Wireframing | Why Wireframes Are Important In Web Design?

Website design is the most important part of the business to give it a kick start. Sometimes what happens is, that we usually skip the wireframing stage and roll right into what the site is going to look like, the design. Even if clients do not need to see a wireframe, I think it’s still important to create one internally so that designers and developers are all on the same page.

This kind of thinking stemmed from the notion that the client would not understand what wireframes are and that jumping into the design would get us one step closer to launch. This suggestion is a bad one.

Good Design is Good Business.

By this notion, one could say that wireframing is a crucial part of the business. For those looking to build a website of any size or shape, wireframes are the foundation on which to begin building. So, the question is what is a wireframe? Why wireframes are important in business design?

What is a Wireframe?

If we say in short words then a wireframe is like a skeleton of the page. Basically, it is like a pen-and-paper design that shows the whole interface with the spacing of elements on the page, how content is prioritized, what functionalities are available, and how users will interact with the site. Wireframing usually comes after the site architecture has been determined by a site map or flow chart of the web-site’s pages and before the creative design phase

Why this is important? Because no matter how rough it can go, but it plays a vital role in connecting information architecture to the visual aspects of the design by showing pathways between the various pages.

Here is an example of what a wireframe looks like:

Why Wireframes Are Needed in Web Design Businesses?

1. Display Site Architecture

Wireframes turn the abstract nature of a flow chart into something real and tangible without distractions. Earlier sitemap was used which can be a bit abstract when the information and design are too large. Wireframing ensures that all parties are on the same page. Wireframes allow web design teams – from UX to copywriting – to start considering visitor purposes. The architecture of the site is brought to the forefront in a wireframe.

2. Prioritize Content

Wireframes are a great way to prioritize content by helping reveal space constraints and designing the hierarchy of elements on the page. Having the opportunity early on to visualize the hierarchy of your pages and begin visually displaying the space constraints will save you a lot of time later when you begin stylizing the pages and filling them with content.

Great Design elimintaes all other unnecessary details.

3. Get To Know Your Client Better

Wireframing is a great way to get your clients to focus on it. You will start seeing patterns in behaviors and motivations the more time you spend with your client. Over time, what you gain from their feedback will impact how best to work with them in the future and how to make your time with the most productive. The possibility for clients to get distracted from thinking about the functionality and structure of the design will be something you will find greatly rewarding.

4. Scalability And Flexibility of Wireframes

Now for someone, who purchases a content managed website, this is a kind of important one. A wireframe will immediately identify how well your site will handle content growth. Scalability and flexibility matter. Wireframes will identify these important areas of content growth. Websites need to remain effective through multiple business changes over the course of at least two years, which is the average lifespan of a website. The site needs to be scalable, flexible, and easy to update – without impacting the overall design.

5. Time-Saver

It’s just what opposite of what one might think, wireframing saves time in a multitude of ways:

• Your designs are more calculated.
• Your development team understands what they are building.
• Content creation becomes much clearer.
• You avoid hacks later on in the process.

Everyone from the web team, the agency and client team are all on the same page about what the website is supposed to do and how it is supposed to function.

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Basic Wireframing Tools

• Balsamiq Mockups
• Omnigraffle
• Axure
• Proto.io
• Adobe Illustrator
• Sketch

At the end of the day, pen, paper, or even markers can make excellent wireframing tools. Sketching and drawing out wireframes on paper is a great way to keep the ideas flowing, to quickly illustrate those ideas to colleagues, and to get things straight in your own head.

What To Avoid While Making A Wireframe?

• Keep Your colors to grey, white or black.
• Use a generic font.
• Avoid High stylized graphics and images
• Avoid too much detail.
• Wireframing every single page should be avoided.

After all this, it might surprise you to discover that we usually don’t produce wireframes at Orbit. We actually create what we call layouts – a more robust version of a wireframe. Layouts go beyond the traditional wireframe to include draft copy and a semblance of container structure.

Wireframing is a quick and effective way to identify usability issues early on in your design process. If you are a web designer, then for sure you are familiar with wireframing and if you are a user experience (UX) designer you probably spend a large percentage of your time creating wireframes either by hand with paper and pencil or using a digital tool.