Wireframing for Everyone

Wireframing for Everyone is a book I co-wrote with Michael Angeles and Billy Carlson, originally published by A Book Apart. It’s a product design book written for anyone wanting to learn how to turn an idea into reality and communicate about design within a software team.

Why we wrote this book

We wrote this book to fill a gap that we saw while comparing existing books with our real-world experiences. There are plenty of books about software product management, user experience design, and programming, but there are hardly any that recognize the interplay and amount of work that happens between these roles.

There are also plenty of books that mention wireframes and why you should use them, but they rarely dedicate much space to talk about the process of wireframing, how to do it well. Making a wireframe is easy, you don’t need a book or even a manual. But making them effective is another story.

We also realized that wireframes are a great way to teach basic UI design skills, by showing how good designers think rather than focusing on the visual design aspect.

Why wireframes?

Wireframes are still the fastest and easiest way for designers and non-designers alike to share product ideas, requirements, and feedback. They can be created and understood by anyone, and function as both creative ideation and practical communication tools.

Many UX techniques fall apart in the real world of overflowing backlogs, two-week sprints, and stubborn stakeholders. Yet wireframing persists, despite its much-anticipated demise.

Building on our decades of combined experience, we explain how low-fidelity design can be used to get everyone involved in the design process. We show how wireframes can help ideas come to life efficiently and break down communication barriers, by focusing on structure and patterns instead of pixels.

Some of the topics covered:

• Frameworks for implementing user interface design basics
• Techniques for developing design concepts from idea to prototype
• How to use wireframing for cross-functional team participation
• How to present wireframes and create effective feedback structures

And now, you can Get it FREE from Balsamiq. Grab your copy here.

Bonus content!

To hear me evangelize talk about wireframes, listen to this episode of The SaaS podcast or watch my interview with Therese Fessenden from The Nielsen Norman Group below: