Expert Advice: Think Mobile First
Category: Shannon Masterson, Trends
Directly on the heels of our recent newsletter article "Is Your Web Site Smart Phone Friendly?" comes web design "rock star" Luke Wroblewski’s presentation "Mobile First!" at this month’s An Event Apart Conference in Seattle, Wa. Two of Square Root Interactive’s designers attended the session, and here’s what they learned.
Luke W (as he is known) tackled the growing topic of mobile web design and encouraged designers to reverse their thinking by designing the mobile version of a site before the desktop version.
He started with the facts.
1: The mobile web – especially through iPhone – is growing. He cited stats that put mobile audience recent growth at about eight times that of the standard desktop interface audience and looked at how social network users help to drive this trend.
2: The mobile interface makes designers focus. When you go mobile, you lose about 80 percent of your screen. This forces designers to be thoughtful in their design, to think of "the meat" of the page, and to put functionality first. Speed must be optimized, the screen must be legible, and the end-user must be considered.
3: Characteristics unique to mobile interfaces encourage innovation. The touch feature, which has become popular through devices such as the iPhone, iTouch and newer iPad, was cited as an innovation that led to more breakthroughs, such as the device’s ability to detect and respond to changing orientation and exploration into audio and video extensions of touch technology.
The conference was invaluable thanks to the presentations and opportunity to talk with other designers from across the country, but what we’re most excited about is putting all of this new knowledge to work for you – our clients!
For more on Luke Wroblewski:
http://www.lukew.com/
http://twitter.com/lukewdesign
Posted By: Shannon Masterson | Date Published: 4.20.2010 | Comments (0)