What is wireframe? Why wireframes are essential in web development? How to use them to speed up web development? Those are questions we will talk about in this post. There are also basic tips on how to make a wireframe and which tool can be used to create wireframes. Using wireframes you can get people thinking and generate requirements. Getting sign off on a set of detailed wireframes can save a lot of time and money. Forcing clients to think about the site’s functionality at a page level will avoid endless changes and tweaks.

What is wireframe?

A website wireframe is a basic design draft done before any artwork and used in web design to show the structure of a website, custom user paths, most important user interface elements, their position and relationships between website pages. Wireframes lay out in black and white schematically most important elements in the interface such as header, footer, contact form, navigation. Wireframes also helps to maintain design consistency throughout the site. Wireframes are essential starting point in the website development stage. Wireframes help to reduce scope creep, gain client feedback, and implement design changes prior to the website programming stage when changes are typically more complicated and costly.

How wireframes can help you?

Wireframing is a process that can significantly decrease the amount of time required in design and development by removing potential visual distractions and focusing the attention of project stakeholders on vital functionality and strategic marketing factors. Creating wireframes is the best way of reducing discussions about look and feel, and focusing on how the site will meet its business goals and user requirements, which functionality needs to be added and what is odd.

Therefore you will avoid unnecessary rounds of revisions since wireframes create user expectations and familiarity with the site. Set of wireframes for any project also acts as a way to communicate with clients and stakeholders such as content creators, engineers, and developers. Once wireframes have been completed and sign off of all stakeholders, the transition into visual design will be much easier and efficient. Using detailed wireframes will frequently flush out new requirements and questions that nobody has thought about yet. They also help to keep a paper trail of functional and design decisions that are made.

How to make wireframe?

You need to start with a big picture such as site map and most important navigation then going into smaller details. Concentrate on position of elements and the percentage of space that each element takes up. Instead of actual graphics use simple boxes and shapes with labels. Essential wireframes elements are: navigation, header or logo, footer, content areas, search box, user login area.

The simplest tool to create wireframe is pen and paper. It lets you to make a number of wireframes very quickly. Most graphics software such as Illustrator or Photoshop includes all tools needed to make wireframes such as shapes, lines and text for labels. There is also number of online and desktop application which only purpose is to create wireframes. These wireframes tools can include collaboration feature and option to create basic prototypes.

Pen and Paper wireframe

Detailed wireframe made in Adobe Illustrator

Check out website build up according to these wireframes.