Before we continue our discussion today on mobile-first design, we would like to make an announcement which is very important to our team. We just found out today that we have won an IAC Award for web design. Receiving this praise is so important for our hard-working professionals here at Inside Design Orlando. It is special to be a part of the design community and we appreciated the opportunity to enter our site for consideration. It is truly an honor to accept this 2019 design award!
Announcing our IAC award for April of 2019: Congrats to Paul Rose, Multi-Media Designer, and Programmer and our entire team at Orlando Website Design for winning the “Crystal Industry Award” for 2019. Our award category was for Best Professional Services Website.
Please take the time to review our award-winning site.
Our mobile-first world is expanding:
This year our team at Inside Design Orlando is all on board with “mobile-first” design strategy. Five billion mobile users can’t be all wrong so welcome to the future of web design. Unfortunately, many of our associate website designers and programmers are still stuck in the past. They are continuing to use old methods. They design for desktop computers (hoping the concept will respond well on mobile devices). Many of these designers will go out of business or be left behind quickly with the new mobile smart technology.
Understanding Mobile-First versus Responsive Design:
Responsive design techniques use CSS (Cascading Style Sheeting) programming which put the needs of desktop clients first. Designing mobile-first means that we design first for mobile and second for desktop design. Responsive design uses dramatic images to create a memorable landing page effect. There is also more introductory content used in responsive design projects. There could also be more feature elements used for the home page presentation. These are not needed for a mobile-first design strategy.
Less is best for mobile-first strategy:
Mobile first, is a design strategy of clean, minimalistic design. Developers will be using less content, less imagery, and getting right to the point with relevant content quickly and efficiently. The landing page is carefully constructed to offer the most important information up front. Call to action verbs are placed strategically within the first half of the landing page layout. Instead of creating a desktop layout and then forcing the layout to fit in a mobile platform, we instead create a website that considers the majority of mobile users first. Once the site has been completed using the mobile-first strategy you will quickly see that it will translate quickly on all devices.
Content is still king for mobile-first designs:
Content should be brief and informative for mobile design. Because the mobile screen is very small, designers must pay close attention to the parameters needed for the site layout. Today’s mobile users spend a huge majority of their lives online and out in the public. These users are used to finding mobile users expect to find the information they need immediately with a few clicks.
Using images for mobile-first design strategy:
Since smartphones have many different screen resolutions and configurations, images are handled differently than if we were designing for desktop projects., Responsive CSS design for desktop and tablet normally has lots of images and graphics. This is not the case with mobile design. Due to load time, fewer images and graphics are suggested. Stay away from large image files for best results. Use JPEG and GIF files and compress them as much as possible (keeping the best quality).
Using fewer images and graphics will allow the site to load quickly and efficiently to a mobile device. Always use ALT tags on images and graphics chosen for the site. This is because some users actually choose to turn off their image files to save bandwidth. Using the ALT tags will allow them to read the content correctly.
Consider hiring a professional content writer:
We urge our clients to spend the time needed to build the content for the home page, even if it is necessary to hire a content marketing firm. You will get the best bang for your buck by hiring professionals. Inside Design Orlando has a list of qualified content writers and their fees are very cost-effective. You have only a few seconds to capture your target audience. The way you display your content can make or break your site, and this holds true especially for those using mobile devices.Mobile-first approach is better for SEO:
Improving SEO:
Since the mobile-first design is content-focused it will naturally lead to a site which ranks better organically. This elevates your site’s SEO ranking. Your consumers will now find you quickly in a Google search and you will improve your ROI (Return On Investment). We find that desktop users may spend more time reading content and looking at the site as a whole, judging the images and other features of the site. To the contrary, mobile-users are looking to have a question answered quickly. If they can’t find the answer, they will simply move on to another site which provides what they are looking for.
Conclusion:
Take all of this into consideration when you discuss the next site re-design. Contact us to discuss your next project and how mobile-first design strategy will elevate your website to new heights this year. Thanks for stopping by and hurry back for more next time.Staff Writer
