Benefits of Wireframe - Reasons to Use Wireframe

> Benefits of Wireframe - Reasons to Use Wireframe

Wireframes can bring some great benefits before design process.

Benefits of Wireframe

It is necessary and beneficial to create wireframe for better design. Here are 7 major benefits of wireframing.

1. Visualize the structure clearly. A wireframe is the first real process for a project. It turns the abstract ideas into something tangible without distraction. Wireframes enable one party can send its opinions to another party clearly, ensuring all parties are on the same page.

2. Clarify the features of interface. In many instances, clients may not understand jargons like "dynamic slideshow," "news feeds," "Google map integration," "product filtering," "breadcrunmb" and hundreds of other types of features. A wireframe provides a clear communication to a client how these features will function, where they will appear on the specific page and how useful they might actually be.

3. Push usability to the forefront. This is the one of the most important benefits wireframes. Usability is the basic requirement of design. Creating wireframes pushes usability to the forefront in showcasing page layouts at their core. It takes out the images and color and focus on the bones so that it forces everyone to look objectively at a website's ease of use, conversion paths, naming of links, navigation placement and feature placement. And this is beneficial for all parties.

4. Help to refine navigation. For example, a website wireframes allow people to give the new site a test run: to see how easy or difficult it is to locate the target pages; to determine whether dropdown menus clarify or confuse the user; to find out whether breadcrumbs are helpful or distracting; to understand whether the overall navigational scheme is intuitive, incomprehensible or somewhere in between.

5. Make the design process iterative. Instead of trying to combine the functionality/layout and creative/branding aspects of the website in one step, wireframes ensure that these elements are taken in one at a time. This allows clients (and other team members) to provide feedback earlier in the process. Skipping wireframes delays this feedback and increases the costs of making changes because full design mock-ups must be reworked, not just simplified wireframes.

6. Save time and effort. Wireframing saves time in many ways. Your designs are more calculated. Your development team understands what they are to construct with the blueprint in mind. Content creation becomes much clearer. This can ease communication and avoid misunderstanding. Everyone from the development team, the agency and client are all on the same page about what the interface is supposed to do and how it is supposed to function.

7. Make Content Development More Effective. No matter you aim for SEO purpose or human readers, your content should be readable and attractive. For example, large blocks of undifferentiated text are hard to read. Both search engine and human eyes prefer elegant contents than clunky ones. Wireframe offers an overview of the contents. It helps you arrange fonts, numbered lists, bullets and heads neatly and aesthetically. While wireframing, you can figure out the optimal font size, head position and content quantity by trying different options. Finally, you can seek for the best formatting scheme that will maximize readability and persuasiveness.