Wireframe Fidelity – High Fidelity Wireframes & Other Kinds of Wireframes

What are high fidelity wireframes?

In part two of this blog we shall have a closer look at high fidelity and other kinds of wireframes. Although sharing many of the same advantages with low-fidelity wireframes, a distinction between the two is that a high-fidelity wireframe is closer in design to the true representation of the final user interface. This is because high fidelity wireframes usually have slick and polished design features, even going as far as simulating an application’s work flow. Despite this high fidelity wireframes remain prototypes and usually require a lot of time investment to create which can be costly.

What are the benefits of high fidelity wireframes?

High fidelity wireframes usually are used in addition to and after low fidelity wireframes have been used to resolve the most impactful and fundamental usability or interface design problems of an application. Being eye-catching, high fidelity wireframes can be used to impress clients who have to sign off on a concept quickly. A high fidelity wireframe in this case would intuitively be faster for users to understand simply by glancing at them, leaving less room for misinterpretation. This is advantageous when designing complex user interfaces with lots of interactivity. In terms of your development team, high-fidelity wireframes allow you to collectively bring an interface to life. This helps in keeping a project’s budget manageable further satisfying clients.

What are medium fidelity wireframes?

It is worth noting that some people make the distinction of adding a third category; medium-fidelity wireframes which lie somewhere in between high and low fidelity wireframes. These are especially useful in larger projects when interface design fundamentals have been worked out, but more optically detailed representations are needed for pitches, presentations etc…

What are annotated wireframes?

Annotated wireframes are used to describe functional elements of an interface’s design. Small descriptive paragraphs are added to elements on the prototype for the benefit of stakeholders, thereby circumventing the need for verbal explanations just to make it understandable. Done correctly, they are easier to understand for non-technical stakeholders in the development process.

What are clickable wireframes?

Clickable wireframes blend the dynamic interactivity of hyperlinks with static visualizations of interfaces. This allows one to link multiple pages and ’surf’ wireframes as if they were a website or software. Clickable wireframe tools, such as pidoco°, use drag and drop functionality and dynamic menus to create WYSIWYG interface wireframes that are clickable, collaborative and can be annotated. This makes them effective in conveying and testing ideas in realtime.