To start off, a wireframe is a layout of a webpage that helps to demonstrate what interface elements are going to exist on the key pages of a website. Wireframing is a way to design a website service at the structural level and commonly used to lay out both the content on the site and the functionality on the page itself. Doing so takes into account the user needs and the user journey. They are typically used in the early development process to establish the basic structure of a page before the entire visual design process and the adding of content. Due to this, wireframing is an essential part of the interactive design process.
The overall aim of a wireframe and wireframing is to provide a visual understanding of a page early into the project to get approval of by stakeholders and project teams before the actual creative design process comes into play. They can also be used to create a global and secondary navigation around the site to ensure the terminology and structure used for the site meets the expectations of the users.
Wireframes are usually completed and takes place early on in a project, mostly at the beginning of the design phase. For the most part, a prototype usability test is often used as a test of the wireframe pages to provide the designers with user feedback prior to the whole creative design process. They can be put together using various different software or can be hand drawn. It is all depending on if it is going to be used for a prototype usability test or not.
Some of the advantages of wireframing is that it can provide an early visual usable for review with clients, it can give designers early feedback from users, and they are easy to amend. Wireframing helps to ensure the page content and functionality is positioned in a nicely ordered and correctly based on the user and business needs. It can also be used as good dialogue for members to discuss on the project team an agree on the project vision as well as scope, Some of the disadvantages is that they don’t include designs, it doesn’t account for technical implications, and sometimes it is hard for the client to understand. The designer also has to try and translate the wireframe into a design so a lot of communication is needed to make them work.
Emily Ramirez 