Wireframes are not Discovery

There is a school of thought that the only way to start work on a design is to start designing. Recently, I worked on a project where the client asked us to create create scenario-based wireframes as a tool for discovery. At the time, the thinking among the project team was that we will discover things along the way that will inform our final design. Working in this manner sort of looks like this

Wireframe > uncover some insights and lessons > respond with more wireframing > pull together more research > respond with refined wireframing > Rinse and Repeat

I have seen projects come together this way with pretty strong results but, personally, I am not a member of this school of thought.

In my experience, a strong design is born from marrying three factors:

1. a deep, empathetic understanding of the people using the design
2. meeting internal stakeholder objectives
3. the judicious application of design and technology

….and that’s not to say that you can’t achieve each of these through the cyclical methodology mentioned above. However, one of the keys in my experience has been aligning the design team on a focused, well-understood mission for the project.

Rather than using wireframes as discovery, I have had more success in creating wireframes informed by discovery. That process often looks more like this:

Research > Analysis > Synthesis

This is not to say that designing a web site should be a strictly linear process. It is a matter of alignment.

Design research documentation like competitive analysis, personas, and concept models isnt’ just for articulating research findings to clients and stakeholders. When properly executed, theses artifacts act to align both internal and external thinking on a given project. The creation of these documents, along with the critique that happens along the way, provides a tool for catalyzing the alignment of the team. Ultimately, as the direction of the project becomes clearer among stakeholders and designers, the project moves forward on a stronger foundation.

I’ll leave you with this… an articulation of wireframing as a process-driven deliverable, as executed by someone who does this better than me: