Chapter 3. Mobile-first or Desktop-first?

In my years of experience designing and building responsive websites, I've found that in order to have a better view of the content and the messages, it's easier to visualize things with a desktop-first approach during the wireframe and design phases.

As we are able to see more content in a given layout with a desktop-first approach, it allows us to translate the hierarchy of the content that was provided to us into a layout that represents said hierarchy. Doing this in a small canvas of 320 pixel width is more difficult than it needs to be.

When you accomplish that hierarchy, it will remain the same on small-screen devices, and the only thing that changes is the layout.

Best practices recommend building ...

Get Mastering Responsive Web Design now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.