Wireframing is the most important step to any kind of designing you do. It acts as a guideline for your final designs and helps you save hours of work at the same time. Wireframing has a few tricks to it, that expert designers use in order to get the best framework in a very little amount of time! So, here I am, sharing those trade secrets with you below!
1) Sketch (aka hand drawn) wireframes are faster and quicker than digital wireframes
While it’s so exciting to use these amazing designer tools to create lovely looking wireframes, industry experts prefer pencil and paper. It’s fast, efficient, accurate and erasable within seconds. All those amazing digital wireframes you see online are made for portfolio showcasing and usually aren’t the real way designers go about getting their basic layouts right. I love sketching wireframes and so do many other designers but if you are comfortable working on the computer, all the more power to you!
2) Use stationary or grids, even if its a sketch or a digital wireframe
One common mistake I see young designers make is that they think just because they are hand drawing, perfectly straight lines don’t matter. Wrong! If you are a true professional, you will use rulers and other stationary items to have the perfect squares and alignments to know exactly how much spacing do you need to make your design work on the digital platform. Using rulers can help you scale your designs to a larger artboard or smaller artboard much more accurately.
Similarly, if you are wireframing on the computer, use grids. Bootstrap has a great free collection that is free of cost and very useful for responsive design layouts.
3) Try to make it as accurate as the real thing but don’t end up making it the real thing.
When I say accurate, have a basic understanding of how many lines of content are you going to input in a certain area, how would your squares and boxes look on smaller screens etc. Draw all elements possible so nothing is left to imagination or recall and you will be very happy. DO NOT make the mistake of making it realistic. There is a difference between accuracy and the final design, Keep it colourless and do not bother about UI elements such as curved buttons etc. Just keep it accurate and understandable.
4) Don’t spend hours on them and create various versions
Time yourself and limit yourself to the number of hours you commit to a wireframe, Do not fall in love with your ideas. Break free from your favourite concepts and try a variety of wireframes to discuss with your fellow designer colleagues and you shall be very happy about your final designs after.
5) Keep it clean
One thing I hate is messy wireframes. If you are using a pencil, do not have black spots all over. If you are using a pen do not have cancelled items and then cover up them up with a small note at the side. Keep it clean and clear that so that your colleagues can pretend like your wireframes are an actual digital product and test the usability out! Senior designers have the cleanest of wireframes and you should to!
6) Keep it UX oriented
Do not get carried away. UX is purely done through wireframing. You aren’t even yet allowed to think about the design! Usability comes first. Check all your functionalities at the wireframing stage. Brainstorm at the wireframing stage and try to create the perfect wireframe because designing is going to be a piece of cake after.
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