PSA: Stop using 8+ column grids on mobile screens

I keep seeing people design mobile layouts with 6 or 8 column grids and it drives me crazy. Last week I counted 12 Dribbble shots doing this before lunch. The problem is your thumb can't reach that far across a phone screen so you end up with tiny tap targets nobody actually clicks. I tested this with 5 friends on a 375px wide phone and anything past 4 columns made buttons smaller than my fingernail. Why do designers keep copying desktop habits onto mobile? Anyone else notice this trend getting worse lately?

2 comments

2 Comments

robinl9016d ago

Does this mean I should stop using that 12-column layout I just made for my cat's birthday invite?

ben_shah9316d ago

Haha honestly @robinl90 I used to be that person who swore by 12 columns for everything. Even my grocery list was in a grid. But after reading this I went back and looked at some of my old layouts and yeah, a lot of them were just forcing content into columns that didn't need them. I had a recipe page with 12 columns for like three ingredients and a paragraph of instructions. Total overkill. Now I just use a simple 2 or 3 column setup and it actually looks way cleaner. Your cat's invite will probably look fine without all those extra divisions.