Without planning your website while designing it may lead you to several problem. So wireframe is a simple visual guide to show you what a Web page would look like. It suggests the structure of a page, without using any graphics or text. A website wireframe is used to show the entire site structure, including what pages link to where. Web wireframes are a great way to start your design work. The key to making good wireframes is to leave out all visual elements. Use boxes and lines to represent pictures and text.
Before we even begin to work with our wire frame model, it’s a good idea to sketch out a quick signal flow diagram of the pages contained in the site. Draw simple boxes that represent each page and write the page’s title inside. Use lines to indicate how the sections of the site will link together. But for most of the web professionals out there, this might be a basic step, which you’re likely already doing as you plan a site. Your site map can be hand-drawn, or you could use a program such as Microsoft Visio, Adobe Illustrator, or Macromedia FreeHand. But the aim of this wireframe is to provide a single-page overview of the site that will act as a guide to constructing the wire frame.
Steps involved in creating a wire frame model:
Create the Wire Frame:
In this step you are going to use up the HTML editor and begin piecing together your wire frame model. Try to eliminate any layout ideas that you have and instead of that concentrate instead on the skeleton of the site. Begin by creating a simple HTML page for each of the blocks that you sketched out in your site map diagram. Once you have website completed, you can upload it to a secured area of your server and have your client sign off, or send amendments to, your wire frame. This will help to eliminate the misunderstandings about the way in which the pages and the site will function. It also gives you something tangible to show the client, that is relatively quick and easy to create.
Add the content:
Once you have all set up pages and your client has approved the page titles, purposes and link titles, you can begin to fill in the content for each page. Keeping track of each page’s purpose is also handy in helping to guide the client as they make decisions about what types of content should appear. Often, a client will want to add something that he or she may have seen on another site, but you feel that this content doesn’t fit with the purpose of the page. The problem is easily solved remind the client of the page’s purpose and ask them how they’d like to proceed. When faced with the bigger picture, most clients will realize that the content doesn’t fit in and will at least be willing to compromise on the suggested inclusion.
Make use of Image Place holders:
In this stage, we need to create a rough layout of the site using placeholder images, or by creating separate layers. Layers work best because they are easier to move around as you discuss the layout with the client. Even though the site is not overly complex, a simple table-based layout should do the job.
Wire frames are definitely important part of designing a Website. However, if it’s carried out with importance in designing process, they can prove to be very valuable. It will help you, the designer, focus on the marketing message that you are trying to communicate through the site, produce a more effective site and open up channels of communication with your client. It could also save you a truckload of time.