Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a website killer. He exists in the form of mobile devices. I touched on this subject with ‘The Death of Web Design’ where I briefly mentioned that mobile devices are becoming the go-to device of choice. Today we are expanding on the fact that more and more people are simply using their phones more than their computers.

The Myth About Mobile

I was a victim as well. People are not starting on mobile devices and then moving to their desktop/laptop for further investigation. You see, I did a brief stint at a local marketing firm known as Netsertive. While there I was spouting this exact thing and continued to preach it to our clients until yesterday.

Yesterday changed my mind.

Yesterday I watched a BigThink video from Mollie Spilman on the subject of “The PC Is Dead — Smartphones Are the New Consumer Economy”. When it was over, I began researching the subject in more depth. Mollie says…

We are in the age of mobile now and it’s only going to continue. I think this is the single biggest change to marketing that we’ve seen in a very long time and it all comes back to consumer behavior.

Curly was a victim. Don’t be like Curly.

… over 40 percent of all transactions digitally are on a smartphone. And that, like that statistic is really high because I think even now people have this myth that consumers are shopping and browsing on their phones and browsing on their tablets, but still buying on a tablet or a PC. That’s not what’s happening. It’s actually the reverse.

Does This Mean Mobile First While Designing a Website

The way people shop and our obsession with our mobile leashes has changed the face of marketing. We are already purchasing more and more from our phones than from our computers as the data shows.

Does this mean mobile first? I don’t think so.

The pattern that has been set and consumers are doing the ‘device shuffle’. You know, driving to work listening to Rush in the wee morning hours. He mentions a wall and you decide to Google “how many Mexicans would it take to build a wall across the border”. Bam, off to the first search result. You look up just in time to swerve around the 9 year olds exiting the school bus. Looking back at your screen, you notice an ad from Ace Hardware telling you they’ve got 15% off some Quikrete Portland Cement! You think to yourself… “how annoying that they give me ads based on what I’m reading, who would click those?!”…

… So you’re on AceHardware.com now trying determine why this cement mix is named “Portland” in the first place. You’ve arrived at work and continue this fascinating research on your PC. The boss walks in and it’s the browser tab shuffle; better continue this research from home on the iPad.

That my friends was the ‘device shuffle’.
(Note: not to offend any Trump fans, but it seemed like a relevant topic 😉 )

Responsive Design Must Go

Shoot me for saying it, but bear with me here; the solution is simple:

• Design for both.

Give desktops and mobile devices the same amount of UI finesse. Touch it up with some design pizzazz. Code it FOR the phone, don’t just make your desktop design reformat to fit a mobile device.

Per Google’s official blog:

More searches take place on mobile devices than on computers in 10 countries including the US and Japan.

• This does account for both tablets and phones as part of the stats.

Based off this info, why are we still designing for computers and then just making it look OK on a phone?!? Not too mention the fact that doing it this way has killed the creativity of designing intriguing interfaces. Everything now is designed to stack nice on the small screens.

I say screw that! Take back our design reigns and let’s go forth and produce kick ass designs for all user experiences, not just those on a bigger screen.

Stepping off the soap box and peace out.