Wireframing Tools

Wireframing is an essential part of successful interface design processes. A great interface design does not just appear in one fell swoop. It comes about iteratively through constant refinement. It is about evolution and not revolution! This is where wireframing comes in handy through the traditional Graphical User Interface Design separation of “church and state”. This separation is the differentiation between an interface design’s content and its features, commands and other factors. With the latter, we are talking about layout, navigation, and other processes such as login and checkout. The idea behind wireframing is to test wireframes to ensure usability first, and only then worry about fleshing out the final aesthetics and content. Available to this end are various wireframing tools and the rest of this blog shall be dedicated to comparing a few of them.

The most rudimentary (and cheapest) way of creating wireframes is through the use of pen and paper. Some interface designers are also creating “paper wireframes” through PowerPoint, Fireworks, or Illustrator. Paper prototypes are cheap to create, and software allows you to easily add text, symbols, stencils, and the like as well as employing templates for even more rapid iteration. However, interactive wireframing tools possess the added advantage of interactivity, which opens doors for collaboration between team members and even clients. Furthermore, they engender feedback from all stakeholders and can even go as far as mimicking website functionality (such as clickable links etc.). Interactive wireframing tools usually allow for simple interface design by employing drag-and-drop of pre-fabricated UI components. This means that interface design can be done by virtually anyone without having to know coding. Wireframing tools can be web-based Software-as-a-Software or a native client that you install.
Examples of interactive wireframing tools include Axure, pidoco, Balsamiq and iRise. The wireframes can then be used in usability testing in order to be improved. Usability testing can be done with paper prototypes or digital prototypes.  Digital prototypes often require expensive specialized usability testing software such, but in rare cases (such as pidoco) does a wireframing tool also have the capability to conduct usability testing without the need for additional software.