How Much Design Should Your Wireframes Have

by Ronnie Garcia

Wireframing is an essential step in the process of building out a website. It allows your team to evaluate the visual and navigational flow of the website to weed out any usability issues before it becomes too difficult to do so later on.

Working in a team at my day job, I usually don’t touch the site until it’s ready to take shape in PhotoShop. While I have some liberties when it comes to altering the wireframes, I don’t like the stray too much from the approved layout. I get wireframes from various team members on different projects and from project-to-project they each tend to have their own style. Some wireframes are pure boxes and text while others incorporate some small design details.

So the question I would like to pose is “how much design should your wireframe have?”

As a designer, I like to have all the creative freedom I can get. It’s my job to add the flair that makes the site aesthetically pleasing. So if it were up to me, I would prefer my wireframes to be as plain and simple as possible. This also eliminates any confusion for those clients that have a difficult time differentiating layout and design—wireframe and style.

On the other hand, certain wireframe artists have ideas of their own that need to be communicated visually. Does this inhibit any of the designer’s creative expression?

When it comes down to it, we have to look at the purpose of the wireframe. As I stated earlier, it’s a blueprint that allows your team to filter out any usability issues on the site. So when building out a wireframe, it that little detail your adding doesn’t affect the usability of the site, leave it out. That’s for the designer to decide. Keep focused on your goals.

Takeways

• Keep your wireframes as simple as possible, leaving out any details that do not affect the usability of your site.