I wear out the saying “measure twice and cut once” in our office.  Good planning is what leads to a great outcome and the web design process is no different.  To ensure we have the proper plan for a project, we use web design wireframes as a starting point.

Wireframes Build A Blueprint

Wireframes are simply an outline or a blueprint of your web design’s layout.   Basic in nature a wireframe utilizes general shapes, navigation, sample content and other major site components to formalize a web design layout.

Starting your process with a wireframe will allow your design team and the client a basic visual to:

• Plan and analyze the general website interface structure
• See how content lays out and content areas flow
• Analyze and refine usability
• Determine home page and other internal page layout types

Wireframes can come together quickly after your initial discovery of the projects goals and then can be edited easily.

Wireframes & Web Design Process Example

Below is one sample of a wireframe we created for a client project and then it’s finished web design.

4 Reasons Wireframing Is A Must In Your Design Process

1.  Wireframes Educate
The wireframe serves as a great visual to explain and teach best practices to your client in layout, structure and usability.  Both the client and web design team can learn from this concept taking shape.

2.  Efficient Changes
The wireframe allows for basic changes to layout areas, navigation needs and other items quickly and efficiently.

3.  Navigation
How a user navigates your website is very important.  Your wireframes allow you to visualize navigation location, options and analyze how intuitive it is.

4.  Better Content
Seeing how headlines, sub-headers, general content, content highlights and other content lays out is very valuable.  While the wireframe content is most often just filler, it gives you an idea of how it’s consumed, the amount needed (or not needed) and how it flows.  Most important is how this effects the user, but SEO value is also a part of this.

The next time your begin a web design or website redesign project, make sure you start with wireframing.  There are many wireframing tools you can easily utilize to help get you started.

Take the right approach and understand it’s value, that it won’t be a polished web design, but a great foundation to measure twice and cut once on a great project.