Importance of Wireframing and Prototyping
What is Wireframe?
Wireframe is a basic idea of how your website content looks like. It will explain the content and concept of how your content and images and your product will display in your website. It will help a lot to the designer as well as the client to discuss the overall website. Wireframe is included with low fidelity design like boxes, image place holder, and with gray-scale color. Mainly it is in black and white color so it’s easy to understand the structure and layout of the website.
See the image right side.
Benefit of Wireframing
It is important because it will describe your whole project and understanding to the client as well as the designer. It contains small details of your website/ product functionality with CTA Buttons.
It will help to document the project as well. It will also be used in an internal team to understand the whole project and its requirements.
How to make Wireframe?
- You can a draw basic structure with pen or pencil on paper.
- You can use tools also like, Mockflow, Mockplus, etc.
What is Prototype?
A prototype is more visual product/website layout. It is different from wireframe because it has high fidelity and interactive prototype and looks like the final product. It is not only high-quality design but it has complete user experience with functionality as well. It means you can click and navigate page by page like End to End Navigation.
Benefits of Prototype
A prototype is very useful for project demonstration. Because it is interactive and a user can test before the product development.
Prototype can save a huge amount of time and development cost. It will be easier to communicate between designer and developer. It is also easy for developer because they can push forward the development based on final prototype.
How to make Prototype?
It is high fidelity design and its little higher that making wireframe. So, it is very important to choose the right tools for creating a prototype. According to different standards, there are many tools available for prototyping.
In terms of effectiveness and efficiency, Mockplus or Mockflow is more user-friendly with high-fidelity prototyping tools. It has very simple user interface. If you need to make your prototype interactive you need to have drag and drop functionality. In all with both tools you can make simple interaction settings by dragging and dropping. The useful team collaboration and online reviews help save a lot of time and development costs for designers and developers.