Wireframes and mockups are two essential tools in the world of swift app development, helping designers create captivating user experiences. While both support product development, they serve distinct purposes. Wireframes focus on a high-level design concept's basic layout and user flow, whereas mock-ups showcase the visual design of the final product.

What is a Wireframe?

A wireframe is a low-fidelity blueprint that captures an early-stage idea for a web page or app screen. It's a simple design, usually in black and white or grayscale with placeholder content, helping design and product teams focus on essential user journey questions. This includes determining what kinds of screens will help the target audience accomplish a task, what information users need on each screen, and how to organize page content for users.

4 Key Benefits of Wireframing

Wireframing supports exploration in the early stages of the design process. UX design teams can use wireframes to:

  • Get stakeholder alignment by encouraging collaboration with strategists, product managers, and the development team on high-level structure, information architecture, user flow, and UI design.
  • Speed up product design by creating wireframes quickly, allowing designers to scope basic features and user interactions without polish.
  • Create user-centered designs through user testing, helping designers find a direction that best supports audience needs.
  • Spot potential problems early, avoiding costly mistakes in the final designs for a digital product.

3 Wireframing Best Practices

Improve your product development process with these wireframing best practices:

  • Choose low-fidelity wireframes for user testing and stakeholder feedback. Leave out high-fidelity design elements to keep viewers focused on the big ideas.
  • Opt for high-fidelity wireframes for customer show-and-tell, presenting a realistic visualization of the finished product.
  • Create wireframes, then let them go. Use early-stage wireframes to generate input, then set them aside once you get stakeholder or user feedback.

What is a Mock-up?

A mock-up is a highly polished, high-fidelity visual representation of a final product. It focuses on form rather than functionality, featuring static renderings of user interface and visual elements like buttons, colors, images, icons, text, typography, and fonts. Use mock-ups to vet your end product's UI and visual design before development begins.

How Mock-ups Help Refine Designs

You can use mock-ups to choose the best possible visual look for your final product through:

  • Actionable stakeholder feedback and buy-in, helping team members, users, and investors better understand how a finished product will look.
  • Quick and easy iteration, revising mock-ups without requiring code to build.
  • Visual design consistency, using mock-ups as a go-to resource to maintain a consistent, on-brand visual design throughout the product development process.

Wireframes vs. Mockups at a Glance

Here's how wireframes and mock-ups compare:

Wireframes:

  • Structure and flow: outline basic page hierarchy, organization, and flow.
  • Low-fidelity: simple, black-and-white (or gray) wireframes to represent high-level design concepts.
  • Discovery phase: use wireframes to generate early-stage feedback from internal teams and help set design direction.

Mock-ups:

  • Visual design: static renders showing what a final product or web design looks like, minus functionality.
  • High-fidelity: realistic web pages or screens featuring near-final copy, color, typography, fonts, and more.
  • Design phase: use mock-ups to validate your product's visual design before starting high-fidelity prototyping or handing off final designs to developers.

Build Better Wireframes and Mock-ups with Figma

Whether you're creating wireframes or mock-ups, start brainstorming design ideas using FigJam's online collaborative whiteboard. For wireframes, start with Figma's online wireframing tool and pre-made wireframe kit. For mock-ups, build your design system in Figma and then use the design tool to make them.