Summary
In this sponsored session, Billy Carlson, a Design Educator from Balsamiq, will walk through how to use low fidelity designs combined with storytelling to convince product leadership to green light your next big product or feature idea.
Key Insights
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Staying in low fidelity during early concept development enables faster iteration and clear focus on problem-solving.
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Co-creating sketches with the whole product team builds trust and ensures alignment on the real problem.
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Using thick markers in sketching encourages broad concept exploration and prevents premature focus on detail.
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Wireframes should look polished enough to be taken seriously but remain low fidelity to avoid distracting aesthetics.
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Incorporating storytelling alongside wireframes helps stakeholders understand user impact and design rationale.
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Keeping interactive elements together in wireframes improves comprehension for non-designers during presentations.
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Leaving question marks in wireframes is a useful strategy to invite discussion on uncertain areas.
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Content design and UX writing should engage early in the wireframing process to better shape features.
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Leveraging existing design systems or UI components in digital wireframes maintains UX consistency.
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Presenting problem background, personas, and journey maps alongside wireframes creates a persuasive design story.
Notable Quotes
"Staying in low fidelity throughout early concept development lets you focus strictly on the problem and solution space."
"Wireframes plus a little bit of storytelling is awesome."
"There’s nothing aesthetic to grab onto in low fidelity, so you focus on structure, which is most important early on."
"I like thick markers for sketching because they keep you high level and prevent you from diving into details too early."
"Low fidelity does not mean low quality."
"Leave your new feature in the context of how people will see it so it’s easy for stakeholders to understand."
"It’s really powerful to leave question marks in wireframes to open the conversation with your presentation audience."
"Content first design should happen after sketching but pretty early to help shape the wireframes and concepts."
"I tell people to find inspiration from existing designs and bring those into your wireframes to look like real products."
"Tell a story with your design by starting with background, introducing the users, and demonstrating how the design benefits them."
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