Creating your first wireframe

This tutorial is designed to guide you through creating your first wireframe. It will cover a basic overview of the product as well as some of the features and UI controls.

Here is the wireframe that you will create in this tutorial:

Completed sample product page wireframe with image, tabs, text, and chart.

If you're new to the idea of wireframes, check out our article called "What are wireframes and why are they used?" to get an overview of what wireframes are, and where they fit into a UX Design process.

Basic concepts and terminology

Here are some of the basic components of Balsamiq:

UI Control - A standard user interface "widget" (e.g., Button, Image, Dialog Window). The building blocks of any wireframe.
Canvas - The grid-lined area where UI Controls are placed.
UI Library - A row of UI Controls that can be dragged onto the Canvas.
Property Inspector - A configuration panel that contains common actions (e.g. alignment, layering) and properties that are specific to each UI Control.

Note: The Application Overview has more information about the elements and controls in Balsamiq.

Balsamiq editor with Navigator, UI library, Toolbar, Canvas, and Right panels labeled.

Adding the first few controls

To create the wireframe shown above, let's begin by dragging the Browser UI Control onto the Canvas.

Dragging a Browser control from the UI library onto the canvas.

Browser control in edit mode to change title and URL text.

The content of nearly all controls in Balsamiq is defined by simple text. When a control is first added to the canvas, it will be shown in edit mode, often with hints about how to use it. For the Browser control, you can specify the title bar and URL text, or just use the default.

Tip: To edit a control at any time, double-click on it, or press Enter when it is selected.

Next, resize the control to the desired size using the resize cursor controls at the edges and corners of the control.

Continue by adding the following controls to the canvas: Title ("A Big Title"), Text ("A paragraph of text..."), and Image (the image placeholder) as shown below. Note that alignment guides appear just inside the edges of the Browser Window control when you move them toward the edges and that the controls "snap" to these guides.

Wireframe with a big title, sample text, and image placeholder inside a browser window.

Tip: Controls can also be added using the search box by typing the first few letters of the name of the control and pressing Enter.

To change the size of the text for the product name label, select the Title control and change the font size using the Property Inspector.

Title text selected with font size adjusted in the Property Inspector.

For the product description placeholder text in the Text control, enter your own placeholder text, or begin typing "lorem" and Lorem Ipsum text will automatically be generated.

Editing placeholder paragraph text inside the browser wireframe.

After resizing the Image control, your wireframe should look something like this:

Wireframe with product name text and large image placeholder beside it.

Tip: If you have trouble selecting a control that is in front of another control, try "locking" the background control to prevent it from being selected.

The next step is to add the little dots beneath the Image that indicate a rotating content or image control.

Image placeholder with four dots below indicating carousel pagination.

In this part of the tutorial you will learn about adding Icons and Grouping and Aligning controls.

Begin by adding the Icon control to the canvas.

Next, click on the "Open Icon Library..." icon next to the "Icon Search" box.

This window shows the list of all the icons included with Balsamiq. You can filter them by category or search by name. Once you have chosen an icon you can choose from one of six sizes. For this tutorial, select the Circle icon and set the size to "XS" and click "Select".

Tip: The "Icon Search" box in the Icon Property Inspector behaves like the search box and displays icons matching the text you enter (try typing "arrow", for example). Read more about adding icons via the UI library and search.

Add three more icons to the right of the Circle icon (use the Circle Outlined this time). You can also copy and paste once you've added the second icon. Using your mouse, position the icons next to each other. You can see that alignment guides appear both horizontally and vertically, helping you place them appropriately.

Dragging and aligning multiple circle icons below the image for carousel pagination.

Tip: Use the Duplicate keyboard shortcut (CTRL + D on Windows; CMD + D on Mac) to quickly replicate items on the canvas. (More keyboard shortcuts.)

Zooming out, your wireframe should now look something like this:

Wireframe with product name, image placeholder, and four carousel dots below.

The next step is to center-align the four icons below the Image control. The procedure for doing this is to first group the icons and then align the icon group with the image control.

To group a set of controls, select them by drawing a boundary around them with your cursor or holding down SHIFT and selecting each one with your mouse. Then click the Group command from the Edit menu or press CTRL+G (on Windows; CMD + G on Mac).

Context menu open with Group option selected for carousel dots below image.

Tip: Another way to select only controls that are in the foreground (besides "locking" background controls) is to hold down the ALT/OPTION key while dragging the mouse. This will prevent background controls from being selected.

Grouped controls can be identified by a light purple color and will remain grouped until Ungrouped (shortcut: CTRL/CMD + SHIFT + G). To align the grouped icons with the Image control, select them both and use the Align Center icon in the Property Inspector.

Image placeholder and carousel dots aligned using the Property Inspector.

You can move the pager controls closer to the Image control either by using the keyboard arrow keys or by using the mouse and the alignment guides.

Tip: Holding down SHIFT while moving controls with the arrow keys will move them 10 pixels at a time (instead of the usual 1 pixel).

The wireframe so far, with the pager controls added:

Wireframe with product name, image placeholder, and centered carousel dots.

Completing the wireframe

The remainder of the wireframes consists of a set of tabs, more text, and a chart.

Add a Tab Bar control and place it in the bottom half of the wireframe.

Tab bar with labels entered as comma-separated text in the editor.

Commas are used to create tabs in this control, so you can create as many tabs as you like by entering additional text separated by a comma. Entering the text "Overview, Features, Design, Specs", for example, will create the tabs shown below.

Wireframe showing tab bar with Overview, Features, Design, and Specs tabs.

To show the "Overview" tab as selected or highlighted, use the Selection property as shown below.

Tab bar properties menu showing Overview tab selected as active.

After resizing the Tab Bar control to match the width of the page, add Label and Text controls to create something like this:

Wireframe with product page showing title, text, image placeholder, tabs, and overview section.

You can format text as bold, italic, or hyperlinked in Many Controls by Enclosing the Text with Special Characters. Use *Text* for Bold, _text_ for Italics, or [Text] for Hyperlinks.

Editing text in the Overview tab of the wireframe with formatting for bold, italics, and links.

Tip: Check out our documentation for the full list of formatting notation.

Finally, drag a Chart: Column control into the empty area inside the Tab Bar as a finishing touch to complete the wireframe.

Wireframe with Overview tab content, placeholder text, and a column chart on the right.

Next steps

Now that the wireframe is finished, you can share it with clients or stakeholders. You can invite them to the project, share a public link, or export it to a PDF or images

Congratulations! You have now completed your first wireframe with Balsamiq! For more information on any of the topics covered here, see the full Balsamiq Documentation.