Mobile-first design is a concept that prioritizes designing for smaller screens first before designing and refining the desktop layout of a website or app. Well over half of all traffic online comes from mobile devices, which means that the likelihood your audience will be introduced to your site from a mobile device or tablet is pretty high. So it makes sense to give the mobile experience equal – if not higher – weight when building out your online presence.
The good news is that the vast majority of WordPress themes are responsive. Responsive means that the theme’s layout “responds” to the width of the device accessing the site. In other words, a theme will look one way on desktop and transition seamlessly to a more mobile-friendly view when visited from a smart phone or tablet.
So how can you make sure your site is mobile-friendly? Here are a few quick tips to get you started.
Browser developer tools
The best way to check that your site is ready for mobile view is to test it yourself! If you have access to a smart phone or tablet, you can always test on the device itself. However, you can also replicate a mobile device on your desktop computer by leveraging your browser’s Developer Tools.
Most, if not all, browsers, include a feature to trigger a responsive mode. In Firefox, you’ll find this under Tools > Browser Tools > Responsive Design Mode; in Chrome, View > Developer Tools. Additionally, you can find a variety of add-ons and extensions to test, as well.
As a note, browser developer tools offer a wide range of tools and functionality, far beyond testing mobile design! If you’re interested in learning more, the Chrome DevTools documentation is a great resource to start.
WordPress views
The WordPress block editor also offers the option to view your site on mobile from within the Editor. This is a great way to test and adjust your layout on specific posts or pages as you go. To do so, click on the Views icon in the upper right corner to choose from Desktop, Tablet, or Mobile views.
While this will allow you to preview and adjust your content at a variety of screen sizes, you may also find additional tooling offered by any plugins you’re using. Tools like Kadence and Elementor also allow for you to adjust settings on individual pages and blocks per screen type. For example, when using Kadence blocks, I can adjust elements like the width, number of columns, or even the visibility of various parts of my page depending on the page width.
Performance tests
While it’s important to consider the overall design and layout to ensure your site is mobile-friendly, it’s equally important to test for load times and performance on mobile sites. Evaluating your site’s design ensures that your mobile viewers aren’t overloaded by too much information or columns that are so small, your content is difficult to read – considerations that can also improve your desktop experience, as well.
Mobile devices, especially when using a data plan rather than WiFi, may experience longer load times, making it crucial that your site loads quickly and efficiently. Fast load times also help with visitor engagement and search engine optimization by making sure your content is delivered in a timely manner. You can test and find areas of improvement by using tools like Lighthouse, a tool from Google that will test your site’s performance on both mobile and desktop and provides a report of key items to consider.
Through testing, you may find that you want to leverage plugins and other tools that help with image load times (e.g. caching tools, lazy loading, or CDNs) or reconsider any plugins or tools that you’re not using, but may still be adding scripts to your site that can slow down load times.
Mobile-first and responsive design considerations touch on many different aspects of your site and provide ample opportunity develop deep expertise on these topics. If you’re just getting started, learning how to test your site on mobile and what to look out for can be a handy stepping stone for ensuring a positive experience for all of your site visitors, regardless of the tools they use to visit your site.
Do you have any favorite tools or plugins that you use for mobile and responsive design or testing?
Leave a Reply