Are you confused between the three Wireframe, Mockup and Prototype?
Is it difficult for you to spot the difference between the three?
Do you think all three are similar?
Don’t worry; you have come to the right blog. We will help you sort out any confusion you have, so let’s get started without delay!
Wireframe, Prototype and Mockup are standard terms that any product design team uses. These terms are used by the design team to make an illustration of any concept or to gather feedback. The team can create the design with the help of these design apps. They also help to build the exact need of the customer. The three of them may sound similar, but all the three – mockup prototypes and wire are unique and have unique roles at different times while the product is developed; this process is also known as the life cycle of product development.
Many people use wireframes, prototypes and mockups interchangeably when they have a different impact on all stages and are used at separate stages of the design process. The crowd has helped many companies by removing their confusion, and many companies have earned huge profits with the help of Krowd. Your company can be the next one too!
We will explore Wireframes, Mockups and Prototypes in this blog in the order they appear during the design process.
Table of Contents
What is a Wireframe?
The Wireframe is the visual two-dimensional guide or illustration that represents or illustrates the skeletal framework of any website or page. Wireframe primarily focuses on allocating space for content and the gesture of the page or website and functionality. A wireframe is also used to arrange all the elements of a website and helps to achieve all the accomplishments of a website at its best.
Wireframe has been adopted from another field where the skeletal framework represents 3D shapes and volume. These do not have any graphics style or colour and mainly focus on functionality, content, priority and behaviour. It also helps to establish a relationship between various templates of any website. Wireframes also help depict the layout of pages or the arrangement of the content of any website, including the elements of the navigational system, elements of the interface, and how they work together.
What is a Mockup?
Mockup is the conceptual design of any website to a scale or a whole size base without any interactivity. People can use it for demonstration, teaching, promotion, devices, and design evolution, and the list is endless. The mockups are used for converting any ideas or concepts into a design. Such mockups help create a final structure of the design and navigation in addition to helping the users to get the proper idea of the final website or the design of the application.
Mockups also help to get feedback from the customers as they have a basic structure and the design of the outcome of any web page or website, including another type of application. Mockups are created based on the Wireframe of any particular application. They have graphics in colour, which is why they show the next level design of the wire frameworks, including texts. Mockups are static, but interactive mockups with very few limited functions are available nowadays. Some complex and multilayered mockups serve as the base of prototypes.
What is a Prototype?
A prototype is a tool to visualise the early model or sample, and it gets released to test the concept of the product for some processes. The prototype can be designed as well before any website is launched. This serves as the interactive design for all the works to prepare a website or application that are amalgamated to prepare a prototype functional piece of any design included in this which helps the user to understand the product in a better manner and also makes them clear on how to access it at any point of work. The prototype also helps understand the elements and interactive functions and how to access those in the original product.
With the help of a prototype, the designers can enhance the product design from the early stages. The user review of the final product is analysed with the help of this. Not only this, but also it gives feedback on the process on the website and can be modified as required by the user. The prototype has many of the real-time features of a website or the application. This is a step-through in which the theoretical idea comes to the practical one, and the whole process of this is known as materialisation. The prototype can be counted as a step within the evolution of any particular idea.
When to use Wireframe?
The Wireframe is the basic outline of any product’s structure or plan, including a web page or application. It adds importance to the layout and not the exact design. The formation design of the site gets very easy. It gets a visuality with the clarification of the ways to display certain information and functionality of the user interface with the help of a wireframe.
When to use Mockups?
The mockup should be used when the designs and the graphics are already done and are displayed to the state holders. Mockups show a detailed design structure of the product for the web page or application with graphics and tools. Mockups also have a perfect visual look which is somehow realistic and portrays the original idea of the product or the application. They are static and help the user get a look at the product if they like the design.
When to use prototypes?
When and how to use the prototype, the main question arises, so this is the second stage of designing an app. The prototype is the final part of the design of any given idea or a proposed product. A prototype has the design of the product or application, and it gets used just before launching any product or application. A prototype has an accessible interface, which is why it helps the users provide feedback. When the development process is completed, the prototype is the personal tool to taste the product. Once the phase gets passed with positive feedback, the product progresses towards development and execution.
How to compare Wireframes, Mockups and Prototypes?
- Wireframes are very, and it is only a black and white structure of any product to give the basic idea, and it doesn’t have any graphics or colour on it.
- Mockups are also static, but they have a good amount of realistic touch, which shows the features and the look of any product or application. The mockup has graphics and colours both.
- The prototype is the file stage of any product before launching. It has presentation and some interactivity. It also helps the user to understand the way to use that product in reality, and users can even use the prototype of any product as a real one.
So basically, the Wireframe is very basic. It is just the outline of the idea of any product without any graphics in colour. Then comes the mockup where graphics and colours with a short idea of the actual product are included, derived from the Wireframe. The next stage is that of a prototype; this gets derived from the mockups by adding much real-time interaction process and gives users an idea of using the actual product.
Thus, it can be said that from the wireframes, the mockups are reevaluated, and the prototypes get evaluated from the mockups to get reviews and feedback on any product before it is launched from the very basic idea of that particular product.
Wrapping up
It is a long process for any product or any website to get into the final stage and be released to its users from the very beginning. Once the idea gets proposed, the basic design of the application’s website needs to get created. The first phase of the design should have the basic idea of the web page. This is the Wireframe, and then comes the mockup with the visual effect of the web page. The mockups contain graphics and which is the second stage of product design. After this comes to the last stage with interactive and navigation elements for users to use and provide feedback called the prototype.
Krowd has helped many companies to achieve their sales target, and if you have an idea that you want to build, then Krowd can definitely assist you. This will be one such decision which you will never regret. We are an mobile app development agency that has built innovative mobile apps for clients globally. Krowd can help you with app development and remove any confusion about the web design.
That’s all for today, folks!