A wireframe is a simple, black-and-white sketch of a screen that shows where things go and how they work, without colours, final art or detailed graphics. In game design, wireframes are used to plan the user interface (UI): the title screen, menus, the heads-up display (HUD), pop-ups and the game-over screen. Best practices for designing interactions are the proven habits and questions designers use so that those screens are clear, fast and comfortable to use.

Wireframing comes after you understand your players and the principles from User Experience (UX) Factors and the Five Key Principles of Interaction Design. It comes before you spend hours on pixel art or code, because moving a box on paper takes seconds and moving finished artwork takes days.

Questions to consider when designing for interaction

Before you draw a single box, work through these questions (adapted from the U.S. government’s usability.gov guide to interaction design). Each one is a best practice in disguise.

Question	Best practice it leads to
What can a user do with a mouse, finger, controller or keyboard to interact with this screen?	Design for the real input device: big touch targets on phones, full controller navigation on consoles.
What about the appearance of an element gives the user a clue about what it does?	Use clear affordances and signifiers: buttons look pressable, selected items are highlighted.
Do error messages tell the user how to fix the problem and why it happened?	Prevent errors where possible and give helpful, friendly recovery messages.
What feedback does the user get after an action?	Give immediate feedback with sound, animation or a change on screen.
Are elements of a reasonable size and easy to reach?	Respect ergonomics: place frequent actions where thumbs and fingers naturally rest.
Are familiar or standard formats used?	Follow conventions (pause in the top corner, settings behind a gear icon) so nothing must be relearned.
What information helps the user before they act?	Show previews, tooltips and clear labels so actions are predictable.
How long does it take between an action and a response?	Keep response times short; show a loading indicator when you cannot.

More best practices for game interfaces

• Keep it simple. Show only what the player needs right now; hide advanced options in sub-menus.
• Create a clear hierarchy. The most important information (health, timer, objective) should be the biggest or brightest.
• Recognition over recall. Show icons and choices instead of expecting players to remember codes or button combinations.
• Stay consistent. The same button should do the same job on every screen.
• Keep the play area clear. HUD elements usually sit at the edges and corners so they do not cover the action.
• Design for everyone. Allow remapped controls, readable text sizes, subtitles and colour-blind friendly signals.
• Test early. Show your wireframes to players and watch where they hesitate.

Levels of fidelity

Fidelity means how close a design is to the finished product. A low-fidelity wireframe is a quick pencil sketch; a mid-fidelity wireframe is a neat digital layout with grey boxes and real labels; a high-fidelity mock-up adds colour, fonts and art; and an interactive prototype lets people click between screens. Start low and increase fidelity only when the layout works.

How to wireframe a game UI step by step

1. List the screens. For a small game: title screen, main menu, level select, gameplay HUD, pause menu, settings, win screen and game-over screen.
2. Draw a screen-flow diagram. Use arrows to show how the player moves between screens (for example, Title → Main Menu → Level Select → Gameplay → Pause → Main Menu).
3. Decide what each screen must show. Write a short list of every element and action before drawing.
4. Sketch several layouts quickly. Draw three or four thumbnail versions of each important screen; choose the clearest one.
5. Draw the chosen layout neatly. Use boxes with an X for images, lines for text, and label every button. Add notes and arrows to explain interactions (“tap to jump”, “flashes red below 20% health”).
6. Check it against the principles. Is it consistent, perceivable, learnable and predictable? Does every action give feedback?
7. Test and revise. Ask someone to “play” the paper screens while you swap pages when they tap. Note where they get stuck.

Useful tools include paper and pencil, free online tools such as Figma, Penpot or draw.io, and dedicated wireframing programs such as Balsamiq. Even PowerPoint or Google Slides can link screens together into a clickable prototype.

This CareerFoundry tutorial walks through a first wireframe from start to finish. It uses an app as the example, but every step applies to game screens too:

Example

Here is a low-fidelity wireframe of the gameplay HUD for a side-scrolling game about collecting seeds to replant a forest. Notes explain each element and the reasons behind its position.

+------------------------------------------------------------+
| [♥ ♥ ♥]  Lives        SEEDS: 12/30           [II] Pause   |
|                                                            |
|                                                            |
|                (play area kept clear)                      |
|                                                            |
|      player                                                |
|  ___[P]_____________     ______      _____________        |
|                                                            |
| [ ← ] [ → ]                                  ( JUMP )      |
+------------------------------------------------------------+
Notes:
- Lives top-left: most important status; hearts flash when one is lost.
- Seed counter top-centre: shows progress towards the level goal.
- Pause top-right: standard position; large 48 px touch target.
- Touch buttons in the bottom corners, where thumbs rest.
- Nothing sits in the middle of the screen, so the action is never hidden.

Exercise

1. List every screen a simple mobile game of your choice would need, and draw a screen-flow diagram connecting them.
2. Sketch three different low-fidelity layouts for the gameplay HUD. Choose one and explain your choice using at least three best practices from this post.
3. Draw a neat wireframe of the pause menu and the settings screen, with notes describing each interaction and its feedback.
4. Test your paper prototype with a classmate or family member. Record two problems you noticed and how you would fix them.

Next: Elements and Principles of Visual Design for Games and Interfaces (With Gestalt Examples)

Syllabus link: This post is relevant to the CAPE® Animation and Game Design Syllabus, Unit 2: Interactive Design and Game Development, Module 1: Introduction to Interactive Design – Specific Objective 7 (“outline some prominent best practices for designing interactions”); Specific Objective 8 (“employ design principles and best practices to create a wireframe of the user interface (UI) of a game”).

Attributions to media used in this post:

Spokes America Planning a Website 2.png – Nathan Kit Kennedy – CC0 (via Wikimedia Commons)

Wolfplex-Wiki-WorkshopsIdeaList-wireframe-20130929-v02.png – Dereckson – CC BY 3.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)

© 2026 Vedesh Kungebeharry. All rights reserved.