Everything You Need to Know About Wireframe Design For Your Business Website

If you’re trying to get a website designed for your business, one of the most important things to know about is wireframe design. It is a crucial part of the website development process, and gaining proper knowledge of it will result in a stronger website that drives more sales.

Introduction: What is a Wireframe?

A wireframe is a basic portrayal of the initial product concept, drawn by hand or created digitally. It includes all the essential elements that will appear in your website, app or portal. This is where you will find a clear outline of:

• Layout

• Functionality

• Information architecture

• Intended behaviors

• User flow

• Page structure

There are many types of wireframes, including but not limited to CRM wireframes, intranet wireframes, eCommerce website wireframes, and landing page wireframes.

Traditionally, a wireframe design uses only white, black and gray. It is somewhat like an architectural drawing, in that it also provides a 2D outline of a product. Because the wireframe typically represents an early concept, the graphics, colors, and styling are minimal.

Wireframing is commonly put to use by User Experience (UX) designers, but is also used by graphic designers, engineers and developers, product managers, and SEO teams. It empowers stakeholders and teammates to decide where information or major elements will be placed. This is done before the developers actually build the interface with coding.

Difference Between Wireframe, Prototype and Mockup

If you think the concept of a wireframe sounds familiar to you, that’s because it is closely related to two others. However, it is important to be able to distinguish between all three of them.

Wireframe: A representation of the initial product concept, and most relevant during the first stages of product design. It comes right after the project definition and project scope stages. There is not much focus on look and feel. Instead, the primary purpose is problem solving. User testing helps to establish a proper product concept.

Prototype: The next step in product design. A prototype is a working model of your product and allows designers to identify issues with interaction flow, test the user journey, and estimate how a user would move between various tasks or actions to achieve certain goals. Like wireframes, they can be paper sketches or interactive digital drawings.

Mockup: This is a static simulation of the product and gives an idea of the look of the design, including iconography, colors, typography, and general style. It allows stakeholders to explore visual identity before the design is made permanent. During this stage, the UI designers will create stylistic continuity between mobile and desktop interfaces.

What is the Purpose of Wireframing?

Product design projects, especially large ones, can involve many parts and stakeholders. Miscommunication or lack of communication can result in unmet goals or a derailed project. Wireframe design helps to avoid this.

Wireframing can act as a record, so stakeholders and the rest of the team can refer to the changes made as the project moves along. Projects often go through multiple wireframe designs. Wireframe development software usually permits collaboration across teams, which allows everyone to remain on the same page.

Top Wireframing Tools

A good wireframe tool will include scalable mockup fidelity, an uploadable or inbuilt UI component library, and export options. Some of the more well-known tools are:

• Sketch

• Figma

• Mockplus

• Justinmind

• Balsamiq

When selecting a wireframe tool, you should bear in mind the size of your team, the product cost, whether you’re using wireframe progams for the cloud or on-premise, integration with other software tools, and the UI kits available.

Types of Wireframe Design

1. Low Fidelity Wireframe

This is a basic visual representation of the product and typically serves as the starting point of the design. It helps to map user flow and decide the navigation layout.

• They tend to be created without a sense of scale, pixel accuracy or grid, and are quite rough.

• Details are omitted if they could be a distraction. Instead, there are block shapes, simplistic images and mock content.

2. Mid Fidelity Wireframe

The mid fidelity wireframe is the most commonly used wireframe. It includes more detail than a low fidelity wireframe, but still avoids “distractions” such as typography and imagery.

• Specific components and features are given more detail and distinction.

• Different text weights might be used for body content and headings.

• It still includes black and white, but designers can also use shades of gray to indicate visual prominence of certain elements.

• Typically developed with a digital wireframing tool.

3. High Fidelity Wireframe

This wireframe is usually saved for the latter stages of the product design. It is meant for documenting and exploring more complex concepts such as interactive maps and navigation systems.

It includes:

• Pixel-specific layouts

• Relevant written content

• Featured images

Conclusion

Now that you have an idea of what wireframe design entails, it will be easier for you to get the product you want. Wireframing is a crucial element of the product design process. However, it is only one stage in what tends to be a long, collaborative project.

Whether you want intranet portal development, website development, or custom mobile app development, BluEnt will take care of the process for you, from wireframe development to final delivery. We serve Fortune companies, energy companies, funded startups, consulting companies, homebuilders, and SMEs.

Ready to get the product you want with BluEnt’s website and app development services? Contact us now!

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