What is a wireframe?
Wireframes are used to create (and define) the form and function of an application, which can be a web app or a smartphone app. It’s a valuable tool in an Agile development environment since it allows excellent communication between project team members and stimulates iteration.
Wireframes also save time on project execution by reducing the number of written requirements needed and improving the overall clarity and functionality of an application for both the customer and the development team. Additionally, it fosters iteration by facilitating robust communication between the project team.
The Process of Wireframing
Wireframing provides significant benefits for online applications. Wireframing in its early stages necessitates close engagement with stakeholders and utilizing low-cost agile modeling tools such as whiteboard sessions to engage the team in a debate and focus on the application’s requirements (concentrating on the function, not the form).
Teams can refine a few key wireframes (at a sufficient level of detail), which serve as the foundation for additional discussion and collaboration to refine the function (what it does) and begin moving into the form (how it looks).
Because low-cost approaches are utilized, emotional attachment to designs decreases, and there is less resistance to scrapping a design and starting over if it doesn’t work. Teams should ensure that standard design components and templates are accepted so that you may build future wireframes on top of them. Doing so allows the production of wireframes as needed throughout the software development process rather than generating them simultaneously. Again, this is consistent with agile delivery, in which the development team and other stakeholders collaborate on detailed design throughout the project.
Wireframes Advantages
Makes The User Interface More Clear
Clients may not be familiar with technical screen design terms such as slider, flip box, bootstrap, etc. Wireframes are simple graphic elements that everyone can comprehend. They aid stakeholders in understanding how features will work and how they may interact with the system to achieve their goals.
Simplifies Usability
In today’s software, user experience (UX) is a critical factor to consider. The use of wireframes in requirement elicitation brings user experience to the forefront of the project. Users can still get a feel for how the system will work without having to build any prototypes or sketch any actual screen designs.
Cost-efficient
Creating full-fledged, high-fidelity screen designs takes time and expertise, costing money. Wireframing is a low-cost and straightforward method of creating basic screen sketches. It also makes fine-tuning or even completely reworking sketches brief and affordable.
Easy to Improve
Changes in design are unavoidable. The difficulty with confirming design concepts with a complete system mockup or prototype is that a lot of work has already been done, and there will be a lot of redos, which means more time, effort, and money. Customers and the development team are less likely to express problems or request modifications in this situation. On the other hand, wireframes take substantially less time to create and edit. Everyone will be more inclined to make adjustments.
Multiple Stakeholders Can Be Actively Involved
Wireframes allow stakeholders to brainstorm because they are raw and loose. Because wireframes are rough and sloppy, they enable different stakeholders, from clients to executives to brainstorm and express their ideas. Also, since the time it takes to refine a wireframe is so short, stakeholders are more likely to participate in providing comments and sign off on the final design.
