How to Create a Wireframe — The Guide to Wireframing

In our practice, there were many situations when our customers asked us to skip the wireframe phase and immediately begin to develop a new site. 

This is because they did not fully understand the importance of this stage. Today we will try to explain the importance of the wireframes step so that you do not repeat the mistakes of our previous clients.

If you need help, the Drupal development firm is always here. In addition, we want to inform you that now we are working differently. WishDesk has switched to a highly effective model of cooperation in order to make tasks even faster and more profitable for you.

Wireframe — what is it, and why do you need it?

Here’s a real life analogy to help explain wireframes. Imagine that you have decided to build your dream home. Of course, you have already imagined it. In order for all your ideas to be clear to the team of builders, you must draw up an architecture house plan – that is, its structure. You can’t start choosing the color of the walls or furniture without knowing where to build those walls.

In short, a wireframe is the skeleton of your future web page. These are layouts that help to design the structure of your site at the initial stages of site development.

A wireframe helps to show how:

• all page elements will interact
• the content will look
• the functionality of the future site will work

These wireframes are black and white layouts without any design elements.

What DON’T wireframes include?

Don’t use the following elements when creating wireframes of web pages (in order not to distract the client's attention):

• colors (use shades of black instead)
• pictures (just mark the place of the picture with an "x")
• typography (if necessary, use italics and bold)

What does every wireframe include?

It makes sense that there cannot be identical wireframes, however, the following elements are usually included in most examples:

• header
• footer
• body content
• contact information
• site logo
• breadcrumb
• share buttons
• navigation

Advantages of using Wireframes

1. Clearly visualize the site architecture

Wireframes are the first opportunity to schematically see all the ideas in the tangible variant. If before that you had only an idea of how it should look, now you can see and edit it, and discuss it with your colleagues.

2. Coordinate the details of the website interface

Wireframes enable customers to understand  Google map integration, breadcrumb, and other industry-specific terms. They improve understanding of all these functions and provide the ability to understand what they will do and where exactly they will be located on the web page.

3. Rate the usability of the site

The main purpose of wireframes is to create a convenient site that you can easily use on an intuitive level, and that will satisfy your customers. That is why you should get rid of all the colors and pictures that can distract attention from the usability.

4. Improve site navigation

Website wireframes put everything in its place and determine whether the features that are on the site are needed, and how they can be corrected if something interferes. For example, can users find the information page they need?

5. Reduces the costs of making changes

The stage of creating wireframes is wonderful because it allows you to make corrections without significant costs. Making changes to the wireframes are much faster and cheaper than doing it already in the finished responsive design project.

6. Gives the same understanding of the future project

Creating web pages wireframes allows you to create a clear action plan for the web development team. This ensures that all parties will have the same understanding of the future project and adhere to it clearly. This reduces the possibility of misunderstanding.

7. Structures your content

The wireframe provides the correct structuring and accessible content. That is, it will make your content more attractive, structured, and enjoyable to read. As has been mentioned more than once, both SEO and users love beautifully designed text, which is divided into paragraphs, has a convenient font size, etc.

Wireframe gives you the opportunity to think through things like font size, head position, the volume of content, and bullets.

3 main types of Wireframes

As you can already understand, wireframes are a great opportunity to see how your future site looks like. Today we want to consider 3 basic types of wireframes: low-fidelity, mid-fidelity, high-fidelity. These three types of wireframes are distinguished by having different amounts of detail.

1. Low-fidelity wireframes

Low-fidelity wireframes are the first, basic type of wireframe. They are very generalized sketches of the future site.

As a rule, they are used at the very beginning of cooperation, and are often made manually on paper. The main advantage is that they can be quickly redone if ideas and concepts have changed.

Main features of low-fidelity wireframes:

• the scale is not always taken into account
• low pixel-accuracy
• simplified image
• simple layout
• include the main content

2. Mid-fidelity wireframes

Mid-fidelity wireframes are considered classic and are the most common wireframes. They already describe the layout in more detail.

Often they are used when teams have already agreed on the purpose of a screen and want to focus more on layout and content.

Main features of mid-fidelity wireframes:

• don't contain images and typography
• components are more detailed
• differentiation of functions
• using of gray shades

3. High-fidelity wireframes

The third possible wireframes option is high-fidelity wireframes. This type of frame already contains small parts and boasts pixel-specific layouts.

High-fidelity wireframes are being developed at the last stage of the design cycle. Their main advantage is that it is almost a perfect reflection of the site design.

Main features of high-fidelity wireframes:

• may contain featured images and content
• used for complex concepts
• include typography and color

Final thoughts

Wireframe is the best way to understand what your future site looks like on the way to a great user experience. If you want to create a convenient and user friendly site, then contact web designers at Drudesk agency.

We have professionals who can do your job quickly and efficiently, since we switched to a new model of highly effective cooperation with you. To learn more details — contact our Drupal developers.