Book Review: Mobile First

In June and July, eXtension.org had Luke Wroblewski give two presentations on mobile learning: Mobile First and Organizing Mobile Web Experiences. While I did not have the opportunity to attend the presentations, I did hear good things about his book Mobile First*.

I received Mobile First on Thursday and read it in one sitting. The book is 123 pages of useful material spread out over two parts and seven chapters.

Part one focuses on why you should pursue a mobile initiative, some constraints, and some opportunities. Part two provides several great tips on how to make it happen, from organizing content, controlling actions, input suggestions, and layout options.

Why Mobile Design Matters

Simply put, Wroblewski points out that mobile devices are being purchased at a staggering rate, outpacing computers and laptops, and users are increasingly using mobile devices to access the internet anytime and anywhere. Throughout his book, he ties back to current research outlining the rapid growth and effects mobile devices have had on businesses. His use of links to content throughout the book has made it simple to get to these resources. He used short URLs in a sequential order. Also, throughout Mobile First, Wroblewski uses images to make points clear. While the text is clear, the illustrations drive home the point.

Wroblewski stresses that designers must focus on content because of user time and money constraints. This will result in better web design. He uses countless examples to compare Web pages with pages optimized for mobile devices. He points out that the improvements made when creating the mobile pages have yielded better Web design overall.

Navigation, Touchscreens, and Mobile Forms

When discussing the organization of mobile Web sites, he provides tips and guidance for creating navigation menus, button placement, and native smartphone buttons. He speaks at length about user interfaces as dictated by user operation such as one-handed operation and button placement for right-handed users. Wroblewski discusses the size of buttons as well as how to locate them on the screen for best usage. One topic covered I did not consider was the use of the hover or mouse-over Web feature. On touch screens, you can not use the hover feature. As a result, designers must re-engineer this feature for smartphones. However, users can use the hover or mouse-over feature on non-touchscreen devices.

Wroblewski provided lots of great guidance for developing forms for mobile devices. People have often avoided creating mobile forms, but he points out that the volume of messages sent on mobile devices each year shows a need for well-designed forms.

Flexible Layouts and My Recommendation

Wroblewski concludes section two with a discussion about the layout. He emphasizes the need for a flexible design that adapts to varying screen sizes. He points out that it is virtually impossible to create the optimum experience for all devices, but there are methods for creating the best experience possible.

Mobile First concludes with links to additional resources. Even though it was a quick read, I learned a great deal about a topic with which I was familiar. I will add this to my resource shelf and would gladly recommend it to others interested in this topic.

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Additional Reading

• Book Review: The Mobile Academy: mLearning for Higher Education
• Book Review: Reach Everyone, Teach Everyone: Universal Design for Learning in Higher Education

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