When wireframes may do more harm than good

Wireframing with every possible details from the beginning can become counterproductive in early design phase...here is why.

Complex system designs require solid understanding of business use cases and exploration of multiple possible solutions before finalizing the design approach. When designers start with high-fidelity wireframes form very first time, it can drastically diminish the advantages of creating wireframes.

In one of his talk Don Norman beautifully said "...there's never enough time. When you're (UX designer) working for a client or company, as soon as you start on the project, basically you're over the budget, and behind the schedule". So when designers start by creating detailed wireframes (which take time and effort), they will be left with very little time in most cases to explore multiple design alternatives.

Moreover high-fidelity wireframes with a lot of details usually attract us to its layout (content, components, icons, etc.) and do not really facilitate discussions on structural design (information architecture, user journey, etc.). This is particularly a problem when designers collaborate with stakeholders on solutioning in the early phase of design where structural design (deep design) should be the focus.

Last but not the least, designers are more willing to change a sketchy design than one with full interaction and aesthetics. Once we invest a lot of time in a design, it’s harder for us to give it up if it does not work well.

Thank you for your time! you also may like my recent article Movie "The Founder" and UX Design