HTML as an Interative Wireframe tool

January 08, 2003

Most user experience designers do some form of prototyping in the form of wireframes to explore and demonstrate solutions to usability issues without having a polished design. The benefits to this process is the ability to rapidly test and modify experiences using paper or flat files without having to build working prototypes early on.

There is an interesting argument being made at Boxes and Arrows that presents an alternative view to using HTML as the tool of choice for wireframing. They claim the only reason they have heard why HTML is not an option for experience designers is that they are happy with the tools they are using. One thing to consider (which is what I have found) is that making wireframes using traditional paper prototyping tools prevents stakeholders from getting married to a particular layout due to the crude nature of the wireframe.