Wireframes with Frame0

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Wireframes with Frame0Source: https://frame0.app/

In a world dominated by Figma, there is a free open-source tool designed to create wireframes. Wireframes are great for Product Owners, Developers, and Designers to sketch the 'functionality' of a software, before each department starts their job.

All is Figma

Figma is a great tool. It has been a must-have for designers and teams of any size and shape for years now. And it has its reasons. It's fast, it has a lot of presets and can transform a design into a working prototype pretty easily (even with a partial presentation/navigation mode).
But this is, unfortunately, also the reason why Figma (or more accurately the teams using it) has now become the problem of a certain way of building software. We focus on design first, and we iterate on that, without taking into consideration the functionality from the technical perspective. Oftentimes even a skilled PO doesn't have the technical knowledge to know how two similar solutions might greatly differ in technical complexity.

Functionality?

Yes, functionalities - there is a forgotten trend in startups for which the 'functional' in functionality is taken for granted. Designing a functionality IS NOT the same as doing the design (or the technical implementation), but it's the core of what the software should do and how it should do it. This is the essence of what a great product definition should look like.
And, guess what, in a world of AI and automatism, only the human mind can grasp on what is Functional. A human being is the one who knows what fits into the current product. It might know by heart how complex something is going to be (and how many weeks of development it takes). Also when humans write for humans, they might focus on what A) needs decisions and B) what is most important.

What is a Wireframe?

What is a Wireframe?

A wireframe is a simplified version of your App or Website, and it focuses more on outlining and sketching the structure and the interactions, more than the finished product. It's what you would draw on a white paper to explain 'the functionality' to a colleague. Wireframes are not mandatory for someone to write down a functional analysis, but surely are of great help and help narrowing down problems, goals and interactions. A great wireframe can present visually something that is challenging to understand when it's in a bullet-point list.

Frame0

There are many tools out there, some better than others. Figma can do wireframes too, Balsamiq is a great tool as well. But for a simple project, there is a simple, open-source, free alternative - Frame0.
Main functionalities include:
  • Easy to install and use
  • Plenty of pre-defined assets
  • Export in PDF, PNG and SVG
  • Multiplatform (Mac, Windows, Linux)
  • Free (I know I said it already)

Conclusions

No matter which is your job in an IT company, you might want to practice and start using Wireframes. They are a great tool to master and can come in handy to identify problems early, to use them as a guideline for the implementation and even for testing the expected behavior of the final application.
Published: Sunday, Jun 29, 2025, 03:18 PM
Fabrizio C.
Fabrizio C.

Fabrizio C. is the founder of AsPlanned, and is a Software Developer with more than 15 years of experience in Software Development. He currently works for Zeeg - The Scheduling App.

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