If you’ve ever created a website or a landing page with us, you’ll know we’re huge fans of the wireframe.
A wireframe is one of those things that can feel like an unnecessary extra step. Why not go the full hog and design it if you’re going to build the layout anyway? But wireframing can actually save us time in the long run and really help us nail the strategy side of things.
Your wireframe basically stands as the blueprint or the plan for the website. And once this plan is put together, it’s the best way to assess whether the website or the page is fit for purpose.
Is it sharing the right message? Has it put all the right Unique Selling Points (USPs) forward? Does it support your customer’s journey from just meeting you, to understanding what you do, to knowing exactly why they should choose you?
A wireframe is a neat way to make sure your goals are being hit, before it gets convoluted with images, branding, and colours.
- A wireframe is a black-and-white blueprint of your website or landing page layout.
- It helps align your team, clarify your goals, and map out content before design begins.
- Wireframes strip away branding so you can focus on structure, usability, and messaging.
- They’re a powerful tool to make sure your page supports both users and your marketing strategy.
- Starting with a wireframe saves time, avoids rework, and sets your project up for success.
What is a wireframe? 🖼️
A wireframe is a visual guide that represents the skeletal framework of a website or landing page. It’s a layout of a website’s (or app’s) page that demonstrates where each element and message will sit. Images are represented by empty boxes, and text is often the intended copy, or it’s replaced with indicative text, filler text, or sometimes even just lines. Wireframes are typically black and white or grey-scaled.
Types of wireframes
Wireframes come in varying levels of fidelity, depending on the project stage and the audience.
Low-fidelity wireframes
These are simple black-and-white sketches, often created with pen and paper or basic digital tools. They focus on structure and layout without any design details, making them perfect for early-stage ideation and quick feedback.
Mid-fidelity wireframes
These add more detail to the layout, such as defined spacing, clearer typography hierarchies, and some interactive elements like buttons or links. These are typically built digitally and help clients and teams better visualise content flow.
High-fidelity wireframes (often referred to as mockups or prototypes)
These include near-final design elements, brand colours, and placeholder images. They’re useful for stakeholder buy-in and early user testing, especially when interaction is part of the review.
Common formats
Wireframes can be presented in a range of formats depending on the team’s workflow and the stage of the project:
Hand-drawn
Hand-drawn wireframes are quick, informal, and useful during brainstorming sessions or early strategy workshops.
Digital
Digital wireframes are created using tools like Figma or Adobe XD. These allow for cleaner presentation, easier updates, and collaboration. This is generally the format we’ll use for your wireframe at Excite Media.
Clickable prototypes
Clickable prototypes offer basic interactivity. These help test user flows or show how a user might move through a landing page or website, even before any visual design is applied. These wireframes are really useful for highly complex concepts.
What’s included in a wireframe 🩻
Wireframes are all about the structure and intent, not the look and feel. Here are the elements you can expect to see in a wireframe:
Layout
The overall structure and placement of elements on the page.
Hierarchy
A visual explanation of information and messaging (e.g. headlines, subheadings, buttons).
Navigation 🗺️
Menus, buttons, or other navigational components to guide where the user can go.
Content blocks
Boxes or placeholder areas for headings, body copy, calls to action, images, forms, and proof points (like testimonials or logos).
Why start with a wireframe? 🤔
A wireframe strips the elements of a page right back. It means you can review the layout, structure, and messaging on a page, without the distraction of the images or branding. It gives a really clear-cut way to understand if you like the basic content on the page.
It’s also a good way to clearly understand if your basic goals for the page have been met. A good website design can wow you so much that you might not realise a clear element of the page is missing.
Align stakeholders 📐
In every page design or website build, there are a few stakeholders, and everyone has a different priority. Your web designer wants to create a really schmick design that elevates your brand and creates a brilliant experience, your digital marketing team wants Unique Selling Points (USPs) front and centre, and your SEO specialist wants the page to load really fast and have enough content to rank on Google… And that’s before we’ve even heard about what you —the client and owner of the website— want.
A wireframe is a good way to get everyone on the same page before the visual design is applied.
Make sure goals are hit 🥅
Everyone can make sure that what they want on the website is planned for.
Your copywriter and digital marketing team can make sure all the right benefits and USPs are included. Your SEO specialist can make sure the right pages are included. You can make sure that the team section you were hoping to have on the homepage is accounted for.
This process allows us all to make sure everything we want to be on the page or website is there before we invest time in designing and buildin
To get the usability right
By looking at just the bones of the website or page alone, we can identify any potential usability problems before they’re built into a real website.
A smoother, more efficient design process 🎨
Presenting and getting approval on a wireframe means we’re ticking all the boxes before we get to design. This saves time and money in the design process and generally means fewer and easier revisions later on in the process.
Wireframing supports a better User Experience (UX)
It’s important to look at the structure of your website from a usability perspective first.
A focus on goals and usability
There’s no getting distracted by colours and branding or fancy animations. Reviewing a wireframe means focusing on user goals, not just visual design.
Prioritise navigation
Stripping the website back to its bones means we can understand exactly how the navigation feels and make logical decisions about the menu items and where buttons sit.
Make sure the right elements are emphasised
When everything is in black and white and a little bit of grey, it’s easier to understand exactly which elements are standing out.
Wireframing makes sure your website is set up for digital marketing wins 💪
The wireframe phase is a great chance to make sure your website is set up to support your digital marketing strategy.
Getting the message right
Your copywriter and web designer will work together to create strategic copy in line with your brand’s key message and thoughtfully place it within the wireframe.
Make sure the right content is planned for
Your copywriter will work with your SEO specialist to make sure the right content is covered on each page, creating content that aligns with your SEO strategy, including the right keywords and topics.
Strategic positioning
Your web designer will position CTAs logically, so they attract attention at the right points in your pages and make sure elements like lead forms are accounted for.
Wireframe vs. design vs. development 🥊
These three stages of the website creation process can be a bit confusing, with a little bit of overlap happening between them. But each part has its own distinct role in the process, and understanding the difference can help you feel more across your website build.
Wireframe
Wireframes are about structure and flow. These show the bones of the website in black, white, and greyscale.
Design
Design brings the wireframe to life visually. It adds branding, images, typography, colour, and style to create a 2D image of what the website will look like.
Development
Development turns that design into a working website. Developers take the approved designs and build them into code, making them functional, responsive, and optimised for performance.
How to make the most of a wireframe 🧃
We absolutely recommend starting every website project with a basic wireframe. Here are our tips to make the most out of the wireframing process.
Start with the user and marketing goal
Your website (and thus, your wireframe) should basically be reverse-engineered. To create a website that finds and connects with the right people, you need to understand who the right person is and what they want to see.
So, you should always start by thinking about who your ideal end users are. We have a handy blog on creating user personas that might help you.
From there, you’ll want to think about your marketing goals. Are you planning to send people to your website from Google Ads or Facebook Ads? Or will you be focused on finding organic leads through SEO?
You’ll need to know where they’re coming from, the context they have for your business, and what content you need to include to catch them up on who you are, what you offer, and exactly why they should choose you.
Keep it simple. Boxes and lines are enough ✅
Don’t overcomplicate it. You just need to see where elements will go and how your messaging is laid out. So, don’t go over the top, trying to plan images or worrying about how the design will come together.
The whole point here is to keep it as simple as you can, so you can get the basics right first.
Get feedback early on and iterate
When we do wireframes, we bring the team in on the process and get their feedback, and we ask our clients for their feedback. This allows us to get it right by making sure all the right parts are included.
If you’re DIYing your website, make sure you get feedback from colleagues and even clients to see if any key elements are missing early on.
Need a hand with a new page or website We’d love to help you out 👋
