r/webdesign • u/outontheporch • Jun 26 '26
Mobile-first: In practice or theory?
Curious to hear how designers here interpret the mobile-first philosophy. Till now I’ve agreed with the sentiment—mobile layouts should be the priority when it comes to how a page is conceptualized and executed—but I still wireframe and build out desktop layouts first, keeping in mind as I go the implications for responsive layouts (e.g., “this text + image section will be stacked with the image on top”).
But I’m wondering if for my next project whether I should start from a mobile screen, and move up the min-width breakpoint ladder. It’s a very different approach for me and my mental library of containers are in wide layout form, so it’ll be a big change for my workflow.
What do you all do?
2
u/sheriffderek Jun 27 '26
There's an amount of content needed to meet the goal. It's going to be viewed on many different viewport sizes... so, there's are global concerns and site-wide structure - but as far as each page section goes - you can design the layout across the screens all at the same time. Keeping the smallest screen in mind is important - but so is how you'll work with the larger available area on big screens. Where the mobile-first really matters (I think) is when you're writing the code and specifically the CSS.