Michael Gaigg: Über UI/UX Design

Wireframing – what a waste of time… not!

Posted by Michael Gaigg

See my notes below the slides...

Slide 1

Wireframing is a planning tool.

Use it whenever you need to turn a concept into design.

As a direct implication: your design is only as good as your strategy/concept. That means: ask the right question!

Slide 2

Demo (no need to describe to you the benefits, just see)

Tips:

• mockupstogo
• mybalsamiq
• don't have templates, but have stencils (symbols)
• cropping
• keyboard
• 960 grid system
• notes
• from rough to detail
• design to scale if possible
• please no more lorem ipsum

Slide 3

Let me show you some case studies to illustrate how and when wireframing can help. While usually I recommend 2 or max of 3 rounds of mockups, during proposals where requirements are vague it’s more important than ever to kick around ideas and bring the visuals in front of key stakeholders and decision makers. So we might end up with 6 or 7 rounds.

Slide 4

And this is our final mockup that we felt confident fits the target audience of an executive.
You see the basic elements: header, navigation, dashboard, Maps.

Can you guess which technology this is based on?

Slide 5

Reviewer Server asked us to help designing the RS Health Check Dashboard which was used and presented at the User Conference 2011. This effort was designed (including screen comps) within 2 days and implemented within 2 weeks.

Validate your designs!!!

Slide 6

It will save you

• Energy
• Time
• Money

Because the majority of UI changes made before coding begins.

Slide 7

A picture/sketch is so much richer than describing.

Communicate visually.

Different disciplines need to interweave/overlap (designer needs to influence the requirements and a pm needs to influence designs). I prefer a PM coming to me with a sketch of the design saying: "Oh, here's some requirements that I have, and here is sort of high level what I'm thinking about.“

Slide 8

Helps prioritize and add emphasis to the important user stories. Identify gaps/possible wholes and not needed functions.

Nail down scope and functionality.

Avoid building features that turn out to not be needed in the first place. Limit the amount of gotcha’s along the way, “ah, we need to be able to save this damn thing, let’s add another button”.

Slide 9

What I like about lo-fi wireframes is that it's obvious that design is not done, looks unfinished, and nothing is set in stone.

Don’t get hung up on discussions about design details.

Don’t loose focus of the main goal and core tasks!

Picture: Detail '57 Chevy

Slide 10

Unless there is a good reason – proposal work, research, marketing – max. 2 iterations!
‘Finalize’ and move on! There is plenty of room for fine-tuning along the way

Slide 11

A sketch is a sketch (after serving its purpose it’s still only a by-product, like a white-board drawing). Don’t end up spending more time updating all the sketches in all the places in all the documents – that’s not the idea of sketching.

Get sign off!

Slide 12

As simple as it looks (or I make it look) – sketching/prototyping is only as good as the person that does it. It doesn’t replace experience and hard work.

Slide 13

The two links mentioned during the demo:

• Mockups to go: https://mockupstogo.mybalsamiq.com/projects
• MyBalsamiq: https://www.mybalsamiq.com/