What is Wireframe?
The short answer
A wireframe is a simple, low-detail layout of a page, boxes and labels without colour or imagery, used to agree on structure before visual design begins.
What people say: “a sketch of the page”, “the blueprint”.
Wireframe, explained
Wireframes are cheap to change, which is the point: arguing about where the pricing goes is faster on a grey box than on a finished design.
Questions people ask about Wireframe
What is Wireframe?
A wireframe is a simple, low-detail layout of a page, boxes and labels without colour or imagery, used to agree on structure before visual design begins.
Related terms
A mockup is a static, full-detail picture of a page as it will look, with real type, colour and imagery, but no working interactions.
PrototypeA prototype is a clickable simulation of a website or app used to test flows and interactions with real people before building the real thing.
Information architectureInformation architecture is how a site's content is organised, grouped and labelled so people can find things and understand where they are.
UXUX, or user experience, is how it feels to use a website: whether people can find what they came for, understand it and finish what they started without friction.
Part of the Web Encyclopedia by Apex Flow Digital. Definitions are general knowledge, kept current, with no invented statistics.