Mobile application wireframes are an essential first step for developing an app and provides a detailed and necessary roadmap for anyone looking to find investors for their mobile application idea or are the first step in putting detailed user stories together before you start the development of your application.
They provide a detailed visual guide or skeletal framework that blueprints the layout, flow, functionality, and selling points of apps to be developed; but that is really just scratching the surface of a wireframe’s many important functions that help to facilitate a smooth and efficient development process, while also marking out the app’s potential selling points to would-be investors or the development team that you are working with. In short a detailed wireframe will ensure that there is a better understanding between stakeholders and developers of what the application should do and to make sure that the stakeholders business rules are represented and are functional correct in the app before the first line of code is written.
Far from simply adding the benefit of streamlined flow to the development process and ensuring a positive and intuitive user experience, mobile application wireframes play an essential role to numerous phases of app development and also serves as the ideal proof of concept for persuading potential investors to fund the development of apps or to make sure that your development team understand what they need to create.
Let’s take a look at some of these key features of wireframes here:
Wireframes are an essential step for integrating design elements into mobile applications. The wireframe lays out everything visual about the app from colour schemes and layouts to branding and menus, to ensure that the finished product looks as good as it functions. It also helps stakeholders and developers ensure that the user experience is seamless and will make sense to the end user.
There are scores of functional elements working together in a mobile app and developing them in such a way that they work as a cohesive ecosystem requires careful planning, which is exactly what a wireframe allows for.
A wireframe ensures that each element of functionality can be developed and fleshed out separately, while ensuring that they work correctly alongside other functions and fit into the design and layout for the app.
One of the main functions of a wireframe is to ensure a positive experience for the end-user. The wireframe will take into account the way the app is intended to be used, how one page flows to the next, and how intuitively the user can understand the app.
The complexities of understanding user intuition and the way the app should flow are numerous, with elements that can easily be overlooked if development starts without a detailed roadmap and making necessary changes midway through development will cost time and therefore money, which is why a wireframe seeks to pre-empt and solve any potential ease-of-use issues before they occur. Wireframes are also instrumental in ensuring that negative flow is mapped out correctly so that error messages can be sent to users when they use the app incorrectly.
If you are looking for investors to fund development of your app idea, you will need to be able to present them with a detailed representation of your idea, how it will work, and why it is a project worth investing in. Pitching your idea to investors without any representation of why they should get on board is near impossible.
For many apps, an idea with a unique selling point is not enough to get investors onboard, they want to see where results might come from, and what they can expect.
To ensure the best chance of persuading investors, wireframes provide them with a visual journey of how an app works, what it does, and why it is a cause worth investing in.
At the heart of a wireframe’s capacity for pre-emptive problem solving, is the idea of negative and positive application flow. This concept predicts what to expect when users use the app incorrectly, versus what happens when they use it as they should.
For example, if the app requires the user to enter in their banking details, a negative application flow will demonstrate how the app responds to an incorrect input, while a positive one will outline what happens if the banking details are entered in correctly.
To say that a mobile application wireframe is beneficial to an app’s development is an understatement since it represents a crucial first step for doing so. Still, a well designed and laid out wireframe can have numerous important benefits to the process of development, and how the app is received and used as a finished product:
Since the wireframe accounts for the interplay of functions, the flow the user takes when operating the app, and attempts to identify possible issues before development starts, working from a wireframe ensures that developers can arrive at an end-product more seamlessly.
Hiccups and unforeseen issues in development can significantly increase the time taken to develop an app and might even require the skills of additional developers to solve. Naturally, this results in a much higher cost of development, and will still not ensure that all issues are dealt with, or even identified.
A well-developed wireframe will ensure that there is a minimal chance of these types of delays and complications from occurring.
A solid wireframe provides an important blueprint for the app developers and allows larger teams of developers to work on different parts of a project cohesively.
This ensures that they can effectively work together to identify and solve problems early on in development, which again, streamlines the speed and quality of the development process.
Possibly the most important feature of a mobile application wireframe is that it ensures a smoother, more enjoyable user experience for the end-user. The wireframe considers how each element of the app works together and flows from one page to the next in such a way that makes it easy to use and intuitive.
This user experience factor ensures that end-users can take advantage of all functions and features, without having to frustrate themselves on learning how to operate the app.
One of the most complex parts of developing an app is ensuring that all functions and features work together, especially when you consider that an app is built by teams of individuals, who all need to communicate and work together to get these separate elements to combine into a cohesive experience.
A solid wireframe will outline how these separately developed features can be implemented cohesively, even when being worked on by different developers, or in some cases, different teams of developers.
For those looking for funding to have an idea for a mobile app developed, you will need a roadmap to impress investors, and show them what the app does, how it should be used, and what its unique selling points are.
Investors want proofs of concepts, they want to know that their investment will have a high chance of success, and to do that, they will want a workable demonstration. Developing a demo app for this purpose is generally impractical and costly, which is why idea starters often look to have wireframes developed that can demonstrate key features, benefits, and selling points to potential investors.
Applord offers turnkey wireframe and development services, whereby we work closely with our clients to bring their raw app ideas to life. We boast a dynamic and talented team of UI/UX experts with extensive experience in ensuring the ideal user experience for mobile applications.
If you would like to know more about our services for designing mobile application wireframes, be sure to get in contact with a representative from Applord today, or feel free to continue browsing our website for details on our full range of offers.
