I’ve been reading about this idea of mobile first design. It’s the idea that you start with the mobile device and work your way to larger screensizes. At first it seemed really backward because we generally work and create from a desktop context when we design something. But the more I use it the more it seems like the only real way to work.

It’s the only way to account for anomalies in your breakpoints and create a wholistic experience for your users versus one where everything less than ideal is an after thought.

Losing 80% of your screen space forces you to focus. You need to make sure that what stays on the screen is the most important set of features for your customers and your business. There simply isn’t room for any interface debris or content of questionable value. You need to know what matters most. — Luke Wroblewski

Thinking though this rhetoric, I started asking more questions about the projects I’m working on; more or less a way vetting the design decisions being made.

• Do you really need that carousel?
• How are you helping the user get to your content?
• How are you distracting them?
• Are we creating a natural flow to our call to action?
• Do we even have a call to action?
• Is our navigation accessible?
• How accessible is it?
• Do we really need all the images on this page or are we just trying to fill space?
• Are we being redundant?
• Is our content geared to a mobile audience?
• Are we distributing the same content to all devices?

I ask these questions to focus everything and bring in back to center, towards the work that needs done.