From Mobile-First To Process-First

By Dan Dillon, Vice President of Marketing, Mobile Reach

For the better part of the last 10 years, mobile-first has been the catchphrase for designers, CX/UX/UI professionals, and front-end developers. The phrase is straightforward. It describes a user interface that accounts for how a person uses an application on a mobile device — how the app looks and is organized, the sequence of screens and possible actions, and how the app captures, uses and conveys information. This was revolutionary in 2010, when most mobile apps were simply scaled down versions of websites or webpages that had been edited to fit a small form factor. Mobile-first thinking changed the way designers and developers worked, shifting their desktop-centric approach to one that centered on a mobile device. It has become the de facto standard.

Now that we’re nearly a decade beyond mobile-first design, things are evolving again. Mobile-first is giving way to process-first. For mobile apps that are used in a business context, business processes have become the primary consideration and organizing principle for design. The confluence of mobile-first thinking and mature business process management has given rise to this new way of approaching mobile apps. Nearly every CRM and ERP can manage cases, incidents, tickets, requests and issues. Call them what you’d like; they are the first step in a business process that typically ends with a happy customer, more revenue, less overhead or better productivity — sometimes many of these at once.