Client Approval Process
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- monkeyshine0
Clients don't understand wireframes. Sorry but it's true. Using wireframes as a way to understand content flow and hierarchy is one thing...providing wireframes that look like layouts - and especially if they provide lorem ipsum text (those of you who have done this, you know who you are) is quite another.
Theoretically they make sense and can stop lots of heartache but unfortunately I've seen more misuse of wireframes than not.
- ukit0
Depends on the scale of the project and what the demands are.
Wireframes are great for reaching agreement on the organization of content and/or basic page layout. For a truly complex site or application for a big company this can take several days or even weeks to work out.
Even for a smaller site, I'd recommend wireframes if you're brainstorming the functionality from scratch. On the other hand if you're just redesigning an existing site on a cosmetic level then it's probably a waste of time.
Also, I respectfully disagree with monkeyshine when she says they should never be used for layout. Like any tool they should be used for whatever is needed on the project you're working on. Sometimes there's a need to collect and organize content, but it's often also useful to vet basic layout and functionality without the distraction of visual design.
- zray0
idiots - A wireframe which communicates so little is naturally of little use to the client.
These two demonstrate layout and function of two competing concepts in a way that highlights differences without the distraction of the visual design:
I frequently encounter clients that don't understand wireframes but see it as part of my job to help them to...
- idiots0
those are annotations to a design in progress
- formed0
We typically go through diagrams showing the navigation and hierarchy, get sign off, then do a few mockups showing design (static), get sign off, then create the interactive site, comments, then completion.
I can't see doing it in any way less than that, and these are generally fairly straight forward sites. Larger examples would take more steps.