The 5 Step Wireframe Process | Create Wireframe Visuals & Designs

Wireframes are a skeleton structure, or a blueprint, that guide and streamline the design and functional elements of a new website. Wireframes ensure our agency and clients can collaborate and work together with the same clear vision and goal in mind. Wireframes are an essential part of Hiilite’s website design process. We have carefully implemented this practice consistently in order to produce high-quality and professional work.

Creating Wireframe Visuals & Designs

Wireframes may be completed via whiteboard sketch, pencil sketch, quick Adobe Illustrator mockups, programs made specifically for creating wireframes, or anything else that the designer is most comfortable with. Each designer will create wireframes differently, so it’s important to work with the most comfortable tool as it’s more about the process and planning itself than the tools.

It’s important that the wireframes are large enough to add additional notes to or from other team members if required. This helps streamline the process and keep things clear and concise.

At a minimum, wireframes are completed for 1) Homepage and 2) at least 1 Subpage. Depending on the project, you may require more wireframe pages. The number of pages will be discussed with the project managers and decided before starting.

The purposes of this wireframe phase are to collaborate with the project manager and content writer to plan out what content goes where before you start the PSD design.

The Wireframe Process

Our current process is broken down into the following steps:

1. Gain a good understanding of what elements will need to be included in the design (content, plugins, etc.)
2. Identify any new areas of content the content writer may need.
3. Run the wireframe past the content writer to make sure you’re both in sync with what content is required for the design as well as any additional content.
4. Run the wireframe past the dev to identify any dev related plugins, custom developed features or issues that might come up during the planning process.
5. Run the design past the project manager to make sure the website design is still within the original estimate scope or if additional budget is needed.

Once you have sign off on the wireframes from the Project Manager and the client’s goals are clearly identified, then you can begin the actual website design PSDs. Our number one goal is to understand our client’s vision and expectations. It’s important to proactively communicate with them clearly, early, and often so to ensure the process runs smoothly.

At Hiilite, our passionate, creative and innovative team is committed to providing superb quality customer service. We deliver results-focused marketing services while building thriving relationships that fuel growth and catapult our people and our clients to success.