Mobile-first layouts
The phone layout is designed and approved first; desktop expands from it.
Responsive does not mean the desktop layout survives being narrowed. It means the phone gets a layout designed for a thumb, a slow connection and a small viewport: bigger tap targets, shorter forms, content ordered by what a mobile visitor needs first, and images sized so the page is usable before everything has finished loading.
We design mobile-first and test on real hardware rather than a browser resize. Every template gets checked at small phone, large phone, tablet and desktop widths, and the interactions that only exist on touch (sticky calls to action, drawer navigation, swipe galleries) are built deliberately.
Responsive is not the desktop layout, narrowed
A layout that technically reflows is not the same as one designed for a thumb on a small screen with an unreliable connection. Tap targets, form length, content order, image weight and navigation pattern all need to be decided for mobile specifically, not inherited.
The order of work matters. Designing desktop first and adapting downwards produces compromises everywhere; designing mobile first and expanding upwards produces a phone experience that works and a desktop one with room to breathe.
Content order changes on a phone
On desktop a visitor scans a whole screen at once. On mobile they receive one thing at a time, in order. The three-column feature row that reads beautifully wide becomes nine screens of scrolling on a phone unless somebody decides what comes first.
We make that decision explicitly per template: what a mobile visitor needs in the first screen, what can wait, and what should be collapsed behind a control rather than shown in full.
Test on hardware, not in a resized window
A browser resized to 390 pixels is not a phone. It has a mouse, no touch behaviour, a fast connection, a different rendering engine and no on-screen keyboard pushing your layout around.
We test on real devices across small phone, large phone and tablet, including the interaction details that only exist on touch: sticky calls to action, drawer navigation, swipe galleries, and what happens to a fixed header when the keyboard opens.
Overflow, the bug that ships most often
Horizontal scroll on a phone is the most common responsive defect in production, usually caused by one wide table, an oversized image or a fixed-width embed. It makes an otherwise good site feel broken.
Every template is verified at every breakpoint before sign-off, and we hand over the QA sheet so you can see what was checked rather than taking our word for it.