Mobile App Wireframing Techniques
Most professional designers start the app design process by creating sketches of their basic design ideas. These sketches can be highly detailed or extremely basic. Either way, they eventually evolve and become comprehensive wireframes that illustrate all the journeys and steps users need to take to reach their goals within the app.
Wireframes are blueprints that illustrate the form and function of every single screen in your app. They start as basic, black-and-white sketches that explain the screen’s layout and where the heading, navigational elements, content, and visuals will be placed.
The level of detail in mobile app wireframes keeps increasing over time as more and more elements are added by designers. The final, high-fidelity collection of the wireframes gives a complete skeletal view of the app. This serves as the app’s final foundational design framework.
App Wireframing Techniques
Just like the sketches, wireframes can be paper-based. Or, designers might scan the paper wireframes and create clickable wireframes with software tools like Photoshop. Now there is also a third option: use wireframe tools. Wireframe tools are similar to modern-day website builders. They have simple interfaces and basic drag-and-drop functionalities.
Some tools even come with libraries of app wireframe templates, UI components for specific app types, and other design elements. Creating wireframes on these tools is very easy. Just drag-and-drop the pre-existing app design layouts, elements and components onto the wireframe tool’s blank canvas and create one high-quality wireframe after another.
Some tools even allow you to create clickable wireframes. This article explains all these wireframing techniques in detail – right from the sketches to the clickable wireframes.
From Ideation to Paper Wireframes
Here’s how app design processes usually kick-off. The client discusses the app’s goal, features, structure, visual design, content, key interactions, and other requirements. The UX researchers then conduct stakeholder interviews and user research to develop ‘user personas’ or groups.
The personas prove to be very useful brainstorming tools for designers during the initial sketching sessions. Usually, they create different sets of sketches for different user groups. Once all the basic design ideas are captured in the sketches, they are sent for review.
Each set of sketches is analyzed to see which one’s the right fit for the client’s brand, user base, and key design requirements. With the final set of sketches, we have a clear product goal, an initial list of features, and realistic design ambitions.
Now, designers will map out how all the screens and all the basic features on them will function together. The first interaction map will only illustrate how the user will access and navigate through the app’s main screens. Here’s what a basic, low-detail interaction map looks like:
The first set of screen sketches will outline the user onboarding process and explain what users will see after downloading the app
- First, users see a splash screen with the app name and details
- Then, they see a page that says ‘create an account’
- Then, they are directed to a tutorial
- Each page in the tutorial has small pieces of content
- Users can click a design element that says ‘Skip’ and directly reach the app’s main page
In the second version of the interaction map, user flows from the main page will be explained. Here’s a visual representation of these maps:
(Source)
With the interaction maps, the designers have a clear idea of the user flows. Now, they can sketch the different pages inside the interaction maps. So, every shape you see in the map above will have its own sketch. These sketches will be our first low-fidelity wireframes.
They’ll only outline each screen’s layout, content placement, navigation elements, and design elements. Here’s what these basic wireframes look like:
(Source)
Paper to Digital Wireframes
These sketches are revised and perfected over time until they represent clean app screen layouts. Designers scan the sketches and then use software to make digital and editable wireframes. Here’s what the neater and digital versions of these wireframes look like:
(Source)
This mobile app wireframing technique is the most prevalent. Some designers may skip the scanning part and create digital versions of their paper sketches on their own. Either way, the technique is pretty straightforward:
- Start by outlining your user journeys and flows in interaction maps
- Create sketch wireframes for each screen inside the map
- Outline the core structure of each screen in each sketch wireframe
- Use basic shapes like squares, rectangles, circles, and lines to represent key elements in each screen
- Use your lo-fi wireframe to test your design ideas with stakeholders
- Refine it until it is perfect
- Create digital versions of all the sketch wireframes and hand them over to the research and testing department for further review
Now, let us discuss the other, newer mobile app wireframing technique – carrying out this entire process on a wireframe tool.
App Wireframing with Wireframe Tools
All the steps we discussed in the previous section are not easy – especially for beginners. Not every UX designer likes sketching. Some are not even comfortable using graphic design software to create detailed digital mobile app wireframes.
Wireframe tools were created to help such designers end their dependence on sketches, PPTs, and non-interactive wireframe graphics. With wireframe tools, you can create both low and high-fidelity wireframes from scratch within minutes.
Nowadays, many clients ask for wireframes before they give their final approval on the project. So, most designers and agencies today use these tools to create high-fidelity wireframes with interactive features and then submit them to clients to bid for projects.
Here’s how these tools streamline the wireframing process:
- You get to work on canvases that are pre-sized for popular phone screen sizes
- You have access to collections of templates, UI component libraries, and pre-designed wireframe kits
- Drag and drop templates, layouts, UI components, and design elements (buttons, forms, etc.) onto the canvas
- Start with simple, low-fidelity wireframes and gradually enhance them to high-fidelity mockups within the same file
- Use visual editing features to adjust object size, content placement (the software will provide placeholder text), and other subtle design details like object opacity
- Share low and high-fidelity wireframes on the tool online in real-time to collect feedback from teammates and stakeholders
- Use the built-in AI assistant’s design suggestions to improve your wireframes
Once your wireframes look good, you can export them to your client via the tool along with individual UI elements and other HTML or CSS files. Sounds easy, right? It is. Some of the best wireframe tools in the market today are meant to be beginner-friendly.
Others require some level of design expertise. But, even then creating wireframes with premade layouts, editable components, and smooth drag-and-drop functionalities is not that hard to learn. Here are some of the best wireframe tools in the market today:
- Moqups: Beginner-friendly web app for creating wireframes, mockups, and prototypes
- Whimsical: User-friendly, drag-and-drop platform for app wireframing and diagramming
- Marvel: Intuitive wireframe tool that offers amazing collaboration features
- Axure RP: Powerful tool used by professional designers to create highly interactive wireframes
- UXPin: Collaborative design platform for wireframing, prototyping, and project management
- Mockflow: Online wireframing tool known for its built-in architecture diagrams and UI flows
- Balsamiq: Highly-rated low-fidelity tool that allows designers to create wireframes quickly
- Sketch: vector-based design tool used for creating detailed iOS app wireframes
- Uizard: AI-powered tool that transforms hand-drawn sketches into digital wireframes
- Figma: Collaborative wireframe interface design tool that offers real-time editing features
Most of these tools offer free trials and they are all worth checking out.
Conclusion
A highly-rated mobile app ux design agency will typically use 2 or 3 tools mentioned above to rapidly pump out high-fidelity wireframes. But, they use these tools only after they have completed the long and arduous sketching process. They combine all the app wireframing techniques to give their design ideas the strongest possible footing.