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When to use wireframes and when not to

over 5 years ago from Thierry van Trirum, Designer for e-commerce

  • Matt C, over 5 years ago

    I personally think there's a big difference between sketching (even counting Balsamiq) and wireframing.

    Sketching is useful to establish what content exists where in the flow as well as the basic IA.

    Wireframes add space and specific layout to the equation. Roughly how big each thing is and where exactly it's going to go on the page/in the flow.

    I personally thinking sketching still has value and is worth showing to clients. Wireframing, however, is not worth the effort considering how fast and easy it is to do high fidelity design nowadays using Sketch or Figma. Just my $.02 though.

    2 points
    • Timothy Turner, over 5 years ago

      I'm not sure I understand your distinction between wireframing and sketching. Are you suggesting that sketching doesn't roughly add space and layout to what you're showing? I wonder if flowcharts might be more worthwhile if you're looking to avoid layout in order to evaluate simple workflows and basic IA.

      I do agree that there isn't much need for sketching and wireframing because of the ease of creating high fidelity designs.

      0 points
      • Matt C, over 5 years ago

        It's definitely possible I'm just below average when it comes to sketching. But I can iterate through say internal navigation components for example 100x faster in Axure or Figma than I could hand-drawing them. Especially if you're talking "pixel perfect" design.

        But again, totally willing to admit there's folks out there just way better at hand drawing interfaces than I am.

        0 points