Why is low fidelity wireframe important in product design?
I got a wrong understanding of the standard wireframe when I was a junior. In my thought, the wireframe more details and more beautiful would help my visual skills become nicer. Otherwise, I focused only on UI works and believed everything should be more precise details on that time. There was the reason why I took double-time to conduct the wireframe for low-certainly situations.
Consequently, the client and stakeholder provided me a bunch of feedback for unrelated with structures and core flow so far.
I want to the button color more impressive
I want you to increase the spacing between two text lines
I came up with a question after all those things: Why I need to take a lot of time, even though it didn’t bring too many reliable decisions for myself.
What is Low Fidelity Wireframe (LFW)?
For any reason, the standard wireframe is one of the key parts of very UX progresses that cannot be skipped. The low-fidelity wireframe is technically rougher than the standard one. It should be used to convey meaning to clients and stakeholders, by the way, it’s most optimal for designers in order to achieve solutions quickly.
LFW focuses more on the overall picture of the significant flow rather than details. Moreover, we don’t have to take much time and efforts to strive for uncertain things before bringing to design and develop.
Why is Low Fidelity Wireframe (LFW) important?
We’re not always using it for 24 hours in your life, so this is why we have to think about where and when it should be used at our work.
1. Time-Saving
Instead of taking too long for a standard wireframe to be able to wait for feedback. After all, we have just received feedback on colors, fon-size, and UI stuff. LFW will be reducing many efforts and time to diagnose certain decisions.
2. Resources Saving
Besides the time problem, we can spend a considerable amount of money running a project or features. LFW will help us to avoid wasting money on unpredictable ideas and perhaps might not see transparent pathways.
As an investor, I won’t venture my money and time for uncertain initiatives and unconvinced things.
When using Low Fidelity Wireframe?
Daily work
It is used in daily activities such as Google Design Sprint, Brain Storming, Lean Canvas or Product workshops in the company.
That doesn’t mean you should have a team to carry out a product activity. You can draw rough sketches when you get stuck on the decision. To open your mind to receive something new to solve problems or find alternative solutions.
Present an idea
Any conversation with clients about an idea is objective, and everybody can only think about it in mind. Sketching your solutions within just a few minutes and promptly present them to clients will assist the discussing become easier and more transparent. It also very helpful for your professional to bring the truth between clients and yourself.
Come up with an immediate solution for your team
Every day you have work with the engineers and stakeholders, LFW will help you clarify complex logics or find alternative solutions during discussions.
How can we create a Low Fidelity Wireframe (LFW)?
Paper and pencil
The paper and pencil are my favorite items for making LFW that saves a lot of money and can also be easily shared with clients and teammates. I can use everywhere and whenever I need, and also you don’t have to take time thinking about what tools should be used on Product Hunt or other applications.
Drag and Drop design tools
How about if you work remotely or clients who cannot communicate face to face with you almost of working time? Online tools can be rapidly generated basic shapes to build a rough wireframe to present the idea with clients. Nevertheless, you should try with some tools have drag and drop, or already have components such as dialogs, input field, buttons, and something is supported to avoid spending too much time drawing these forms back.
There are my recommendations for drag and drop wireframe like Whimsical, Balsamiq, etc.
Why doesn’t Sketch, Figma or XD be listed? Somehow, these tools focus more on the design side and make us accurate about the handling of parts in our minds.
Whiteboard and marker
If you want to practice on the presentation skills and leadership as well, using whiteboard and marker will help you to enhance the public explanation skills. In addition, it will make you describe your flow and draw up the main movement of other initiatives quickly and smoothly.
Thanks for reading and I hope these things help you as much as I do. Please drop a comment about your feedback or ideas, it will help me a lot to draw experience on next article.
