In week four of our podcast series, From Discovery to Design, you heard all about wireframing and site architecture. This is building up to next week, when we will begin to discuss the visual design of your site. The wireframing stage is crucial for organization. You are taking the content, conversion goals, acquisition funnels that you’ve been creating over the past four weeks and placing them in organizational structures to inform the design.
When you sit down to begin your wireframe, you are generally going to create one wireframe for each separate layout or template. This is where you can begin to visualize your main content area, features, sidebar, and maybe a call to action form. You will set up your pages from an organizational standpoint, putting the pieces of content together like a blueprint. This process will help you to visualize the hierarchy of information to ensure that your layout if effective before you begin adding design elements. Remember, form should always follow function.
Wireframing is an important stage in the design process–Especially if you are dealing with a larger site. As with the other steps in the web design process, the planning that occurs during this phase informs the next phase to keep your project on track. Your initial planning is likely not going to be the final, but it’s a really good starting point!
Make sure to check back in next Monday for our final week in From Discovery to Design: 5 crucial steps for planning your website!