This is where UI/UX come into play, and integrate branding elements.Ī mockup is what front-end developers use to both build out your future product and also provide time estimates for their work. Unlike a wireframe, this looks more similar to your final product.Ī mockup helps to establish the color schemes, content layouts, the brand fonts, icons, and navigational considerations. It will demonstrate screens or frames, and show the positioning of content and functionality. MockupĪ mockup is a high-fidelity static design of your future product. This is why it is important to spend time visualizing the user journey at the wireframe stage and make the necessary modifications to save both time and money. Once you get to the next stage, the mockup, effort and time start increasing, which also corresponds to an increase in cost. One thing to remember is that a wireframe is just a blueprint and not a representation of the real screen. It contains the essential elements the product would have without any design applied to it.Īs you can probably tell, a wireframe is a very rough representation of what you’ll be building but helps shorten how long it will take to develop your app. This is where a wireframe comes in as a low-fidelity representation of the initial product concept.

Regardless of what it is, first you’ll want sketches, then blueprints, and then an architectural model of the actual building. This is normal in anything you would try to build, whether it is a software or a skyrise building. The difference between wireframes, mockups and prototypes WireframesĪs you look to build any software or product, you’ll want to get some sort of representation before you start the actual building. The difference between wireframes, mockups, and prototypes.Although, if you’re familiar with the differences, you can skip directly to the Figma section. Then we explain the fine-tuned process we’ve refined after iterations of work with our clients, and the tools we use, such as Figma for prototyping, that make this process a lot faster and more cost-effective.īefore diving into the value-nuggets of this article lets differentiate wireframes, mockups and prototypes. When clients ask us how they can save money, or better yet, how they can ensure they validate what they are building first, our answer is to not skip over the early stages of product development which include creating wireframes, mockups, and prototypes.

Wireframe prototype mockup