The heartbreak of wireframes
Mar 7th, 2008 by ajlouie
As a user experience architect, it’s always disappointing to see my wireframes implemented as graphic design with little more than a color treatment.
Such a site went live the other day. While I congratulate the client and their army of content editors on implementing the usability guidelines and content strategy that our team recommended, the visual design leaves much to be desired. The boxes and blocks of color are straight from the wireframes: visual cues that were simply meant to call out certain types functionality were carried over wholesale into the graphic design.
It will be interesting to see whether the site performs well, despite the lack of a sexy design. It’s for a client whose users would actually expect and appreciate a low-budget look & feel.