The Importance of Annotated Wireframes
One aspect of wireframing user interface designs that can easily be forgotten or underperformed is the creation of annotated wireframes. Annotated wireframes are, quite simply, wireframes of UI designs that feature notes and comments that clarify the user interface design. No matter how well made and clear wireframes of user interface designs might be, there is always a danger that biases or pre-concieved notions might affect a stakeholder’s judgment. One needs a thorough understanding of a wireframe in order to objectively understand a user interface design. This is even more true if the stakeholder viewing the wireframe is not well versed in the practices and principles of user experience and user interface design. Annotated wireframes are like the key to a map, while you can always look at a map without necessarily reading the key there are times when a key is necessary.
What is the best way to annotate wireframes of user interface designs?
Most wireframing tools today, be they online wireframe tools that can create clickable wireframes or a simple mock-up tool, have built-in functionality to add annotations to wireframes. However there are some things to consider when annotating wireframes of user interface designs as there comes a point when too many annotations can become counterproductive. It is crucial to keep annotations on wireframes concise. The more annotations put on wireframes the more noisy a user interface design becomes and this could become distracting. One of the ways of keeping annotations on wireframes concise is to always focus on the user benefits of the UI design elements. Clients who may not be well versed in user experience and user interface design practices will still appreciate knowing the benefits for users. If annotations are too numerous one could number them, ideally from left-to-right going down the user interface design to make understanding quicker and easier.
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