Loving the new RSD2, and would love an option to create a website from desktop down instead of mobile up. Creatively I find it far easier to operate in this way. Desktop design is usually more full, and visually complex. Mobile is simplified. I find it easier to start complex and simplify, than the other way around.

Hope this makes sense. Thanks.

Bainn,

Building from mobile up forces you to only put on your site what is really important. You won't have room for all the extra crap people put on their sites to try and get potential customers to at least click on a link. I was given some really good advice in 1997 when I started building websites and that was keep them clean and uncluttered.

The trend over the past few years is cram as much as you can get onto your site and hope somebody clicks on something. If you have a good product and use the 'correct keywords' that will take care of itself.

It was hard for me to go from desktop to mobile at first but if you take the time to build even a test site that way it's actually easier than desktop down. It makes you prioritize your content and only use the really important stuff.

I've seen others say they thought it was easier to go desktop down but after they actually did mobile up they sort of get that it is simpler from mobile.

I'm not saying you can't have a 'detailed' desktop website when I say clean and uncluttered. You can have quite a lot on a website and still have a clean site.

I hope some others in the forum will share their experience with mobile up and how they now feel about that approach.

I subscribe to the idea of uncluttered sites.

My first experience with designing for mobile phones was a separate .mobi site. It must have been some 8 - 10 years ago. There was nothing called 'responsive sites' in those days.
Later, in 2012 I think, I used media queries that I coded myself. It meant desktop down.

When I first heard about Bootstrap, I downloaded it and started on my first mobile up site. In order to take advantage of the BS classes, I had to follow the mobile up approach. Difficult at first, I tended to add in all the elements in desktop view, and then switched to small when starting to style the page. It was hard simply to visualize the end result. With practice I got better at it. I started making a sketch of what it was to be at different screen sizes (phone, tablet, desktop), and then worked to achieve that. When I learnt flexbox, it really opened a door to me. Apart from easy positioning, the reordering of content at different sizes made things just a breeze.

As a long-time coder (since -96) it took me some time before I realized the power and value of the responsive apps by CC. Again the need for a help to visualize, and I keep a sketching block at hand, although I'm not so dependent on it now, I can just move the slider up to see what it can be like.

I don't know if CC will reinstate the coffegrinder system, that will be up to them. But if not, use pen and paper for planning, and practise the mobile up approach. I'm sure you will find it useful once you get the hang of it.

OK, I guess this means build the mobile version first?
I've been working on a site in desktop mode and wondered why everything goes into just text and symbols when I slid down to mobile. Makes sense.

There is a thread for feature requests.
The same principles apply to a desktop and mobile. If your desktop view is complicated in any way, its not a good design. Start at the lowest built in breakpoint for Foundation or Bootstrap. It will be a tablet view, 576 to 768 pixel. It will be easy to create a design that collapse down to 320 px - even if not refined, and using the same principles you already know, have the design flow up. If you know you are going to have 4 cards across on a desktop, and 2 on mobile, then you make the columns, or give them the appropriate classes, sizes or flex basis at the built in breakpoints. If your webpage is so complicated that a desktop can not easily and visually move to a tablet or the other way around, you have gone off on a horrific tangent in usability design and need to rethink it. What happens if someone takes your website, and miracasts it onto a 80" inch television - are you just putting in failsafes in cast that happens (thus designing "desktop-up")?

You need to understand what these Frameworks are. Coffeecup is now making RSD to use the Frameworks Foundation and Bootstrap. The framework they created Coffeegrinder, is not going forward beyond what it already has. I don't know the decision why, but I will guess because companies like Zurb and Twitter give out their frameworks for free use, and makes its hard to compete free.

Foundation and Bootstrap might have been desktop down at one time. They are not any longer, and they never will be unless people get sick and tired of using mobile devices and and designers stop caring much for mobile applications and websites. There are other frameworks, and new one being made, and they also are mobile first.

Designing mobile first, is different, but it is not hard, and it is better for all sites of all sizes in the long run. You need to read these and understand why this is a trend - a trend start a long time ago and actually has pretty much stopped trending, as it is the way frameworks are at now. Even RSD 1.5 had options for mobile first. I believe people get stuck in a desktop down approach because its the first way they learn, and when learning about responsive they are tought how a desktop can be made responsive.

http://zurb.com/word/mobile-first
http://www.webinsation.com/why-should-i-design-for-mobile-first/
http://bradfrost.com/blog/web/mobile-first-responsive-web-design/

Thanks Bill, good tips.

Thank you for the feedback everyone. I appreciate the reasons beyond mobile up design and only request an option to choose within RSD2.

As previously stated in the OP, "I find it easier to start complex and simplify, than the other way around."

Here's an example... I'm big on video backgrounds at the moment for tablet and desktop, but I disable this feature for mobile. From a design prospective it's far easier for me to add the video first (plus columns & other elements) and then finally remove for mobile, than have to do it the other way round. There are many other examples of this.

People Out There
?????????

Who says,

I have done some quite complicated desktop designs,, & they are GREAT on both Large TV,s Desktop & Mobile Devices

Don't fall into the "Another Brick In The Wall" Trap just so it makes it easier at Mobile Device Sizes,, more work more thinking granted,, but the who ever said it would be easy, it's just a little bit more hard. The one thing that CC Apps do is that they make the "Doing" easier because you can see whats happening and design accordingly

Bainn, most sites I encounter these days have gotten rid of so much info in the name of "only adding what is important" that they cause more frustration than help. They have FAR too little information on them. In addition, pay attention to the wording of your navigation. I spend much more time searching for needed information under obscurely-worded links. It is not a user-friendly experience regardless of the device.

As you adapt to creating mobile-first, don't sacrifice good information and make sure your navigation wording is very clear and descriptive to help your users find the right information quickly.

You can disable your breakpoints using the Modes drop-down so that you can focus on getting your content on the page. That way you don't have to worry about things not getting set at lower breakpoints.