

Let's start with a few examples of what you might do with wireframes and basic diagrams. If you're already steeped in design principles, it'd be hard to make a wireframe without that knowledge influencing where and how you place elements on the canvas. Just because you're working on wireframes and not visual design, doesn't mean you have to throw your design sensibilities out the window. We'll be working with Balsamiq Wireframes. So get comfortable with this phrase: "Disclaimer: This is a wireframe and is not meant to convey visual design." You may even put that in your wireframes. Overly "designed" wireframes may ultimately lead to having to provide disclaimers as you deliver them. Wireframing is not meant to be doing visual design, and this is why people make their wireframes as devoid of designed elements as possible. It bears repeating because people new to wireframes may not know this.

I know, I may be preaching to the choir, but humor me. That's why we made the clean style, and its minimalist aesthetic is right for these occasions. Sometimes low-fi aesthetics gets in the way, whether it's due to the baggage of hand-drawn fonts or confusion over sketchy lines. There are valid reasons for not using sketchy wireframes. If making clean wireframes does cross your mind, we think you can do so successfully provided that you don't put aesthetics before the goals and purpose of wireframing. It's easy to get seduced by these creatively presented shots of user interface deliverables. Perhaps you think to yourself, "Maybe I should make my UI design look like that?" In some photos you see monitors shot at an angle with screens askew, receding into the distance, and a slight vignette burning away the edges. You land on one of those "12 examples of beautiful interface design" articles and admire the screens of polished wireframes.
#Balsamiq wireframes of paper documents how to#
Here's how to balance aesthetics with the rapid iterative nature of wireframing. Sometimes you want or need to create minimalistic, polished wireframes.
