Dec 18, 2023 ✦ written by S. Gökce Koray
Bolognese to Wireframe
Recently, during an interview, I was asked how I would explain the concept of 'wireframes' to a client who doesn't know anything about the tech and design world.
As job seekers, we should prepare for multiple possible questions during interviews. However, my personality doesn't really allow me to follow a strict script. While I value organization, I thrive with a sense of freedom; otherwise, I suffer - a lot.
Returning to interviews: despite rehearsing my thoughts extensively, I inevitably end up improvising a significant portion.
So, you can imagine my slight surprise when asked a question I had never thought about before. Once again, it was time to improvise on the spot.
Firstly, strategy. Attempting to deliver an expected answer seemed futile given the open-endedness, coupled with my limited knowledge of the interviewers – only aware of their titles, names, and faces on my screen. That option swiftly went out the window.
Secondly, in my mind, I quickly recalled times when I had to explain things to people. Unless you share something in common, it's difficult and sometimes nerve-racking to get your point across. And what's universally relatable, I thought. Eating. Almost everyone have an idea about the process of cooking.
Hence, I compared the process of designing an app to cooking. Ingredients become buttons, images, text boxes – your 'hamburger menus.' The screen becomes your pot, housing these ingredients. Wireframes represent the point where most ingredients are in the pot, pre-cooking. You have an idea of how it's going to taste, and it needs some time to get there. If we continue with this analogy: the point you start to taste the food before plating would be the final feedback/user testing phase. According to the data from 'your taste buds,' you'd add some spices, butter, maybe some water... And hopefully, when the time comes to eat, you'd be asked for seconds :)
Life throws us surprises at every corner. Some prep for doomsday with saving tons of canned food, others decide what to do according to the circumstances. Both have pros and cons, but ultimately, it's about comfort in the process. One of these will feel natural to you, come naturally to you. You can pick a lane; I know which one I'm on.
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