When a sculptor starts working on a new masterpiece, one of the first things that gets taken care of is carving off the excessive parts of the stone to give the future work of art an initial figure. Similarly, designers approach the designs for software products with wireframes, which are schematic blueprints of the to-be product screens and pages.
What Are Wireframes Used For? 📐
The main aim of wireframes is to drop the fluff and visualize what the product should be like. This implies the future functionality, navigation, user flow, and so on. No fancy fonts, animations, or colorful images are present at this point, as UI and usability are in focus.
In most cases, these are very simplistic, schematic, grayscale outlines drawn either by hand or using digital tools. Designers use placeholders, boxes, and filler texts to make a rough draft that’ll show where page elements should be placed on screens and what the user’s path is like when moving from one page to another.
These page skeletons usually get amended multiple times since wireframes are handy not only for designers. They get discussed by the whole team involved in the project in the course of gathering the requirements and ensuring that each element has a meaning and takes the user where intended.
What Else Should You Know About Wireframes? 📏
This step is unfairly considered a waste of time by many developing a product. Mostly because wireframes are far from the final design that mimics the actual product. However, that’s not what they are created for.
Most importantly, wireframing allows for clarifying lots of things regarding the future design and functionality of the product, as lots of inconsistencies get spotted and chopped off early on. Without a doubt, fixing such flaws is much easier on a wireframe and a lot less effort-intensive than if you’d be amending a mockup or a released live design.
Keep reading to learn about the types of wireframes available and examples of them, and find step-by-step instructions and tips on how to create wireframes (with a list of tools that can ease the process) ⤵
