Overcoming resistance to mobile-first
A mobile-first approach to designing responsive media has been the internet industry standard for well over a decade — I'd say since around 2012 — but I still encounter a lot of resistance to this idea in the world of healthcare advertising, aka pharma. I mostly think about designers when I think about resistance to mobile-first, but that's largely because they're the ones who are actually producing the designs. But the challenge doesn't lie with designers alone; it's also account managers and other team members who either don't understand why mobile-first is important or they aren't willing to have the conversation with their clients about why we should all be prioritizing mobile in order to enhance their success. (As always: let me talk to them!)
I spend a lot of time trying to educate my colleagues about this point. In having these conversations, I've gotten some designers to open up to me about why they choose to design desktop first, even when they know mobile first is the standard; the rule. Here are the reasons I've heard:
"Designing for mobile is harder." — Yes, it can be! Which is why we need to focus on the mobile layout first and really put in the effort to make that experience perfect. That's our job. Let's not be afraid of this challenge. Desktop will be easy afterward — and we will end up with a better piece that performs better for our clients.
"Designing for mobile is less fun." — O...kay? This is just not a good reason. :) I'm surprised at how often I hear it. Our clients don't care if we're having fun. And I really think that once we embrace the challenge of mobile-first design, you'll find that it can be a really fun thing to figure out.
"I want to explore the design using a bigger canvas, bigger campaign art, etc." — I get it. But this goes back to the first point: designing for mobile is harder. It's worth doing right, even if it's hard. Again, desktop will be fun and easy afterward. And this point about exploring larger art brings us to the next one:
"Clients have a stronger reaction to seeing big desktop art." — Ah, this is an easy one! And I agree with it! So here's the solution: We can design mobile-first and then present to clients (mostly) desktop-first. On the first screen of the client presentation, we put mobile on the left, smaller (obviously), and desktop on the right. We mention to the client right off the bat that we designed the website mobile-first because that's the industry standard and we're digital experts — and then after that we can focus on the big, beautiful desktop art for the rest of the presentation. Just put all the mobile layouts at the end; some clients will want us to go through those with them as well, and some won't be very interested. It doesn't matter. We've done our job the right way and we know we're giving our clients our best work because we've prioritized mobile.
"The client wants to see desktop first, and we don't have time to do both mobile and desktop before the review." — In this case, we're simply not working the right way; we've agreed to a timeline that we should not have. To put it another way, we're taking our client's money and we're producing work that's not done according to best practice, which means we're knowingly producing work that will likely not be as successful as it could be. Should a good digital agency agree to work this way? Do we not care that we're giving our clients something that isn't our best work? Is this an ethical way of working? What if we had done mobile first and this made the piece 1% more successful? Does the client want that 1%? You bet they do.
This is one of the reasons why we, as the digital experts, need to educate our clients and guide them toward making good decisions about digital. When they understand the importance of mobile first — when we can make them understand why we treat it with such importance — in many cases they'll happily come along with us. They just need to hear that it's in their best interest, and that we do it because it leads to enhanced success for them. That's their real goal. We have the key to this, but they won't know if we don't tell them.
As for the designers who are resistant to working mobile-first, we simply need to make it clear that this is the requirement; no exceptions. I spend a lot of time talking to higher-up creative directors about this, and urging them to instruct their teams this way. It's one of those things that's a hard battle until it isn't. Once our colleagues understand how important this is, they tend to get on board. And once our colleagues and clients see the benefits of a mobile-first approach, they'll truly embrace it.
– Manning
Questions/comments? Feel free to contact me at manning@manningkrull.com. I update these articles pretty frequently — best practices evolve over time as the world of digital quickly changes, and I always welcome insights from others.