Wireframe Vs Mockup Vs Prototype

While learning about prototypes you will surely read about two terms low fidelity prototype and high fidelity prototype.

Wireframe vs mockup vs prototype. Yes it s really that important. A wireframe is a static low fidelity representation of your product and in the world of web and mobile design a basic guideline of your website or app the skeletal framework for both designers and developers to follow. Mockups are static yet realistic renderings of what a product or feature will look like and how it will be used.

One way to quickly understand the difference between wireframes mockups and prototypes is to compare them visually. A wireframe is a draft for a schematic representation of your future website. Let s discuss wireframes prototypes and mockups in detail so you ll grasp the idea of what to use in specific situations.

Prototypes are high fidelity representations that demonstrate how a user will interact with the new product or feature. Developers you re bound to get a different answer as to what a wireframe is. Below you can see the major difference between wireframes and mockups.

To understand the difference between a wireframe and a mockup it s best to start at where each falls in the design process. However depending on who you talk to i e. One picture is more than a thousand words.

It s commonly compared to. A mockup is a static wireframe that includes more stylistic and visual ui details to present a realistic model of what the final page or application will look like. Believe it or not the difference between a prototype wireframe and mockup was always one of the first things i tried to teach members of my user experience design team.

A prototype is an almost ready colored and clickable project. However there is a difference between wireframes mockups and prototypes and it serves a very critical element of designing an application. A wireframe is actually a low fidelity b w sketch of your future site.