Sarah’s Weblog

I have a mishmash of ideas in my head and I don’t know where to start. I know am I going to get bogged down in making my page “look good” and forget about functionality. I’m going to experiment with every colour and every font and font size combination.  I just learned about the <div> tag from Week 3 – more ideas!! And that’s barely scratching the surface. I have to nip this in the bud before I get out of control.  Enter wireframes. I first learned about wireframes last semester in another MIM subject.

What are they?

“They are working documents that are not finished designs but are likely to change as the design process progresses and functional requirements are clarified”. [1]

What are they good for?

“They allow us to focus on the functionality of a site. They are a fast and cheap way to produce an idea of how a page on a site may work”. [1]

Why will it work for me?

I think wireframes will serve me well for a few good reasons:

• It will help me conceptualise and organise my thoughts
• I can quickly discard those ideas that just won’t work, and shortlists those that may
• I can identify functionalities that I want and don’t want to include
• I can better track my progress, and have a specific plan and schedule on areas I want to work on next, as well as identify areas I am struggling with

There are a number of types of wireframes ranging from low fidelity hand sketches, to high fidelity flash prototypes. I will probably stick to lo-fi hand sketches, and as I progress and my ideas become more concrete, move my hand-sketches to photoshop where I can experiment on colours and fonts.

Reference:

[1]. http://userpathways.com/2008/06/26/the-what-when-and-why-of-wireframes/, ( viewed 14/08/2008 )