You ever come across a website that you immediately fall in love with?

It’s like you open that page and you’re sold. And as you keep scrolling through, you’re constantly in awe of how the website has all the answers to your questions.

That's the power of a great wireframe in action. A well-designed wireframe sets the foundation for an outstanding user experience and ensures that it delivers on its goals.

So, how do you create such a wireframe? Let’s understand that through this blog.

What is a Wireframe?

A wireframe is a like a flowchart of a website that outlines its structure and layout. It is where you plan exactly what a website will look like - the flow of information, the design layout the website will have, and how it will help users navigate through the website to perform the action we want them to. It's like a simple drawing that shows where everything will go, so they can make sure it looks and works the way they want before they start building it for real.

Consider a wireframe to be like the blueprint for a building. Just as blueprints help the builders plan what a building will look like, what will go first, and how everything will fit together, a wireframe works the same way for a website.

Let’s take an example.

Say you want to create a clothing website. To create the website, you’ll first have to plan and decide upon what the website should have.

The wireframe might include a simple layout with a banner image at the top, and several sections for showcasing the latest collections and featured products. The wireframe would include labels and annotations to explain the purpose of each element, such as "Navigation menu" or "Featured products".

A low-fidelity version of the website will look like this:

And a similar, high-fidelity visual representation of the website will be somewhat like this:

How to Create a Wireframe That Delivers on its Marketing Purpose

Wireframes are particularly important for marketing because they help to align the website's design with the marketing goals. By creating a wireframe, the design team can ensure that the website's layout and content are tailored to the target audience and support the marketing objectives.

So, to create a wireframe that delivers on its purpose:

Step 1:

Identify the marketing goals and target audience for the website. This information will guide the design team in creating a wireframe that effectively supports the marketing objectives.

For example, let's say the marketing team for a clothing retailer wants to create a new website to showcase its latest collections and drive online sales. They identify their target audience as fashion-conscious young adults and their marketing goals as increasing brand awareness and driving online sales.

Step 2:

Plan out the website's content and functionality with the design team, including the navigation structure and the placement of key elements such as calls to action and forms. The wireframe should be simple and easy to understand, with clear labels and annotations to explain the purpose of each element in that wireframe. These could also be parts of the website wireframe (folds).

Step 3:

Once the wireframe is complete, get it reviewed by the marketing team to ensure that it aligns with the marketing goals and meets the needs of the target audience. The marketing team might suggest adding a few more elements, like adding a section on the homepage for featured products and a banner promoting the retailer's social media channels to increase brand awareness.

Step 4:

With these updates, the wireframe is refined and ready to be used as the foundation for the website's design. Now, you connect with the designers and the developers to create an epic webpage.

We followed these steps and created Kraftshala’s homepage: