Mobile-First, Adaptive, or Responsive Design; Which to Choose for a Website

What is Mobile-First strategy?

It is hard to go anywhere without spotting a smartphone or tablet. In other words, these devices are becoming personal and pocket computers for the modern person. They are a great way to be up to par with current trends as well as influence decisions within the market.

It is disheartening to know some mobile developers pay no attention to current trends which bear a lot of impact on the business.

So, what is Mobile-First strategy? It is a method of facilitating communication between customers and employees by setting up a website to perform this.

This is also an advantage as it adds considerably to search engine optimization. Recently, Google made an announcement that all websites that are not optimized for mobile devices shall not have the services they still enjoy.

Another reason to have optimized sites is that not everyone will think twice about returning to inaccessible ones anyway. More accurately, 61% leave the site while 40% go for a competitor site.

Search engine optimization and mobile strategy is not a hard thing to do. Nonetheless, some companies still don’t know how to properly use web design resources to have captivating websites for both mobile and desktop users.

Adaptive design

Adaptive design adjusts to website specifications and doesn’t necessarily take into account the browser size. It is the norm to enjoy sites that are easily accessed on any websites and are optimized for smartphone and tablet devices.

Customers consider how ‘attractive’ a website is. If the best one is made, then more users get pleased with the experience.

When to choose adaptive design

1. It is advantageous to have old sites modernized rather than building new ones since it needs design layouts with a minimum of 6 widths.
2. An adaptive design will suit users who use different devices for different web services. For instance, with some websites, users for mobile devices might prefer booking some service as compared to browsing a catalog.

Why use adaptive design

• You have more control of web content and how to develop it from different angles.
• Companies easily know what performs and what doesn’t and optimize the latter and increase online traffic.

For example, if someone prefers to browse using a desktop, then it is the mandate of the company to remove any constraints such as slow speed and other bugs that may be experienced.

• Different views are made but with adaptive design, there is a single priority of having the best view of a given device.
• Since only the necessary assets are handed over to a device, it impacts load time positively and also the general user experience.

Responsive design

Responsive design takes into consideration the web size and comes up with a perfect web layout in the long run. Since there are numerous devices and platforms which operate in tandem with your site, more detail is given as to how websites are made.

When to choose responsive design

1. For new sites
2. It is easy to operate especially with newbies, as there are preinstalled themes via the CMS systems like Drupal or WordPress.
3. They give an almost equal performance to websites intended for mobile or desktop.

Why choose it

• It is cheaper and much easier to operate when developing optimized websites and understand the content of your site.
• Websites are adjusted to suit your device.
• The search engine algorithm is compatible with many mobile devices.

Conclusion

A company should have an idea of what the customer wants. Cheaper is not always best, therefore, everything must be optimized to suit all devices with great performance.