User Experience flows, its not static.
If your designing experience, you need to model movement. It’s the path and flow in user experience that matters, it’s the sequencing and simplicity of the journey that counts.
With this in mind, old definitions of “wireframe fidelity” simply don’t make sense any more. It’s not about pages, page structure or layout in the same sense that buildings aren’t about bricks, windows and doors.
Bricks and mortar may be elements may make up the experience of buildings, but they simply define the boundaries around which movement may occur. Architects define the boundaries of space, and the experience of living within the build environment is an experience of what movement and functions can occur within these boundaries. Architects simply define boundaries and connections. Experience Designers need to understand that websites and applications are the same.
This realization requires a very different approach than wireframing. Rather than simply documenting where a link goes, the goal is to model and start experiencing what moving around a site feels like as quickly as possible.
It’s the space that your design affords, and the feel of moving thru this space that you need to get a grip on early. Prototyping experience is about understanding this space.
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The day after i wrote this post i stumbled across this… its a great way of capturing the multidimensional nature of fidelity
http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/integrating
Fidelity is multidimensional.
Not only can you have a prototype that looks like a realistic product, but you can also have a prototype that works like a realistic product. I call these dimensions of fidelity “visual fidelity” and “functional fidelity.” By varying your prototyping methodology along these two dimensions you can ensure that your prototyping effort is successful given your particular context
