Luke Wroblewski is a data guy, so let’s check the stats. He has personally written 1,372 articles, given 190 presentations, and authored three books on mobile and web usability, interaction, and design, his latest and (I think) most important being the one you now hold in your hands. If that kind of output leaves you unimpressed, consider that Luke did all this writing in his free time, while employed as digital product design lead for some of the biggest companies on the internet—and occasionally at his own startups.
This highly accomplished, green-shirted, plain-spoken designer has spent the past several years focusing intensely on the mobile experience. That is lucky for him, as mobile is where the whole web and world are going in a headlong rush. It’s even luckier for you and me, because Luke not only knows mobile inside-out and backwards, he’s also a brilliant designer who puts the user first. Plus he’s a heck of a great communicator. Luke writes from a foundation of 16 years of thought leadership and digital product design execution—not to mention the absorption of thousands of white papers, internal reports, articles, books, and lectures. And he has poured what he knows into every page of Mobile First.
Reading this book is not only fun, it’s painlessly but profoundly educational. Luke’s call to action is changing the way my company and I approach the design of websites, and it will change the way you do, too. Mobile First is packed with the best kind of persuasion—persuasion from data, letting the facts shriek for themselves. And it offers the best kind of advice: practical, immediate, user-focused, big-picture stuff that sweats every detail and respects your IQ and your experience as a practitioner.
I love this book. I’m thrilled that we were lucky enough to publish it. I hope it ends up on every designer, front-end developer, and UX person’s bookshelf. I want to see our industry embrace the mobile experience in a way that helps our users and us not merely succeed online but thrive. If enough of us follow the precepts of this little book, I am confident about the future of the web.
—Jeffrey Zeldman