In recent years, the Internet and cell phones have become a major part of our daily lives.
Whether for business, entertainment, information or self-education, we use one, the other or, more often, both.
So when we talk about web browsing today, we're thinking mainly of cell phone browsing.
Creating your websites with a mobile-first approach in 2022 is essential for both you and your customers.
But that hasn't always been the case.
Desktop first: the old way
The Internet was democratized in French households in the 90s.
Back then , cell phones were more like walkie-talkies than touch-screen smartphones.
At the time, it was unthinkable to use them to surf the web.
As a result, companies' strategy for building their sites was logically desktop-oriented (i.e. designed for use on a computer).
Over the years, with the rapid increase in Internet use on our mobile devices, this strategy has become increasingly obsolete.
What is mobile first?
Creating a site with a mobile-first approach means designing and optimizing a website for reading on mobile devices (tablet, smartphone).
To be more exhaustive, mobile-first design involves :
- Reading adapted to the smaller screens of mobile devices
- Code optimization for ever-faster browsing speeds (end of javascript use, direct development of HTML5 pages)
- Page user interface (menus, drop-down menus, buttons, etc.) designed for extremely easy access to information
- Reduced size and weight of visual elements (photos, images)
These features come with a number of advantages.
Speed: a key mobile-first advantage
Site speed is of crucial importance for web surfers using a phone or tablet.
Firstly, because not all devices are powerful.
Secondly, because the mobile surfer, possibly sitting in a subway or bus, is likely to pass through areas where the Internet connection is mediocre.
In such situations, the heaviest elements (large images, scripts, etc.) will take a very long time to load.
As we said earlier, a web page that takes too long to load turns users off.
This has a negative impact on your site's bounce rate (i.e. the percentage of visitors to your site who close the page quickly after opening it).
A high bounce rate penalizes your ranking on the Google search results page.
With mobile first, you're taking the best route to avoid these inconveniences.
Your site's navigation is fluid and spares your reader's limited patience as much as possible.
Reading comfort and simplicity: an enhanced user experience
By using mobile-first web design, the information displayed (links, texts, menus, photos) is optimized for reading on a small screen.
You might think that this apparent simplification would be detrimental to the desktop version of a mobile-first site.
But it doesn't.
In fact, optimizing your site's interface to get straight to the point will make navigation more pleasant, even on the desktop.
How to set up a mobile-first site
While creating a mobile-first site takes a little time and work, it is, in truth, a valuable investment in improving the user experience.
Here are a few key steps for implementing this approach:
1. Needs analysis:
Understand the needs and expectations of your target audience.
What types of content are they looking for on mobile?
What are their browsing habits?
2. Mobile-first design:
Design for mobile first, then adapt for desktop.
Use responsive frameworks like Bootstrap or Foundation, which facilitate the creation of adaptive sites.
3. Performance optimization:
Reduce file size, compress images, use lazy loading for images and videos, and minimize JavaScript and CSS to speed up loading times.
4. Tests and iterations:
Test your site on different mobile devices to make sure it works well everywhere.
Use tools like Google Mobile-Friendly Test and PageSpeed Insights to identify and solve problems.
5. Mobile SEO :
Make sure your content is easily accessible to search engines.
Use appropriate meta tags, an XML sitemap, and mobile-friendly URLs.
Summary
By adopting a mobile-first approach, you'll not only optimize the user experience, but also improve your visibility on search engines, increase your conversion rate and build user loyalty.
