in a single-column, whereas a tablet or desktop might show the same content split across two or more columns.

When approaching your project, the design team may ask whether you would like the responsive strategy to be desktop or mobile-first. This simply relates to whether the designs are to be initially created for desktop and scaled down, or vice-versa. Desktop-first is the more traditional approach, however mobile-first is becoming more popular due to the significant rise in mobile and tablet use.

You may wish to consider which approach is better suited to your business and your target audience, before making a decision. If most of your users are likely to be viewing, and interacting with, your website on mobile devices then it makes sense to design your site with this in mind, especially considering more than 50% of the total traffic on the internet is now acquired through mobile phones. However, if your target audience is an older generation, it is important to remember that they may not necessarily frequently visit websites using mobile devices, so therefore desktop-first may be more suitable. Consequently, it is imperative that you research your audience before deciding on your responsive strategy.

Whichever approach you opt for, our front-end developers are experienced in creating responsive websites and applications. Using a mix of flexible grids, layouts, images and CSS media queries to ensure a seamless transition across multiple devices; as well as testing for accessibility across varying browsers, they are able to provide you with a solution that works.

If you would like more information about any of our products or services, please get in touch and one of the team will be happy to help.