When not to use the wireframe aloneThe question is not whether or not to use wireframes but rather when to use them for optimal effect. This goes hand in hand with understanding what a wireframe can tell you and understanding what you cannot learn from wireframing. Thus, you can always use a wireframe when developing a new user interface but you, and particularly your clients, cannot always elicit certain types of vital information from it:

• Communicating design components: Wireframes are a blueprint for your website or enterprise application. They often purposefully do not convey details relating to content, graphics, colors etc. This is particularly true of quickly designed low fidelity wireframes. If you need to communicate design components, remember that a wireframe provides a basis for these elements but not their full realization. Thus, it is often useful to use additional visualization methods to help your team or clients understand what the full user interface may encompass beyond what the wireframe illustrates in a rudimentary form.
• Information and promotion purposes: A static wireframe is not the best method for relaying information about the full (future) functionality of the site. It is important to remember that when marketing your user interface, static wireframes alone cannot tell your clients easily what your site will do, how it will do it, and why it benefits them. For this purpose clickable wireframes are much more suitable as they enable you to simulate the functions and navigation of your web site or application. A marketing strategy built on a static wireframe alone (or simple graphics as mockups) can leave clients feeling lost.

The point to remember is that the wireframe is, above all, a design tool. It is extremely valuable in helping you sort out how to construct a website, the shape or direction you want to take it in, and conducting usability tests. It is also great to discuss concepts with your clients in the early design stages and quickly try out alternatives. But from a marketing perspective, a static wireframe alone cannot do the job. Simply sending a static wireframe (especially a low fidelity wireframe) to potential or current clients as a marketing strategy will not engender a peak in their interest. A static wireframe alone leaves too many questions to be asked and too much to be desired. Here you will need more, such as interactive clickable wireframes or full-blown UI prototypes in order to impress your clients. If you are designing a user interface, it is important to remember that a wireframe is only one piece of the pie. The lesson here is to make the appropriate distinction between design tools and marketing tools/strategies. If you keep the wireframe in the right category, the tool category, then there are few usability methods as helpful and rewarding. Just don't ask the wireframe to do what it cannot—instead, acknowledge that every excellent strategy has its limitations and strengths.