Storyboarding is one of the most crucial processes when it comes to designing a website. It is one of the initial steps that are used by designers to understand how the website will finally look to the world at large. Storyboarding allows the designers to predict how a website will behave and interact with its target visitors. This is done just before the website design is moved to the process of official design and copy-writing. Storyboarding is used not only by designers but also by technical developers.
The Structure
Storyboarding for a website is started by creating a series of black rectangles on a sinle page where each rectangle represents each page of the website. Now it depends on which company is designing the website and accordingly there is a certain amount of space kept near these rectangles for comments and questions.
The designer then fills up these rectangles with a basic diagram of how each page will look like. The storyboarding can be as simple as using boxes to represent content to more elaborate sketches. This is then presented to the client. The importance of storyboarding lies in the fact that it helps both designers and clients to get a basic understanding of what is required and what needs to be done. It also allows for changes to be made to the initial design while it is still at a very rudimentary stage.
Wireframe
The most crucial point of storyboarding is to create an initial wireframe structure of what each web page of the website will look like. The diagram should be comprehensive enough to show how much of space each element of the page will occupy. The important elements of the page include:
- The navigation bar.
- Important links
- Images
- Copy
A wireframe lets one evaluate the visual appeal of the page and how the main elements have been placed in order to maximise attention of the viewers. It represents an information hierarchy of sorts.
Website Interaction
Depending on the structure and layout of the website, the udders will interact with it and navigate their way around the site accordingly. The storyboard allows one to test how the viewer movement will flow through the website. By putting down all the links and the navigation elements on the page, it will show how the viewers will move from page to page.
Web designers will use the preview to see what are the elements that are naturally visible to the viewers without them having to scroll down the page. They will also evaluate questions like whether the navigation elements are clearly laid out so that nobody is confused or lost and whether the number of choices is adequate so as not to overwhelm people. People should get a general sense of how the website functions and is organised.
Information Hierarchy
The point of a good website is whether it gives out the requisite information to its viewers without giving away too much. Since the storyboard puts the copy and the art side by side, the web designers will get a sense of how much content should appear on each page both in terms of graphic content and written. Usually storyboards don’t show the actual content but a sketch which shows the amount of space occupied, the placement and so on.
About the author
Charlie Brown works as a freelance web designer for the past ten years. He designs websites for small businesses allowing their clients to click here for more information. Charlie likes reading in his free time.
