“Design is the exploration of the conceivable future” to paraphrase Will Evans at Semantic Foundry.
It seems that 2009 has been the year of the wireframe, searches reveal a sea of websites now devoted to the practice, SXSW panels were held on it, web based tools are being debated. In the end the how and materials used are meaningless and this cuts right to the chase, the ‘why’ of the wireframe.
For me, wireframes act as a form of ‘thinking device’ for the setting and exploration of a given problem space – in this example, a home page for a cruise line operator. To understand the utility of wireframes it is important to understand the nature of designing. I think of “D”esign as an exploration of the conceivable futures. I use my sketches and wireframes as means to make explorative moves and assess the consequences of those moves. As I explore the problem space, I could relatively easily keep the design models in my head, but I would fail in my primary objective to create a framework for a conversation among the stakeholders, the intended audience, and me.
(emphasis mine)
After reading many articles this is the best I’ve read so far about the process and why you should be wireframing. The process of solving the ‘problem space’ of the web page begins with
The continuing debate however is what should be done with wireframes, how often should you include the client and how do you present them to the client should you choose to do so.
My design process could best be described as going from a phase of divergence, through a phase of transformation, to a phase of convergence. Throughout every phase, wire-frames are presented to stakeholders for critique and conversation.
I think this comes down to the stakeholder. My experience as a freelance web designer or as a member of an agency my interaction is with clients who have hired us to solve a problem and i tend to use wireframes as a method for showing our thought process in the problem space solution. Rather than leaping in with a finished mock-up of a webpage we lead the client down a path to our proposed solutions. A client can be overwhelmed when confronted with a finished design with no reasoning for the choices that have been presented.
The discussion that wireframing affords allows the designer to understand the needs of the stakeholder in the competition for space on the page. It allows for the hierarchy of information to be distilled and provides the basic framework around which agreement can be built and the refinement of that information through graphical treatment and style.
