Careful pre-planning is essential to ensure that your website functions well, has the desired content, and looks great when you go live — and a wireframe helps you do just that.

A wireframe is a series of diagrams that serve as a virtual road map of your website. Sorting out the details in the wireframe stage helps to prevent cost overruns because changes at this early stage are generally very quick and easy to make.  However, changes can be costly if they’re made after the developers have already started to build the site.

Every detail of your site can be addressed with wireframes including:

1. Navigation, at all levels. It’s always helpful to see what happens to the navigation as you dig deeper into the site.
2. The shopping experience (if applicable). E-commerce sites require special attention. If their shopping experience is clumsy and cumbersome on your site, they’ll drop off and go to your competitors.
3. Private pages that require logging in.  If users are providing log in information, their time on your site should be painless and worthwhile.
4. Social media interaction. The placement of links and the integration of websites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Flickr has become increasingly important.
5. Blogging is rarely optional.  Your website traffic will be enhanced with the addition of a blog – and even more so with a good wireframing strategy and lots of fresh and relevant content.
6. General content areas.  Images and content can be mocked in to simulate the final layout.  This will help determine the size of supporting images and text to facilitate the design phase.

User experience and functional requirements should also be described in great detail to take any guesswork out of the final steps.

With a solid wireframing strategy, your customer-friendly website can arrive on time and within your budget without any unpleasant surprises along the way.