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Writer's pictureSaurya Ghosal

4 Major Differences between Mobile-First Design and Responsive Design

Updated: Mar 1, 2022

Web designs and developments are continuously changing and evolving to suit the needs of people and for enhancing the user experience. Mobile-first and responsive web designs are two popular web designs that are gaining a considerable amount of attention right now from top website designers across the world. So, if you are someone who is designing or revamping your website and want to learn what these styles refer to before incorporating them, read this blog and understand which one of these business website design layouts is more suitable for your website.


Mobile-First Design - What is it?


As the name suggests, mobile-first design is a type of website design where the product design is started from the mobile’s end. Subsequently, these features are expanded to create other versions for desktops or tablets. Currently, mobile-first web designs are getting more attention from leading designers simply because the number of mobile users is continuously increasing and more and more internet users are accessing the internet using mobile devices. Thus, making it essential for web designers to custom web design and create websites with a mobile-first approach.


In this type of design, the web designers are required to reduce the information to ensure that the content fits on the small screen of the mobile devices. Also, mobile-friendly features like large buttons and expandable menus are incorporated.



Responsive Website Design - What is it?


In a responsive website design, the website is designed in such a format, that it can be viewed from any device whether it is a mobile phone, a desktop or a tablet. The web design automatically adjusts to the device screen size and can be viewed without any problem. Thus, it does not matter which device is used by the viewer.


A responsive web design uses moveable grids, images and layouts that can be easily used on any device. Thus, with responsive design, you are not required to build multiple versions of websites as only one can do the work.


How are the designs different?


Now let’s know how these designs are different.


a. Design Process


In the case of mobile-first web designs, the website layout is first designed for mobile devices and then the desktop and tablet versions are created. Here, the main aim of the website builder is to offer a better and richer experience to the customers in terms of fast download speed, easy touch screen navigation, rich content and more. Under the mobile-first design approach, the goal is to create a compact design that can be leveraged to build a desktop version.


In responsive web designs, the website is first designed for desktops and then, the designer makes the website responsive for other devices. Here, the website is created keeping in mind the maximum resolution that is required and then narrowed down to fit the small screen size. Also, the content layout fits for screen sizes across several devices.


b. User Experience


With the mobile-first web design, you acknowledge that your customers use mobile devices to access your website and accordingly build a website to give the best user experience.

On the other hand, if you launch a responsive website, you build a website that offers gratifying experience to all the website visitors, irrespective of which devices they are using.

c. Purpose

Responsive website designs are generally more relevant for B2B businesses; this is because their website content is more informative and authoritative. Moreover, the customers of B2B businesses are more likely to access the website using a laptop or a desktop. Thus, for B2B businesses responsive design can be a great choice.


On the other hand, mobile-first designs can be more ideal for B2C businesses. This is because the audiences of the B2C business usually access the internet using smartphones.


d. SEO


When it comes to SEO, a responsive website is more useful as it adapts to every device and is not made for a targeted device. More importantly, Google rewards websites with better SEO score when it is compatible with both mobile and desktop devices. Besides, a single website version is more likely to get a better page ranking.


In this regard, mobile-first design is disadvantageous as it is generally optimised for only one mobile device. Also, in many cases, there are two versions of the websites for mobile and desktops. This implies that there will be two separate URLs and you have to optimise SEO for both devices separately.


Conclusion


Now, that you know what is a mobile-first design approach and what a responsive website design style implies, you can hopefully understand which option is more suitable according to your customer’s requirement. However, it is also important that you choose a proper designer to design your website. If you are looking for reliable and trustworthy professional website design services in India, then get in touch with Logo Design India. They have more than a decade of experience in this field and have a pool of talented in-house website designers who can serve you with all your needs.


To contact, dial + 91 9830721090 /+ 91-33 40200868 or drop a mail at enquiry@logo-design-india.com.

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