Thou shall not be afraid

The dirty secret of wireframing is that many people avoid it because they “can’t draw” or are “afraid of looking stupid” when put on the spot in a group. Instead they want to hide away and craft carefully considered wireframes. My message to these people is simple – get over it.(Boag 2012)

You do not need to be able to draw to wireframe

This fear undermines the power of wireframes. Wireframing should be about thinking out loud. It should involve throwing ideas out there and discussing different approaches. You should come away with a final set of wireframes borne out of many iterations and approaches.(Boag 2012)

Thou shall start with pen and paper

To keep a light weight, spontaneous approach, wireframes should be initially produced with pen and paper. This also aids group working. It is easy for everybody to participate, to scribble on other people’s work and put together their own ideas. It takes the power away from the person sitting behind the laptop that is plugged into the projector. I am not saying that wireframes cannot become more sophisticated as they are finalised. You can use whatever tool you want from Balsamiq to FlairBuilder or even Powerpoint. However, they should start with paper.(Boag 2012)

Thou shall test thy wireframes

Finally, I believe wireframes should always be tested. However, that does not have to be a major undertaking. It is enough to show them to three or four people and simply ask if they get it. It doesn’t need to be documented or formalised in anyway. It just acts as a sanity check with somebody from outside of the project.(Boag 2012)

Boag, P. (2012). My five commandments for wireframing. Available: http://boagworld.com/design/wireframing-rules/. Last accessed 1st oct 2012.
http://boagworld.com/design/wireframing-rules/