Wireframes, syndicating risk + bullshit

I’m often asked to create a wireframe for a site before I design it because the Account Group thinks it a really clever in-process sales tool - that also might reduces risk - or the number of non-billable hours that I run up.

It made me wonder: do others have the same problem with wireframes that I do? I Goggled “web wireframes” to find out; I wondered how others approach this banal task. I found a multitude of wireframe design approaches that look and smell an awful lot like post-design-rationalization . . . or bull-shit for short.

The image of all those wireframes reminded me of a chat I had with one of my mentors, Hugh Dow, about 30 years ago when I had seen one of my colleagues craft an enormous deck to sell a $2,000,000 media plan. I felt like I’d missed a few steps because I was selling much larger media plans with very short decks. Hugh assured me that I was on the right track: “if you can sell it with just one page, do it, but if you’ve got a client that needs to see all your work, append that too.”

I’ve never forgotten that valuable lesson:

• Do all the detailed work to ensure that you know what you’re doing - and why. Keep that work close at hand so that you can explain yourself if and when you need to with-out any hesitation. 
• Only say and show what’s needed to make the sale.
• Sell the benefits and excitement of sharing a great story: don’t bore them with your stupid process.

So, back to wireframes.

Stupid idea, except for VERY complex sites.

Likewise, it is good idea to provide mock-ups of key pages for a big catalog, but not for a little roll-fold brochure or a banner ad.