Why Do We Get Confused About Wireframes

Have you ever tried googling “wireframe”? This is what you’d get:

A result that doesn’t point to a specific thing. This result is saying: “it could be this, that, or something else”.

While a Google search isn’t necesarily the best source of knowledge, it has always been a reflection of trends and changes; a place where you could do quick checks to come up with a general conclusion, like: there are many types of wireframes.

How I read this search result is that: either wireframing is a term often confused or we are dealing with a matter where expression is part of the purpose — much like art:

Well, the truth lies somewhere in between. Wireframes are often confused and expression is part of their purpose. In my opinion, those two facts are highly related. Confusion about wireframes is caused mostly by the things they express or the ways they express.

Think about it — what did your last wireframe express? Information architecture, content, behavior or all those things at once? Then if you think how it might have been read by your teammates, that is where the confusion takes place: between the intent and reception.

It’s like in the 50 Shades of Wireframes

(…) there’s probably only a few kinds of wireframes you’ll ever use. But if you count variations of medium and level of detail, you could probably get close to 50 — and it matters!

There so many styles of wireframes, because they are capable of expressing many things in many ways. Again, like in language — confusion can be caused by what you express and how you express it.

Which leads to a point I’d like to leave you with— wireframes are like language. Think about what to communicate and express it the right way. Talk.

If you need a way to show an outline of your idea really quickly, you can sketch it on paper. But will the same form be adequate for a high-fidelity design that’s already mature in the product development process? Or will sketching be the appropriate thing to use when you test out different theses and need an easy way to generate and organize iterations?

You can even come up with your own wireframing style. Because as long as the wireframe is understood properly, it doesn’t matter if it's sketched on paper, written on a whiteboard or designed in software.

The only part where the way of the making the wireframe matters is in the context of the product development process. But that’s more about what you can achieve with certain types of wireframes, and you can find some good advice on this in the article I quoted before — 50 Shades of Wireframes.