The Right Way to do Wireframes | Hacker News Reader

The Right Way to do Wireframes

youtube.com

It should be noted that this isn't a movie showing "the right way to do wireframes," it's from a talk about how there is no "right way to do wireframes," there's only the appropriate way to do wireframes at the appropriate level of fidelity for your task/project/client.

There are several "right way to do wireframes" videos on YouTube from that talk, each illustrating how a different professionals did wireframes for the same project using different processes and techniques.

Experimenting with different design techniques, processes and critiquing methods is one of the goals of my ongoing design workshops: http://vi.to/workshop/ (if you're in Austin, TX, you should come out!)

OmniGraffle Pro rocks for wireframing - I use it all the time.

Be sure to add some web-specific stuff to your Stencil library - I use the ones here, and judging from the labels in the mockups in the video, so does that guy:

http://konigi.com/tools/omnigraffle-wireframe-stencils

In addition, learn how to effectively use grouping and layers, especially shared layers - this is functionality that's easily missed if you just open OmniGraffle and start screwing around with it, but it's so useful. Should you have a subscription, lynda.com added a decent OmniGraffle tutorial not so long ago.

While the video makes the wireframing process look like a lot of fun, the resulting UI just looks rather crammed and confusing to me.

I'm wondering whether this is a side effect of the tool in the sense that it's easy, fun and rewarding to add more elements (think FarmVille).

I would love to what tool were they using to create the layout after the paper wireframes? It looks like it can make 5X better looking web pages than I can, in half the time.

Visio or OmniGraffle

It's OmniGraffle, you can catch a glimpse of the menu bar at around 0:44 or so.

I really hate to be "that person" but while I enjoyed the video, I really could have done without the vulgarity in the music. My kid was watching.

- Yes, I know there's a mute button, but I didn't recognize the song, so I didn't know to mute it until it was too late.

- No, I don't shelter my kid from everything, nor do I think I should, but I also don't think a 7yr old needs to be pointlessly exposed to such things in her own home, either.

You know what I was doing when I was seven? Catching salamanders. Maybe your 7 year old daughter should be doing something other than watching youtube videos about creating website mockups. I'm all for involving your kids, and that is awesome, but it is a Saturday night, and it's rapidly becoming spring. Take your daughter out and do something fun with her.

Wow, way to jump to conclusions about my parenting abilities there. Just to put your mind at ease that my kid's not wasting her life away on the internet, we'd finished up an art project we'd been doing together and I was browsing HN while waiting for her to get out of the shower so we could watch Doctor Who. She came back in the room just as I was playing the video and came over to see what I was doing. She's very interested in learning HTML/CSS and wanted to watch. This was after spending several hours today outside playing with the neighbor kids, before, that is, she came in to do her chores (put away the clean dishes, put her laundry away, help gather up the trash) and have dinner, wherein she ate her vegetables without complaint. After Doctor Who, she read for a bit and went to bed. Tomorrow will be playing with the cousins and visiting the grandparents. She's a very smart, happy, well-behaved kid living a quite balanced and normal life. I'm very proud of her.

Whoa, I really apologize if I came across as harsh there, I seriously didn't mean any offense, just that at 7 years old, I wouldn't have even known how to process a youtube video, or what a wireframe even was. I guess my point was that I doubt the creator of this video ever imagined that a seven year old would be watching it, so it's a bit silly to get mad about the content of it. Also, when I made the comment I had just gotten inside from having my four year old niece help me tune up my bikes...it was really more of "hey, playing with little kids is really fun and everybody should go do it", not "GRR YOU ARE T3H SUX-ZORE!".

Sorry, that came across wrong and I apologize; my bad.

Ah, I see. No hard feelings. Thanks. :)

FRT, I wasn't "mad" about the music in the video, either, just a little annoyed by it, because it seemed pointless in context and didn't add anything to the video. There was no reason for it to be there, so I was caught off-guard by the fact that it was and so the thought to wait and watch the video later never occurred to me. A video about wireframing-doesn't sound like something you couldn't watch with a kid in the room.

Good to hear.

However, I don't there was any need to justify the comment with an answer, or your parenting to the internet.

Good to hear.

However, I don't there was any need to justify the comment with an answer, or your parenting to the internet.

No, you're right. There wasn't, and I probably shouldn't have justified it with a response. Normally, it wouldn't bother me but tonight, for some reason, it struck a nerve. Thanks.

"Maybe Santa doesn't need help doing Santa's job!"

You are assuming a lot here buddy. Save your preaching for Sunday school.

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