Wireframes are making your designs worse. Why you need to stop creating them.
The entire team sat around a huge table in the office.
The Crazy 8s timer buzzed, and the team excitedly shared their sketches.
Back at my desk, I picked up my sticker pack to highlight strong ideas.
Out of 50 sketches, I picked only four ideas.
Why only four?
Because most of the sketches were just slight variations of the same idea.
Not new concepts.
I see this often in design portfolios too →
iterations of the first idea rather than different solutions.
This is why designers struggle to explain how their proposed solution solves a problem. They tweak visuals instead of solving the problem.
Designers are failing to distinguish between a variation and a new concept.
What is the difference between a new concept and a variation?
Let's define the differences:
New concept: A fundamentally different approach to solving a problem.
Variation: A different way to execute one idea visually.
Example: Say we are designing for Spotify and aim to improve music discovery.
Examples of new concepts:
User selects a mood, and Spotify recommends new music based on that mood
The user is shown a world map and can explore trending music by selecting a region
User can see playlists based on their close friend's music interests
Examples of variations:
User picks their mood from an emotion wheel and is shown songs
User selects their mood based on emojis and is taken to a list of songs
User taps on a mood from a grid of icons, and a playlist is created based on that mood
Do you see how the variations are all based on the same concept but with different explorations?
There's a time and place for both new concepts and variations:
Ideation phase → Generate diverse solutions to achieve the project goal.
Development phase → Refine the chosen concept with variations, considering technical constraints and design components.
So how can you ensure you're coming up with new ideas?
✨ Use Written Concepts instead ✨
Instead of sketching out your ideas, use words to articulate them.
Here are Written Concepts for the Spotify project:
Here's another example from one of my projects 👇🏽
Why are Written Concepts better than wireframes?
1️⃣ They ensure you generate truly different solutions, not just variations
I remember being in a review session with my manager, and she asked to see all the different concepts I had explored to solve the user problem.
Proudly, I pulled up a whole Figma page filled with wireframes.
She looked at them and asked, "So, how do these solve the problem differently?"
My brain went blank.
They didn't.
They were all minor UI tweaks on the same idea.
Nothing truly different.
That's when I realized I wasn't actually exploring different solutions. I was refining one idea over and over.
2️⃣ They help you clarify the idea before getting lost in UI details
Do you get lost in the visual details of a wireframe before you've fully fleshed out the concept?
A Written Concept helps avoid this as it allows you to clarify 'what' the concept is before thinking about 'how' it will look.
3️⃣ They give you a deeper understanding of your solution
Writing down your idea helps:
You better understand it and articulate its benefits
Makes it easier to present and defend it to others.
Have you ever had that moment when someone asks what your idea is, and you start describing its UI elements?
This is because you haven't thoroughly thought through the idea and the benefits it brings.
4️⃣ They help evaluate the idea's impact, not just its appearance
A written concept shifts the focus from how the design looks to whether it solves a problem because you're not distracted by the visuals.
This lets you and your team judge the idea for what it really is and evaluate whether it solves the user problem, leading to stronger designs.
5️⃣ They prevent design catfish
Sometimes, a design looks incredible but doesn't actually solve any real user problem (design catfish 😂)
Focusing too much on visuals can lead to a design that looks great but lacks functionality or user value.
6️⃣ Written concepts encourage feedback that focuses on the idea, not just the visuals
Isn't it frustrating when you're asking for design feedback, and someone responds:
"I'm not sure I like the colors you've used."
Showing a visual concept (wireframe, sketch, or quick UI) means you are more likely to get surface-level feedback (e.g. colours, layout etc). A Written Concept shifts the conversation to deeper discussions of the idea itself and its value.
Finishing thoughts…
As designers, we're naturally drawn to visuals. We can easily get lost in UI details instead of solving the core problem.
This is why we can find it difficult to articulate our design solution: we don't have clarity on what our solution is.
By articulating concepts in words first, we ensure our ideas are clear, valuable, and well-thought-out.
This leads to stronger, more impactful final designs.
So grab some post it notes the next time you go to ideate, start writing your ideas down before anything else.
P.S
I've created a FigJam template to help you start with Written Concepts.
