Your Visual Website Blueprint

Wireframing is an essential component of any large web project. It enables all the stakeholders to share a common vision of the flow and functionality of a website or web application before any programming is done.

Building a website is a lot like writing a book by committee. There’s a story that must be presented in logical order, and everyone enters the process with a different idea of what is being made. Without a wireframe, it is difficult for everyone involved to understand the organization of the site.

Wireframing is the point in any production project where the team achieves alignment. All stakeholders have an opportunity to review the site in its entirety and challenge process and flow. This greatly reduces scope creep, and if anything has been overlooked it raises questions. Wireframing allows the team to solve problems long before they occur, such as costs skyrocketing because of code changes.


Moveable Online Provides Wireframing Services

Not many projects can maintain an unbroken flow from start to finish. Often the team must create a complete picture of a proposed site or business system prior to making the financial leap. We’re often brought into the planning process of a site in order to help establish the scope of work and the budget, or to identify potential phases and milestones.

When we’re brought in, usually through a consultant or design studio, we begin by sketching the site as we understand it through a discovery process. Once we feel we have a clear picture of what we are making, we create visual diagrams of every user interface within the system (typically starting with the front end, then the back end to ensure it supports all of the front end concepts). These diagrams have placeholders for all the key elements of each interface. They may include graphs, images, text, links and many other elements of a web page.

The purpose and functionality of each element is explained. This helps stakeholders to identify the components and workflow they expect to see within the system. The first few rounds of presentations typically open everyone’s eyes to the possibilities and capabilities of the system and create a dialogue that helps enhance it.

We use this feedback to alter the existing wireframes or create new ones representing each new area. Once we’ve gone through this process several times, we have a comprehensive model of the system. Then we are able to identify all the data components, complex modules and processes, and can estimate with reasonable accuracy the time and costs involved in producing the system.


Go in with Your Eyes Wide Open

A good wireframe allows you to truly understand your system and understand precisely what you will be able to do with your software. The design team will have a checklist of each page to be created and all the elements needed on each page. You’ll be able to begin writing copy and filling in content, further reducing the amount of time it will take to develop your system.

In general, wireframing is a smart way to approach building any type of system or website. At Moveable Online, we’re very experienced with wireframes and can add substantial value to the process. We are intimately familiar with what can be achieved using the internet, including advanced DHTML techniques, dynamic Flash, grids, charts, dynamic PDF creation and more.

If you are looking for a partner to help guide you through this, one who understands how to be a productive team player, give us a call.