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A website wireframe is a visual guide that represents the skeletal framework of a website, indicating where visual and UI components are located. Wireframes are used for a quick mockup of the arrangement of website elements for accomplishing a specific purpose, be it aesthetic or usability. This allows stakeholders to quickly have a visual reference to the location of website elements without requiring the designer to create an actual site, which makes the design decision process quicker.
A website wireframe is also known as a page schematic or a screen blueprint.
Techopedia Explains Website Wireframe
Website wireframes are commonly used to convey to stakeholders and clients how the actual website will be arranged. Wireframes lack topographic style, color and graphics, and are composed mostly of lines and shapes that stand for the actual items that will replace them such as images and navigation elements. This is because the main purpose of a website wireframe is to visualize the functionality, behavior and content of the website.
Wireframes can be created in different ways, from manual pencil drawings or board sketches to specialized software of various kinds with proprietary and open-source selections. The advantage of a website wireframe is that it can be made by anyone, including non-designers, since ideas are easy to convey using it, so even a manager can convey his or her ideas to the team, allowing the latter to build on those ideas or use them for directions.
The following are the areas of focus of a website wireframe:
- Design
- Functionality
- Prioritization of information and functions
- Easy customization; changing the design as you go
