Why I prefer high-fidelity wireframes

Ever since I started my new path as an interaction designer, the process has always been described the same way to me: concept/sketch -> wireframe -> visual design. All steps resulting in increasing levels of visual fidelity.

I'm not a visual designer by any stretch of the imagination so my work has always been situated in the first two steps: sketching and wireframing.

I love sketching and I think it is essential. I actually prefer sketching by hand and my sketches are typically very messy. I'm a doodler and this is typically how I get unstuck when I am faced with a hard problem.

But a significant portion of my time is spent wireframing. And I have been working with the assumption that wireframes have to be low fidelity. I've hated that assumption from the beginning because I find low-fidelity wireframes to be very limiting as a communication tool.

The low-fidelity wireframes reside in the uncanny valley of interaction design. Customers will gladly comment a concept sketch. And they will surely comment a fully rendered visual design. But somehow, I have had many customers that are blind to a low-fidelity wireframe. They'll just wave it by, blindly approving it just to come back with a metric-boatload of comments once it gets fully rendered or implemented. Mostly comments about things that were there in the wireframe; Just invisible to them.

I was reading this post: 4 things no one told me about high fidelity wireframes and I was filled with a great sense of relief: I'm not alone to prefer higher-fidelity wireframes.