Boxes And Arrows : The Design Behind the Design

I agree on the idea that wireframes are a very useful specification for the developers and in most of our development projects today they are an important part of the whole specification. I do not agree that they are less helpful for the clients - from my experience they are indespensible to create, validate and clarify requirements together with the clients. We use wireframes especially to translate functional requirements into technical specifications.

Agreed. The use of wireframes is three fold: To validate ideas and clarify requirements; for prototyping / user testing (in which case HTML wires become useful) and thirdly to form the specification for the dev team so they get visibility on what they are building (once again HTML proving useful - to see exactly what happens when a button is clicked, or a dropdown changed)

I also concur. I teach a college course in Information Architecture (http://bg411.aisites.com, see WDIM390) and we teach both perspectives, i.e. wireframes are for everyone. I base most of my reasoning on Moreville and Rosenfeld's tome (Information Architecture, Chapter 12 on BPs and Wfs). We really accentuate that a wireframe should NEVER be presented on its on merit, i.e. you should be there to explain it. We also emphasize that there are different versions for different audiences, but the one that is for the client is meant to foster "buy-in" for the architecture and design.

I definitely think they are useful for client side as well as developers. Allowing the client to focus on the content and functionality of the page rather than that shade of blue or the crop of that photo is invaluable.

Hello All. I don't want to denigrate the role wireframes serve to the customer particularly for the reason mentioned above. I just wanted to share some experience on how the IA should cater specifically to developers.

As the developer of a wireframing tool (Balsamiq Mockups: http://www.balsamiq.com/products/mockups ) I am especially interested in this topic, as it would help me refine my message to reach the right audience.

I'd certainly like to hear more on this subject, and even reading the comments here is interesting in itself. I've recently written that wireframes are simply facilitators for discussion, but I now know that this does not fully illustrate their usefulness (although I stand by the article). Luke Perman's point above about 3 uses for wireframes is really useful, and Robert Griffin reminds me to refer to the 'polar bear book' for more thoughts on this subject. http://www.idrawboxes.com/2008/wireframes-are-simply-facilitators-for-discussion/