Myth One: You should start your website design for the mobile screen size first.
Clients often hear this one and bring it up as a question. Do you start your design process for the mobile screen? We don’t. Pretty much every modern web framework (think, the code’s foundation) includes mobile styles already. This means that you start with the largest display size you believe you will show and then hone it down to mobile.
Why? Because the largest screen size has the least constraints for positioning. With all that real estate, you can get creative with how the layout works. As soon as you narrow the width to around 360px wide for a phone, you have a single column of content. Some considerations like button size, edge spacing, and the order of content apply specifically to mobile, but it will have to fit in that single column.
Projects at The Sky Floor always have mobile in mind, but we do not start with mobile-first unless we are creating a mobile-only experience.
Myth Two: You need an app.
You probably don’t need an app, here’s why. Apps are amazing for specific experiences that require phone features. For everything else that a website can already do, it is just another distraction from your content.
Churches are a great example of this. Many churches rushed into the app ecosystem, but their apps were just a way to watch messages and get event information already available on the website. Many doctors’ offices also bought apps but only displayed static content like directions and doctor biographies. The key is not to waste your user’s time. Focus on what they need and try to deliver it concisely.
Are apps useless? Not at all. If you want to use features built into the phone like the camera, notifications, phone, video calling, or NFC, an app will outperform a website. You have to know what you are trying to achieve and if an app is the best way to meet that goal!
Myth Three: Half of your users are on mobile devices.
There may be more than half, but there is probably less. There are plenty of irrefutable stats when you Google how much web traffic is mobile. While these aren’t incorrect, it is a rule of thumb for the whole internet. Luckily, you can track your website and find out what your number is.
We find that across the 50 or so Analytics properties we have access to, the range is 35-45% mobile. The fascinating part is that predictions five years ago had the number going as high as 80% by 2020. The majority of internet traffic becoming mobile hasn’t materialized. The percent is relatively stable for many years now.
Mobile-first seems like a bad strategy unless you are creating a mobile-only concept. Focusing on only half of your users in either direction isn’t going to be a winning strategy.
If you need assistance making your website mobile-friendly, reach out to us here: Book a Free Consultation.
