Mobile First or User First? What Is the Right Strategy for Making Mobile Applications?

by James Decosta Personal Trainer

Not long ago people thought that being present across more screens was an automatic way of becoming profitable. Applications were being replicated from desktop size experiences to suit small devices, and that was basically all. People did not put too much thought in creating the right strategy and as a result a lot of confusion exists about what should be done. Ask developers at IOS app development companies and you will know that the market simply demanded mobile-first user experiences just because everyone else was asking it. There is a lack of foresight and even more painful lack of understanding of what actually works with users. This plagues a lot of the new age mobile apps that we see today. Sometimes we wonder – is there a strategy at all?

Where things are going wrong?

If you ask an IOS development company to just create an application without having a proper strategy, they will eventually make an application that conforms to the ‘majority’ mindset – which is to simply scale down desktop level applications for mobile screens. That is not the right way to do it, and that is wrong. Back in 2009, when Luke Wroblewski proposed the idea of Mobile first, he obviously did not mean desktop last! What he meant was user first. But everyone took the easy shortcut of downsizing applications without giving a second thought to user intent, user experience or meeting user goals at all. If you’re Mobile first strategy sounds familiar, then you’re walking down the wrong path.

User comes first and foremost, everything else is secondary

We believe that your strategy should always focus on the user rather than on any device. The reason for that is because we have already seen the technology industry experiment with wearable devices which create a completely different experience for users, something that do not exist in large numbers today. Devices will keep changing, and at each stage your applications must deliver sensible content in the right layout and flow. The goal should be to add value to your end-user experience, irrespective of the screen size.

The long and short of it is that your focus should not be on the screen but rather on the user and what they aim to achieve by using your application. How you make your applications useful and easy-to-use depends on a lot of planning and hiring the right IOS app development companies to do the job for you.