A practical checklist for wireframing

This is cheap to get right at the start and expensive to retrofit. Run through this the next time wireframing comes up.

Consistency is the quiet half of design work: it rarely gets complimented, and its absence is noticed immediately. Doing this properly once is usually cheaper than doing it approximately three times.

The checklist

• Wireframes settle structure before anyone argues about colour
• Low fidelity keeps feedback focused on flow
• An hour of wireframing saves a week of redesign
• Someone is named as the owner
• There is a date to review it again

What is actually at stake

Wireframes settle structure before anyone argues about colour. The cost of getting this wrong is rarely visible on the day it happens. It is the sort of thing that looks like polish right up until it costs you an enquiry.

The short version

The measurable part of design is whether people can find what they came for and act on it without hesitating. Three things worth confirming about wireframing before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• An hour of wireframing saves a week of redesign — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

If you want a second opinion on how yours is set up, ask.