What Is A Wireframe?
Wireframes are essentially a 2D sketch that illustrates what your app will look like, and how it will be used. It doesn’t need to be the finished product, but should highlight any key functionalities or essential areas that will impact the end-user or be beneficial for your developers to know about.
Wireframes are continually designed as part of an ongoing process, and come in three primary forms:
- Lo-Fi
‘Lo-Fi,’ or Low Fidelity wireframes are the most basic guides for your app. They will be less detailed than they become later, and exist simply to display the base level appearance and functionality. They’ll usually include placeholder text and imagery as a prop, and can be the starting point for user flow identification.
Just think of them as a simple sketch to communicate your vision to team members.
- Mid-Fi
Mid-Fidelity, or ‘Mid-Fi’ wireframes are the next step up, and should be a natural progression from your earlier lo-fi sketches. They’ll still lack some of the more intricate elements, but will give a solid overview of each app page and function, with designers adding some shading to the sketch to give it weight and depth.
- Hi-Fi
Hi-fi wireframes are high-fidelity versions of your final diagrams. No expense should be spared when creating hi-fi frames, as they should represent every element that will make up the end product. During the design and development process, wireframes will naturally change, but your hi-fi versions should give the best overview of what the end user will experience, including imagery, video and hover states.
Why Are Wireframes Important?
Wireframes are a vital tool for several reasons, but the primary one is that they give everyone involved in the app creation process clarity and direction. Different individuals will have varying opinions or ideas about the end result, so having a coherent diagram will keep everyone on the same page. Then, it’ll be easier to discuss your vision with stakeholders and external investors, allowing them to visualize how your app will be used in practice.
From a more practical standpoint, wireframes also allow any roadblocks to be identified and removed, before the initial rollout to users. This is the best time to do this, as first impressions count – you want your user to have a seamless experience from day one.
How To Create An App Wireframe – A 5-Step Guide
Creating wireframes can sound like a complicated process, but it’s actually not as overwhelming as it might seem. To get started, all you need to do is focus on delivering the best quality wireframes possible for your own circumstances. Follow the five steps below, and you’ll create the best wireframes effortlessly.
Step 1: Determine Your App User Flow
First things first, before you start sketching your wireframes, you should determine your app user flow. Simply put, this is how users will navigate your app while on their typical journey. Before you start sketching out how this will look in practice, you must be aware of what the user should expect.
Step 2: Decide On Hand-Drawn Or Digital Wireframes
If you’re not a designer, then you can hand draw some rough lo-fi sketches that you can deliver to a qualified professional who can turn them into mid or hi-fi diagrams.
Alternatively, you can use a specialized software capable of creating clear and compelling wireframes for you. There’s a huge range of options available for online wireframing tools, so spend some time deciding which one is right for your business needs.
Step 3: Start With Lo-Fi Wireframes
During the initial stages, your wireframes don’t need to be perfect. A simple sketch will do, so don’t spend too much time or money trying to craft the perfect frames at the beginning of your journey.
Step 4: Get Testing
Testing is a vital part of wireframe creation, as it allows you to address any unexpected issues that arise as part of the user flow. It also gives your development team a chance to address any potential problems that may arise in the future programming of the app.
When testing, prioritize the overall journey that the app allows, and then consider the screens and other visuals. It doesn’t need to be you alone who tests the frames, either – team members and other colleagues can do their own testing.
Step 5: Gather Feedback
Once you’ve established a testing method and had people spend as much time as possible using the wireframes, it’s important that you gather as much feedback as you can. Discovering what works and what doesn’t, as well as the areas that might not be well-received by the end user, is a great way to understand more about your app’s potential.
If you roll out wireframe testing to customers, perhaps through an alpha or beta testing model, remember to make the feedback process as straightforward as possible. Sending an email feedback form or QR code with a link to a review section is an excellent way to do this. It makes it easy by encouraging more users to leave reviews.
After you’ve received as much feedback as you can, you can then start to implement changes, or work on the next stage of your wireframe creation.
