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Ultimate Guide to Website Wireframing

| Sunday, February 6, 2011
Most designers wireframe their designs in one way or another, even if it just involves them making quick sketches on the back of some scratch paper. Wireframing is an important part of the design process, especially for more complex projects.

Wireframes can come in handy when you’re communicating with clients, as it allows them to visualize your ideas more easily than when you just describe them verbally.

This guide covers what you need to know about website wireframes to get started.


Why You Should Wireframe Your Web Designs
Wireframing is really the first step in the design process. Unless the site you’re designing is incredibly minimal and simple, wireframing helps clarify exactly what needs to be on the different page types of your website.

y taking the time to create at least a simple wireframe, you can make sure that your designs will take into account all the different page elements that need to go into the design, and that they’re positioned in the best possible way.

Wireframes are also cost-effective by saving you potential time lost due to revising a high-fidelity comp. Wireframes can easily be revised or discarded.

Wireframes give your page layouts a great starting point and a solid foundation.

Wireframe vs. Mockup vs. Prototype
Wireframes, mockups, and prototypes are sometimes used interchangeably, but they are three different things (though there is sometimes some overlap between them). Each one has a slightly different purpose that it gives to the design process.

Wireframes are basic illustrations of the structure and components of a web page. This is generally the first step in the design process.

Mockups generally focus on the visual design elements of the site. These are often very close or identical to the actual final site design and include all the graphics, typography, and other page elements. Mockups are generally just image files.

Prototypes are semi-functional webpage layouts of a mockup/comp that serves to give a higher-fidelity preview of the actual site being built. Prototypes will have the user interface and is usually constructed using HTML/CSS (and even JavaScript for showcasing how the front-end interface works). This stage precedes programming the business logic of the site. While they might not have full functionality, they generally give clients the ability to click around and simulate the way the site will eventually work. Prototypes may or may not also include finalized design elements.

Read more: Six Revisions

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