Just how many wireframes should i be producing for my client?

Question

I'm working for a client who is developing large self-serve activities for customer to manage their policy online.

My question is this....

Should i be producing a wireframe for every single journey of the site? For example,you can update a policy for many reasons - change name or add cover or change address etc. and each journey goes through the same process - select to update > update > buy update > confirmation. Do i, as a UX need to wireframe each and every one of these journeys? or just need to do one to show what it looks like and push back to client saying this should be accompanied with a functional spec which details each of these scenarios and what customer can see?

Answer 1

This is what i usually do for my area of work.

I first draw up the user flow charts. Using that as the base, i drew up as many wireframes to cover all the flows as possible. In this way, they are able to visualize the flow.

To me, the user flow chart is important as that would help you and the clients to see the flow and path of the whole journey within the site/application.

If you are not able to come up with all the wireframes within a short timeline, why not just break it into different phrase? Like phrase 1 will produce the few keys flow that most users would be making within the site, and just produce the rest of the wireframes later.

As mentioned by you, since most process are similar, you probably could re-use some of the wireframes. :)

Hope this helps you.

Answer 2

It depends.

The main purpose of wireframes is for visual communication. The amount and quality that you produce should be enough to communicate the system to the client. Talk with your client to see what they expect from you. Do they require static wireframes, or would an interactive prototype be required? Would low fidelity wireframes be sufficient, or do high-fidelity wireframes need to be produced? If there is a discrepancy on what your client expects vs. what you produce, the client may be unhappy, and you may have to spend time on rework.

Answer 3

The answer is: Create as many wireframes as needed.

How many are needed? We can't answer that. It depends on what you need to figure it out. What the client needs to feel comfortable. What the developers need to understand what to build. What the customers need to help you user test. What the testing teams need to understand what to test. What the contract stipulates. What you have time to complete based on the budget. Etc, etc.

Answer 4

The answer to your question, is probably the answer you can give to this question:

If you are going to use these wireframes to run a user study, would you get useful, new, information by testing every screen (for all the different journeys)? Would testing one of the journeys be enough, or maybe two?

The same answer goes for just presenting it to your clients.

I can imagine it would be a boring presentation if you're clicking through all the exact same things (but just different text) instead of just walking them through one entire journey and then simply explain that the other journeys have a similar flow.