To assist you in choosing the perfect wireframing tool that aligns with your design objectives, I’ve conducted extensive research, sifting through dozens of available options. The result is a carefully curated list of ten top-tier wireframing tools that stand out for their features and user experience. Whether you’re a seasoned professional or just stepping into the world of design, these tools are equipped to help you transform your design ideas into tangible, testable concepts with ease.

What is Wireframing and Why is it Essential?

Wireframing is the initial step in the design process, serving as a minimalist outline for digital projects like mobile apps, landing pages, and websites. In this phase, designers use basic shapes like rectangles and lines to represent what will eventually become complex elements such as images, text blocks, and interactive buttons. Once the basic structure is agreed upon, the wireframe can be evolved into a high-fidelity prototype that closely resembles the final product.

The Benefits of Wireframing

Wireframing is an invaluable tool for designers and clients alike. It allows for the exploration of multiple design concepts without requiring significant time or financial investment. Wireframes can be low-fidelity, resembling rough sketches, or high-fidelity, offering a more detailed representation of the final design. These wireframes can then be tested for usability, helping to determine the most effective design approach.

Prototyping: The Next Step

Prototyping takes wireframing a step further by creating a functional version of the website using specialized prototyping tools. These prototypes mimic the final site’s navigation structure and layout, providing valuable insights into user interaction with the new design. Prototyping is a quick and effective way to produce a live site for client review and offers a reliable preview of the final product.

Versatility of Tools

Many of the tools available today are versatile enough to handle both wireframing and prototyping, eliminating the need to separate them into different categories. Whether you’re a designer looking for the right tool or a client seeking to understand the process, these multifunctional tools offer a range of options to suit various needs.

Overview

Lucidchart: Your Easy-to-Use Online Tool for Wireframing

Lucidchart makes it simple to create app wireframes without any downloads or installations – it all happens online. It comes with a variety of ready-made templates and a straightforward drag-and-drop feature on an unlimited workspace. It’s built for easy use and allows for real-time teamwork through in-app chat, instant data updates, and secure saving. Even if you’re new to wireframing, you’ll get the hang of it quickly. It also makes team collaboration easier with options for comments, tasks, sharing, and tracking changes, making it perfect for both remote and mixed-location teams.

Compatibility and Flexibility

Lucidchart is more than just a standalone app; it’s a versatile platform. It works well with Microsoft Office and has free add-ons for Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. It’s also compatible with many other services like Salesforce, Atlassian, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Slack, AWS, and GitHub. Plus, it connects smoothly with Lucid’s own brainstorming tool, Lucidspark. This makes it easy to move from brainstorming to creating formal wireframes and diagrams.

Cost

Lucidchart is affordable, with a monthly subscription fee of just $7.95. If you want to test it out first, there’s also a free version available.

Visit Lucidchart

Figma: An Affordable, Cloud-Based Tool for Wireframing

Figma is a feature-rich, cloud-based wireframing tool that’s great for people on a budget or teams looking for an all-in-one design platform. It works seamlessly with FigJam, Figma’s online whiteboard, making it easy to go from brainstorming to wireframing and prototyping. While you’ll need to create or upload your own UI elements, Figma makes the design process simple with a user-friendly side panel and tools like vector pens for detailed work.

Teamwork and Developer-Friendly Features

Figma is built for collaboration. Since it’s web-based, team members can access and edit designs in real-time. It also has a Spotlight tool for demos and meetings, and an in-app comment system that works like sticky notes for easy communication. When you’re ready to start coding, Figma’s Dev Mode lets developers pull CSS code and object details straight from the design files.

Cost

Figma offers a range of pricing options. The free plan is quite generous, allowing up to three projects. If you need more, the Professional plan costs $12 per user per month and offers unlimited projects.

Visit Figma

Uizard: AI-Powered Wireframing for Quick and Easy Design

Uizard stands out for its advanced AI features that make UX/UI design easier. Launched in March 2023, its Autodesigner tool lets you create UI designs just by typing a text prompt. The platform can even turn hand-drawn sketches and website screenshots into digital wireframes. These AI tools make Uizard a time-saver for designers, even on the Pro plan, which costs $144 per year.

Pros and Cons, Plus Collaboration Tools

While Uizard has some cool features, it’s not perfect. For example, the AI text generator could be better. But it’s still a strong tool for wireframing, offering real-time collaboration, multiple export options, and high-quality prototyping. It also has a variety of templates and design elements to make your work easier.

Price

Uizard has pricing plans to fit different needs. There’s a free version with limited AI features and up to two projects. The Pro plan is $12 per month per creator and gives you full access to all templates and extra AI features. Overall, Uizard is a versatile and innovative tool worth considering for your design projects.

Visit Uizard

Whimsical: A User-Friendly Wireframing Tool for Everyone

Whimsical is a wireframing tool that’s easy to use for both experts and beginners. It works right in your web browser, so you don’t need to download anything. It has a wide range of customizable elements like buttons and checkboxes, as well as a big selection of icons. This makes it simple to create basic but detailed wireframes that look good and focus on content.

Extra Features and Easy Collaboration

Whimsical is more than just a wireframing tool. It also supports different types of files like mind maps and flowcharts, letting you easily switch between different parts of your project. Teamwork is a breeze with options to set who can edit, comment, or view your work. For extra security and to make your work easier, Whimsical can connect with GitHub, be added to Notion documents, and supports two-factor authentication.

Cost

Whimsical is affordable, starting at $10 per user per month. If you want to try it out first, there’s a free plan with some limited features.

Visit Whimsical

Balsamiq Wireframes: Easily Sketch Out Your Ideas

Balsamiq Wireframes focuses on a sketch-like approach to wireframing, keeping things simple so you can concentrate on the structure of your project. It’s easy to use and popular among UX designers. While the main color scheme is gray to avoid distractions, you can add some color through notes and callouts.

Easy Integration and Versatility

Balsamiq works well with Atlassian’s Jira and Confluence, as well as Google Drive. This makes it a flexible option whether you’re in a big company or freelancing.

Cost

Balsamiq has different pricing options to fit your needs. The cloud version starts at $9 a month for up to two projects and offers a 30-day free trial. There are also desktop and Google Drive versions for more flexibility.

Visit Balsamiq Wireframes

Visily: Simple, AI-Driven Wireframing

Visily is designed for people who aren’t designers, using AI to make wireframing easy. You can turn hand-drawn sketches into digital wireframes with just a few clicks. It also has strong collaboration features and organizational tools like project folders and a handy navigator view.

AI Features and User Help

While its AI features are still being developed, Visily offers a sketching guide to help you get the most out of the tool as it improves.

Cost

Visily aims to be accessible, offering a free plan with no credit card needed. This includes unlimited viewers and editors, 100 AI credits, over 1,000 free templates, and multiple export options, making it a versatile choice for individuals and teams.

Visit Visily

UXPin: Detailed Wireframing with Easy Design-to-Code Transition

UXPin is a robust wireframing tool that’s popular for its detailed capabilities. It allows for high-fidelity wireframing, meaning you can create very detailed designs easily. It’s compatible with Sketch and Photoshop files and has a live presentation feature for sharing and getting feedback.

Learning and Development Tools

UXPin has a lot of features, which can be a bit much for beginners. However, it’s built to make the transition from design to coding easier, offering HTML-ready elements and a feature to import React.js components from Git repositories.

Cost

UXPin offers various pricing options. There’s a free plan for up to two prototypes, and the paid Advanced plan starts at $14.50 per user per month if billed annually, including unlimited prototypes and reviewers.

Visit UXPin

MockFlow: Easy Wireframing with Real-Time Teamwork

MockFlow is an online wireframing tool that’s great for real-time collaboration and is easy to use. You can manage multiple projects from one dashboard and even sort your wireframes automatically. It works well with Slack and Microsoft Teams, and also offers extra features like AI-generated images and text.

Cost

MockFlow has different pricing plans, starting with a free option for one UI project. Paid plans range from $14 to $19 per user per month and offer more features like advanced organization tools. Some users have reported occasional lag, but overall it’s well-received. For comparison, Mockplus is another tool with similar features, starting at $199/year for individuals and $1999/year for teams.

Visit MockFlow

Moqups: Easy Designing for Beginners and Teams

Moqups is aimed at beginners and teams, offering a simple platform for wireframes, flowcharts, and more. It has a variety of templates and an easy-to-use side panel for adding shapes and icons. It also offers real-time editing and works with Google Drive, Trello, Slack, and Jira.

Limitations and Things to Consider

Moqups does have some limitations like no offline use and fewer features compared to other tools. The free plan limits you to two projects and doesn’t allow exporting designs. Some advanced features are also missing.

Cost

Moqups is affordable, starting at $9 per month for individuals and $15 per month for teams, making it a good option if you can work within its limitations.

Visit Moqups

Sketch: Design Made Easy for Mac Users

Sketch is a long-standing favorite among Mac users, offering a versatile platform for wireframing and more. It’s easier to use than some other design tools and benefits from a large online community that shares wireframe kits. It also offers templates for Android and iOS app icons and integrates with Unsplash for royalty-free images.

Teamwork and Compatibility

Sketch offers real-time collaboration with color-coded cursors to show who’s doing what. While it’s Mac-only, it does offer web viewing and various export options, as well as third-party integrations for a smooth design hand-off.

Cost

Sketch has pricing options for individuals and teams, starting at $120 per year for individuals and $10 per editor per month for teams using Sketch Cloud. You can keep using it after the first year without updates.

Visit Sketch

Justinmind: User-Friendly, Interactive Wireframing

Justinmind stands out for its user-friendly design and interactive features. It lets you create functional prototypes right from the start, with easy-to-add interactive elements like text inputs and dropdown menus. The layout is intuitive, with design components on the left and organizational tools on the right.

Limitations and Teamwork

Justinmind does have some downsides, like the need to download a desktop app and a check-in/check-out model for collaboration that can limit simultaneous editing.

Cost

Justinmind offers various pricing plans, including a free option for basic wireframing. More advanced features start at $9 per month. It’s a comprehensive tool for detailed, interactive wireframes but may not be the best for quick, simple designs.

Visit Justinmind

The post 10 Useful Wireframing and Prototyping Tools (2023) appeared first on Hongkiat.

Obviously doing some usability testing can show up potential issues in your site, help you get feedback on what is or isn’t working, and have a much broader understanding of what users are doing and how they interact with your site.

Furthermore, having a usable site means users will enjoy their interaction that much more, are much more likely to return to your site, and much more likely to recommend it to others. Conversions will increase whether that be sales, subscribers, or any other goals you are aiming for.

In short, it’s good business for you regardless of what goals you are looking to achieve – unless of course, you don’t want to succeed, in which case you may as well stop reading now.

Supposing you are still reading, you should see that usability testing can add value for you; the key then, alongside knowing which testing method you’d like to go with, is knowing what type of method would work best for you and what kind of questions to ask to get useful actionable answers. Read on to find out:

Types of Usability Tasks/Questions

In a remote usability test (or with any type of usability testing), there is a range of different question types you can ask. This is a selection of three of the more common types so you can get an idea of how to do your own testing in the future. You can combine different types of tasks/questions into one overall test.

Single test

These are great for testing different elements of an interface, navigation structure, layout, for finding products or services, and a range of other similar tests. A single test just means you are testing one image at a time, compared to either an A/B or a preference test.

A/B test

An A/B test is where you are shown either image A or image B (NOT both – the image below is the result of the test) so you can see how people might interact with changes in your interface, different wording, different navigation options, different colored buttons – you get the idea.

A/B testing is great for comparisons of any changes, redesigns, or any little tweaks you are thinking of making.

Preference test

Preference tests are when two images side by side (as per the image below), and you can decide which one you prefer. This can be really useful for testing how people are going to feel about new features you are thinking of adding or changes you are thinking of making.

The image above is comparing UI elements to see which way people better understand the design. Imagine if Twitter had done a test on the quick bar – it surely wouldn’t have launched if they had. Think about what this could do for your site and community – it should be pretty worthwhile.

Good Usability Testing Questions

What part of the interface stands out the most?

This question is useful for a number of reasons; are you trying to sell a product on your site? You probably want the call to action button, text, or product to stand out – if everyone is clicking your logo or other information, you may want to consider making some changes.

If people are taking a long time to decide which element stands out (shown by average click time), you may want to make some changes. If you are producing content, you’d probably want your RSS feed to stand out. If people can’t find it, again, you should try to make it more visible. Seems simple, but until you test it you don’t know.

How would you fulfill such and such a task?

People use sites, browsers, computers, and technology in a whole range of different ways. The way you perform a task may be different from the way I do, which could be different again from a third person.

Watching how people interact with your sites can lead to stunning revelations, and can have a huge impact on your bottom line as the tale of the $300 million dollar button shows.

For example, testing on our own site showed a number of people went to the pricing page, and then looked to sign up. By adding a link back to sign up from the pricing page, our sign-ups went up appreciably.

Every way in which you optimize your site can make a difference to your users, and in turn to you and your site. It’s all about maximizing your potential.

These sorts of questions can also help you learn about and understand conventions that people are used to following – examples are clicking your logo to return to your home page, the meanings of different colors , the locations of search boxes and so on.

You can even layout a grid and just ask people to click to try to form ideas on a blank slate about what is or isn’t going to work. Maybe people who visit knitting websites like search boxes on the bottom left-hand side? Who knows until you test.

What service do we provide?

I recently did a quick test asking people after a quick look at a screenshot of our homepage, did they know what service we provided. Based on the feedback we received we made a few small tweaks to the content of the home page and developed a much clearer message – again leading to more sign-ups.

People need to know who you are and what you do to be interested, and short attention spans being what they are, people aren’t generally going to sift through loads of information when thinking of choosing your service.

You should ask yourself questions like I\is the message on your site clear? Are there any changes you should make? Why not do a quick test and find out.

Which design do you prefer?

AKA preference testing. When you have one or more alternatives and you want to compare, you can always see how your views compare with the wisdom of the crowds.

Asking these kinds of questions also enables you to elicit feedback on why people like certain designs, certain features, certain layouts, and so on. You can pick the best elements of a number of designs and mix and mash until you find the perfect combination.

Some Useful Examples

It’s easy enough to give some example questions, but it’s much easier to see their use when you can see them in action. Below we’ve got a selection of different tests with different kinds of results, and the useful results that can capture:

Test: Gmail vs. Hotmail vs. Yahoo mail

This project features a combination of testing types (more apparent in the results) testing a number of different things; the grids are really useful for studying people’s preconceptions and learned behaviors.

The written questions are a quick visual way to gather feedback; for example, the obvious preference for threaded email and text ads, and the rest of the questions are really useful for understanding people’s interactions with the site.

Success rates (i.e. clicking in the right place) and average click times can really show up which interfaces work the best. All really useful information.

Preference Test: Colours and Psychology

This test uses preference testing to understand people’s learned behaviors and interpretations of color. There were many insightful comments on this test regarding the cultural implications of color, as well as accessibility issues for color-blind users.

Are these things you need to be considering for your site or users? These kinds of tests will tell you.

A/B Test: Bing vs. Google

This A/B test is really useful for showing up some of the differences between two different designs or layouts, even for two completely different designs (hey, don’t you want to know how you stack up against your competition?).

This test also showed up quite well the most important parts of the interface for each site – search bars being a prominent feature, but the Bing artwork obviously draws a lot of attention, as does the Google logo – useful information if you’ve got elements you need to stand out.

What you can see from all of these tests is the huge array of information you can gather – information that can have a big impact on the usability and user experience of your site.

Even shaving a few seconds of a simple task can make a big difference to your users. Even making your call to action button a little more obvious, or learning to follow conventions can make a big difference to your bottom line.

So When to test? Now.

Steve Krug recommends testing once a month. This helps you gather fresh information, and to keep pace with the evolving web. Even if you re-run the same test you may well end up with different results and discover small changes that you need to make.

Supposing each change only makes a small difference to your website, they will start to add up; 1% for a tweak here, 5% for a change there – think if after a year, just through small usability changes your revenue increased 30% to 40%, that would be well and truly worthwhile.

The point is that it’s never a bad time to start testing, and even making a few small changes can make a big difference. Even if your testing shows your site is working perfectly, that’s great, valuable information to know, and something your core stakeholders will be very happy to see.

Why not get started today and help make the web a more usable place, one website at a time? As I’ve quoted time and time again, ‘build it and they will come; build it well and they will come back’.

With an ever-increasing focus on usability, the web will become a more enjoyable place for all, and I think that’s a very grand goal to aim at.

Further resources

• Usability testing demystified (Alistapart)
• Usability testing toolkit (Noupe)

Do you have any usability testing experience you’d like to share? What kind of questions do you think are important to ask? Or do you have questions on how to get started testing your own sites? Be sure to let us know in the comments.

The post Usability Testing: What You need to Know? appeared first on Hongkiat.

What is it that makes one experience better than another?

A site doesn’t have to be the pinnacle of fantastic design; it doesn’t have to have more information than Wikipedia; all it needs (and not to understate how difficult this is) is a good user experience.

Now developing a straightforward and simple user experience is something that can take a considerable amount of work – if not, then companies like Apple would have a lot more competition – but there are lots of little things you can do to try and help out your users, and something that doesn’t have to take up a lot of time or money on your end.

People often say it’s the little things that count – the same is true of user experience on the web; each little change or optimization you make can have a big impact on your users.

Here are a few things you can do to make the experience that much better for your users:

1. More "Sign Up" Options

Let me sign up with whatever method I see fit: Email Address, Username, Open ID, Twitter or Facebook login, etc. You want users on your site.

You want to make the signup process as easy as possible. The easier it is, the more users that will sign up.

It’s that simple.

2. More "Sign In" Options

Let me sign in however I want. I don’t care if you make me use both a username and email address when signing up, but you should still let me sign in with both of them.

3. Avoid Limiting Password Length

Don’t ever limit these fields for pointless reasons. I was signing up to a site recently and came across the following error: “Your password must be between 6 and 8 characters”.

Ok, maybe less than six means the password isn’t secure enough, but I can’t have a password longer than eight characters? Really?

4. Sending Confirmation Email

Do you need an email confirmation? Yes, some sites probably should confirm your email address, but there are a ton that doesn’t need to and yet still ask me to confirm. At least if you ask me to verify my address, let me play around with your web app/site/whatever first and see the value in it.

Of course, you could send me an email to confirm my signup so we all know I entered the right email address.

5. CAPTCHA Field

Do you need a CAPTCHA?

A CAPTCHA is an often incomprehensible text you find in many signs up forms and a range of other strange locations. When checking their pricing, I’ve discovered airlines that want me to enter a CAPTCHA.

Someone tried to explain it to me as a method to stop their competitors from checking their airfares, but is it worth stopping people from being able to check themselves or sign up to your site?

If you do need a CAPTCHA, ensure that it’s one that people can read, or try coming up with some interesting questions of your own – a China-oriented site, I frequently use a range of questions such as ‘What is the capital city of China.’ If someone has made it this far in your signup process, you don’t want to prevent them from signing up now.

6. Sign Up & Sign In: Same Page

Make it as simple as possible: On the signup page, let me choose login. On the log-in page, let me choose signup. On the home page, make both of these options visible.

The quicker and easier I can accomplish something, the more likely I will do it.

7. Avoid Redundant Questions

Don’t ask for unnecessary details: Do you need my address? Do you need my postcode (which we barely even use in New Zealand)? Why are you asking me all these questions? I want to sign up! Keep it to the bare minimum, please.

8. Be Sociable

Try and make it social: You should like publicity – it’s good for you, and it’s helpful for me to be able to share it with my friends. Just about every man and his dog are on Facebook these days, and a pretty good number are on Twitter as well.

Are there more relevant options for your site too? Add these as well. A few buttons here and there aren’t going to hurt you, and the more others can get the word, the better it is for you.

9. Fail Gracefully

More or less, every website has bugs, every website will fall over at one time or another, and your users will always find a way to break something you didn’t think of in advance.

You might not be able to predict all of the different ways that things will go wrong, but you can make it so that people can find the information they are looking for when things do go wrong.

Make helpful 404 pages that link to relevant information and have a search bar. Make it easy for me to reset or get a reminder if I forget my password. At least if you are going to fail (which is more or less inevitable), try and fail well.

10. Logical User Interface

Think about how your users are going to interact with your site.

What information is essential? What information are they looking for? How do other sites of the same genre lay out the information?

Do some usability and A/B testing to see what information you can find. Tweak and optimize your site. A little experimentation will go a long way and lead to much better user experience.

Testing your website throughout the design process, creating personas, and constant feedback is your friend.

11. Know Your Users

You (should) know your users – their interests, their style, things they are interested in… Use this information to your advantage: a design for them, make the layout for them, think about wording that they will understand. Knowledge is power, after all.

12. Think About Goals

What are you trying to achieve with your site? How can your website help you accomplish your goals?

Make a list and see how your site compares. Ask your users and see how your site compares. Does your site meet these goals? If not, how can you make changes to meet your own and users’ expectations?

13. Good content

This is very obvious, but the amount of sites with terrible content, terrible style, atrocious spelling and grammar, and generally just poorly written content is astounding.

At the very least, try and run a spelling and grammar check over it, and if you can, ask a friend, workmate or relative to have a read of it for you. It’s surprisingly easy to miss mistakes in your writing.

There are plenty of forums you can find online to get inspiration for writing, critique your writing, and great tips. Make the most of it.

14. Keep It Fresh

There’s nothing worse than coming to a site and finding years-old content wallowing on the blog. Even making small updates keeps things fresh.

Feed into your website from your Twitter feed. Link to news or content relevant to your site. Do something, and your users (and Google) will love you for it.

15. Make It Fun

Think about how you can develop more of a community around your site and make your site or app part of your users’ daily internet flow.

If the experience is more enjoyable, people will keep coming back and recommend it to friends as well.

There are lots of ways to do this, but I think the way StackExchange gives badges, reputation, and extra functionality, the more you use and contribute to the site is a great motivator. Would something like that work for you? It certainly makes users want to return.

16. Use Social Proof

Do you have hundreds or thousands of followers on Twitter or your Facebook fan page? Make the most of them, and show the numbers on your site.

Even if you’ve only got a few followers, showing them on your website can help to build trust, help to market your site, and also helps integrate your site into your users’ everyday flow.

17. Make It – Not Suck

Ok, this can be somewhat subjective, but at least try and make it not offensive to the eyes and other senses.

Think about how you can make it easily readable and easy for people to scan information. Try and make the most relevant content to stand out. Try and make sure you have all the information that will help people decide to use your site.

Again, it doesn’t have to be the pinnacle of design, but making it not suck takes it a long way towards being a more functional website.

18. Usability Test

I can’t stress this enough, and it doesn’t matter what stage of the process (from an idea in your head to a website that’s been live for years) your website is at, it’s always a good time to get out and do some testing.

Even if your testing shows you have a perfect website, you still can’t rest on your laurels – the way people are using the internet is continually changing – look at the increased use of touch screens and mobile that’s currently going on – and if testing shows up some issues, do something about them and get them fixed as soon as you can.

Keep testing regularly (monthly to quarterly) for existing sites that are working well) to ensure everything keeps running smoothly.

19. Use Feedback

When you get feedback from your users, keep track of it, use it, and make the most of it. If someone has gone to the effort of giving you feedback, they are interested enough in your site to care.

You don’t necessarily have to take every suggestion your users offer. Still, if you get lots of comments about certain aspects of your site, it’s time to consider doing something about it.

20. Do It – Now!

The worst thing you can do after reading all this is not to do anything about it. After you’ve finished reading this, pick just a couple of points to try and get yourself started.

If you choose one or two ideas to try out every day, it could take only a few minutes of your time but lead to a massive return for your site. Make your website better, one step at a time.

Great! Now What?

Each of these steps in and of itself is a relatively quick, simple thing to get up and started. Each one can make a big difference to the experience your site has to offer.

The better the background of your website, the more people will use it, the more they will recommend it to their friends, and the more they will invest in it in terms of both time and money.

Take on a couple of steps at a time, and keep tweaking your site. Keep usability testing as you continue to make changes in your website to ensure you are providing the best experience you possibly can.

A more useful web does start with you. As more designers and developers focus on usability and user experience, it will lead to a better internet experience for all of us. Now isn’t that a grand goal to work towards?

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