DESIGN FOR YOUR CUSTOMERS
How to review a business website layout on mobile
A desktop preview can hide a poor mobile journey. Review a real task on a phone before you approve the design: read a service, check the details and find the enquiry route.
Begin with the narrow layout
Open the preview in portrait orientation. Read the first screen without zooming. Check whether the offer is understandable and whether headings wrap into sensible phrases. A large hero image should not push every useful detail below several screens of decoration.
Follow the page in order
Look at the order of stacked sections. A two-column desktop layout may place an important price or instruction too far down on mobile. Ask the developer to place sections in the order a customer needs them, rather than simply shrinking the desktop page.
Try the controls
Tap the menu, open each important link and complete the enquiry route. Check that nearby controls are easy to distinguish and that a sticky header does not cover the destination heading. Open the phone keyboard on form fields and see whether it obscures the submit button or instructions.
Use a repeatable review sheet
Record the device, browser, page and problem. Include portrait and landscape checks where useful. Example: “Contact, phone portrait: email address extends beyond the page; make it wrap without reducing the font.” This gives the developer a correction and a way to verify it.
Check more than one width
A phone emulator is useful for finding layout problems, but it does not reproduce every real device interaction. Try at least one actual phone and a narrow desktop browser window. Responsive design adapts layouts to the available viewport; MDN explains that flexible layouts and media queries are common building blocks.
Approve when the content is readable, the intended task works and there is no unexpected sideways scrolling. Some wide data tables may need their own labelled scrolling region; that is different from the entire page drifting sideways. Save the agreed test list so future content changes can be checked in the same way.
Sources and further detail
Technical references checked on 8 October 2026. Provider features can change.
Practical guidance with illustrative examples. Read our editorial standards or send a correction.