It really is a habit for us "agencies" to use jargon that's incomprehensible to anyone not familiar with agency/client relationships. Without realizing it, we use terms and expressions that exist only in our profession.
Some agencies even use self-deprecating humor about this as a communication message. Personally, it's the degree to which my conversation partner’s eyes or mouth open that brings me back to reality...
The latest example: a wireframe. A what? A wireframe, or schematic mockup, ergonomic mockup, zoning (well, almost, zoning is a bit less precise), etc.
So that's where the urge to explain this essential step in a web project came from... perhaps the discovery of a Drupal module isn’t entirely unrelated either!
So what is a wireframe?
It's a mockup, or rather a set of mockups representing the content of a website’s pages and the interactions between these pages. Creating a wireframe makes it possible to confirm the clients’ wishes and needs are well understood before involving the graphic designer and developers. The wireframe is generally created by the project manager or, better yet, a UX designer.
There are many software tools that help make these mockups. Good wireframe software allows you to:
- Link and create interactions between mockups
- Export in a format that can be shared with the client: .html is good but not required—a good .pdf can also work perfectly well.
At the agency, for example, we use Balsamic Mockup
A few advantages of this software to note
- Easy to pick up and use
- User-friendly and popular for its “hand-drawn” style
- Compatible with any operating system
- Several export formats possible (.png, .pdf)
The value of a wireframe in the website creation process
- Confirms navigation principles and functional choices with the client.
- Simplifies design work: the graphic designer can then focus solely on the visual styling and defining the site's overall styles.
- Helps with deployment: If the client can view their site before development, so can the developer, who thus sees the whole project. Ergonomic mockups, a production document, and voilà—it's done.
- The project can then move forward step by step, in full collaboration with the client.
A Drupal module for wireframes?
A few weeks ago, well before the release of Drupal 7, when the idea for a wireframes article was just starting to cross my mind, I came across this: Drupal wireframe_me module
A hands-on review of this module will be the subject of an upcoming article in the next few weeks. In the meantime, we’ll settle for the promises made on the module's page.
http://drupal.org/project/wireframe_me
And you? Have you had a chance to test this module? What are your conclusions?