Wireframes are unpolished designs that illustrate the elements of a web site. They are a fast and easy way to produce an idea of how a page on a website will work. By spending a little time creating wireframes make it possible to do usability testing early in the development process, thus saving a whole lot of time, effort and money. Consider putting up a house without any blueprints and you’ll get the idea!

It’s easy to start creating wireframes if you have an idea of how the website is going to be structured. And, as with most other things there are quite a few ways of generating wireframes.

Generally speaking, wireframes usually have different levels of detail and may be split into three categories to show how closely they resemble the end product.

HTML Wireframes

HTML wireframes are created in HTML using software such as Dreamweaver or Microsoft Expression Web. The best advantage to using HTML wireframe is that it generates testable prototypes, but the drawback is that you can easily get stuck into actually designing and coding the site, rather than just creating a quick wireframe.

Low-fidelity

Ideally low-fidelity wireframes (more like a quick mock-up) possess less detail and consume less time to produce. Additionally, these wireframes assist a project team to share effectively since they are usually abstract, with the use of rectangles and labeling to provide content. These wireframes are easy to identify with dummy content or symbolic content utilized to represent data when there is a lack of real content being available. There are various low-fidelity wireframes.

1) Hand drawn wireframe sketches

Quick and fast way to communicate a layout to others that can be changed rapidly. For simple or low-fidelity drawings, paper prototyping is a common technique. They are the best pioneers before we were introduced to the various drawing tools.

2) Collaborative wireframes

The team produces the wireframes collaboratively. It helps the team members to rationalize and iterate over wireframe solutions to reduce project turnaround times. Several solutions helps the team explore different approaches and it provides a framework for participants to integrate their ideas.

This is where today’s wireframing tools come in. Built to help in easy online collaboration, these tools let you construct interactive wireframes in order to receive feedback before a single line of code is written. Thus, wireframes not only function as a discussion medium between the members of the design team, but also between the designers and the clients. Wireframes help facilitate work across disciplinary borders bringing together a diverse team.

3) Annotated wireframes

Wireframes are built to explain the functional elements to development teams. Since these diagrams are just representations, annotations—adjacent notes to explain behavior–are useful. Elements are annotated in small paragraphs along the right side of the diagram and this enables the wireframe to be understood without any oral explanation.

High-fidelity

Then there are also high-fidelity wireframes. These are mainly produced to opinions from users in group discussions and meetings about a layout or concept. They require a usability expert to explain the purpose of the design. These are used for documenting, since they incorporate a level of detail that is very close to the design of the actual webpage, thus taking longer to create.

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