A website wireframe, also known as a page schematic or screen blueprint, is a visual guide that represents the skeletal framework of a website.[1]: 166 The term wireframe is taken from other fields that use a skeletal framework to represent 3-dimensional shape and volume.[2] Wireframes are created for the purpose of arranging elements to best accomplish a particular purpose. The purpose is usually driven by a business objective and a creative idea. The wireframe depicts the page layout or arrangement of the website's content, including interface elements and navigational systems, and how they work together.[3]: 131 The wireframe usually lacks typographic style, color, or graphics, since the main focus lies in functionality, behavior, and priority of content.[1]: 167 In other words, it focuses on what a screen does, not what it looks like.[1]: 168 Wireframes can be pencil drawings or sketches on a whiteboard, or they can be produced by means of a broad array of free or commercial software applications. Wireframes are generally created by business analysts, user experience designers, developers, visual designers, and by those with expertise in interaction design, information architecture and user research.
Wireframes focus on:
- The range of functions available
- The relative priorities of the information and functions
- The rules for displaying certain kinds of information
- The effect of different scenarios on the display[1]: 169
The website wireframe connects the underlying conceptual structure, or information architecture, to the surface, or visual design of the website.[3]: 131 Wireframes help establish functionality and the relationships between different screen templates of a website. An iterative process, creating wireframes is an effective way to make rapid prototypes of pages, while measuring the practicality of a design concept. Wireframing typically begins between "high-level structural work—like flowcharts or site maps—and screen designs."[1]: 167 Within the process of building a website, wireframing is where thinking becomes tangible.[4]: 186
Wireframes are also utilized for the prototyping of mobile sites, computer applications, or other screen-based products that involve human-computer interaction.[2]
- ^ a b c d e Brown, Dan M. (2011). Communicating Design: Developing Web Site Documentation for Design and Planning (2nd ed.). New Riders Press. ISBN 978-0321712462.
- ^ a b Angeles, Michael (September 25, 2014). ""Wireframes"". Konigi Wiki. Archived from the original on 2018-05-05. Retrieved 2011-03-25.
- ^ a b Garrett, Jesse James (2010). The Elements of User Experience: User-Centered Design for the Web and Beyond. New Riders Press. ISBN 978-0321683687.
- ^ Wodtke, Christina; Govella, Austin (2009). Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web (2nd ed.). New Riders Press. ISBN 978-0321600806.