Formerly the Weekly Seven Plus or Minus Two, we’ve decided to follow our own advice and title our weekly post by its content to give our readers some context. This week is all about wireframes. Some of us prefer to sketch, some use designing software like Photoshop or illustrator, and some lean more towards prototyping specific software. Regardless of your preference we’re sure you will find value in the following five wireframing resources.
50 Free UI and Web Design Wireframing Kits, Resources and Source Files
This list of wireframing design kits come to you from our friends at Smashing Magazine. Browsing through this list we’re sure you’ll find a resource you will use.
35 Excellent Wireframing Resources
Another great list from Smashing Magazine! This one includes 35 different methods and tools available.
Wireframing is one of the most valuable parts of any web design project. It can save a designer tons of time by hashing out the details of a site’s architecture, functionality, and content prior to actually starting a visual design. But if done inefficiently, it can end up costing more time and can even create bigger headaches for both the client and the designer.
10 Completely Free Wireframe and Mockup Applications
Free is great when you’re budget conscious, but free doesn’t always mean quality. Here is a list of ten Free tools that are surprisingly robust.
Every web designer and developer should have a good and reliable wireframe (mockup or prototype) tool at their disposal. The importance of such a tool differentiates amongst web designers and developers, some use them, some don’t. Personally, I use them. It is in this initial stage of development that makes web design enjoyable, the coming together of the clients needs and your own creative ideas onto a blank canvas, allowing you to plan effectively the visual arrangement of the sites content.
Free Web UI Wireframe Kit
Straight from yours truly, Fuel Your Interface recently gave away a free UI wireframe kit, and while there are many great freebies out there, this is a very comprehensive kit… And you just can’t beat free!
Sometimes you don’t need to build interactive wireframes, or may not feel all that comfortable in Visio or OmniGraffle. I know here are times I just want to open up Photoshop and start laying things out.
This web UI template kit is made completely with shape objects and in some cases converted into SmartObjects. So they’re totally scalable.
Designers Toolbox
This is probably one of my most “go-to” resources when I need something a little more than a sketch or a “designed” UI element. Designer Toolbox has a lot of great UI and wireframing resources from a range of browser elements and “websafe” area templates to HTML code for glyphs,punctuation, and currency. It even has a Lorem Ipsum genterator. Next time you need radio buttons for Safari, IE and Firefox, Designers Toolbox will be the bookmark you hit!