Follow these steps to learn how to create a mockup website for a client. Avoid pitfalls and make a brilliant website mockup for presentation.
Creating a website mockup is a crucial first step in turning a client’s vision into a reality. But without a clear process, it’s easy to get stuck in endless revisions and miscommunications. In this guide, you’ll learn how to create a mockup website for a client. From gathering the right information during the discovery phase to presenting a polished mockup that wins fast approvals.
We’ll cover tools like Figma, Balsamiq, and Carrd, and share expert strategies to streamline feedback loops, present interactive designs, and move efficiently from wireframe to final prototype.
Whether you’re a freelance designer or part of a creative agency, this step-by-step tutorial will help you deliver mockups that impress and convert.
Figure out what the client wants and align it with their brand identity and functional goals. That’s the first step. For that, follow these pointers.
Begin by asking targeted questions about business objectives, who the website needs to reach, and which competitors they’re measuring against. This step helps you to discover the fundamentals that drive every design decision.
When clients mention wanting something “simple” or “modern,” go deep. These terms mean different things to different people.
So, request examples of websites they admire or dislike. This visual communication reveals preferences more clearly than verbal descriptions alone.
Define project boundaries immediately – will you handle just the mockup design or complete development? Set these parameters to scout scope expansion and prevent unexpected costs.
Identify who has final approval authority at the start. Projects often stall when feedback comes from multiple sources with competing priorities. Know the key decision-maker to get approvals quicker and reduce revision cycles.
Here, your focus will be more on structure than aesthetics. Once the structure is confirmed, you can change the aesthetic elements easily.
Ragnar Karlsson, a Reddit user, explains – I use moqups with clients myself, setting down a wireframe with them before proceeding to any graphical design. This allows you to minimise time spent at this stage through avoiding “But that picture isn’t right” or “I don’t like that shade of the colour” and set down in contract what the layout will look like.
Well, he is on point. Your focus should be on creating a wireframe and explaining it to your clients for approval.
Tools like Balsamiq are popular for their sketch-like quality that emphasizes the draft nature of wireframes. Figma offers the advantage of being collaborative and web-based, allowing clients to comment directly.
This approach helps clients understand the layout and user flow without being distracted by colors and typography. For quick concepts, your hand-drawn sketches on paper work well too.
Keep wireframes intentionally grayscale and basic—focus on content hierarchy, navigation placement, and overall structure. Avoid clients from fixating on visual elements too early.
Presenting multiple layout options gives clients a sense of involvement and helps clarify their preferences before you invest time in detailed designs.
However, there is a catch. You must understand the difference between wireframes, mockups, and prototypes of websites. It helps you to know when to present what to a client. Let me make it simple for you.
This simple comparison table will clarify these closely related terms of website development.
| Type | Purpose | Design Fidelity | When to Use |
| Wireframes | Structure and layout planning | Low | Early stage to establish page elements and user flow |
| Mockups | Visual design presentation | High | After wireframe approval, to show the final look and feel |
| Prototypes | Interactive experience testing | Medium to high | Before development, to test functionality and transitions |
It serves the purpose of bringing clarity to find out which one to use. Once you have identified what the client prefers, you can start preparing a website mockup.
Translate the approved wireframes and prepare a website mockup with a polished design. You can use these tools to interpret and implement clients’ likes and avoid dislikes. Here is what you should follow.
According to designers on Reddit, Figma has become the industry standard primarily for its browser-based accessibility and collaboration features.
Ok, I’ll go first. I mostly mastered Photoshop long ago. So I’ve always used it to mockup websites. I know a ton of shortcuts and have prebuilt actions, so I’m pretty fast in it. But there are areas where it’s lacking as a web design tool. So I’m thinking of learning Figma. – Ruh_Roh-
My current company switched from Adobe XD to Figma. I find it much easier to use, personally, but that’s me. – Luxtabula
However, it’s a personal choice. You can choose a tool that fits your requirements and expertise. Follow these design tips, irrespective of your website mockup design tool choices.
Once done, you need to present the mockups effectively and explain them well to the clients. They might not have enough experience in understanding the nitty-gritty of website design.
Here’s How to Present Mockups Effectively
Your website mockup presentation should be easy to understand. It must convey the intent of your design concepts. Check out the tips you can use for presenting a website design mockup efficiently.
Create clickable elements that show how users will navigate between pages. This method helps clients visualize the actual website experience instead of static images.
Narrate your design decisions while demonstrating interactions. This video-style communication is perfect for clients who miss live presentations or need to review details later.
Organize mockups alongside explanatory notes and project context. It creates a comprehensive package that clients can review at their own pace.
Reddit designers have moved beyond basic PowerPoint slides, which often crop important elements and create “jarring” transitions between sections.
I usually just make PowerPoint slides, but I find that sometimes it is hard to keep the whole screen in a slide and to convey the entire picture. – Touchmetouchingyou
You must present your website mockup in multiple page formats to avoid long-scrolling frustrations. This Reddit user points out what your website mockup should avoid.
Designer here, that’s a tough question the way it’s worded. I’m assuming maybe their mockups are single page builds so that the image is extremely long vertically? Showing multiple sections on a single page? – Nilo-jxn
Hence, a walkthrough video or a live presentation will avoid back-and-forth communication and save your valuable hours. Next, you must learn how to interpret feedback and implement changes.
Seek feedback from clients with an organized approach. These strategies will help you achieve your goal:
Tools like InVision, and Figma’s prototyping features provide smoother presentation experiences while maintaining space for explanatory annotations.
Save iterations of your mockups at key approval stages so you can quickly reference or restore previous versions when needed.
Record all change requests and confirmations in writing to prevent misunderstandings and scope creep.
That’s all about the simple process. After this step, it is a loop of feedback and iteration until the clients approve the website design.
Here is a list of tools you can use to create website mockups.
Apart from Figma and Adobe, these budget-friendly tools let you design a website mockup for small clients and minimum viable products (MVPs).
You can create a personal profile or a landing page for capturing emails with Carrd. It’s totally free and works fine for responsible website designs. Its pro version costs $9/year.
You don’t need to learn coding from scratch to create a website mockup with Framer. Design and collaborate with teams to create mockups and get faster approvals. It offers a free version.
Create landing pages, online stores, portfolios, personal websites, event websites, corporate blogs, etc, with Tilda’s block-building interface. Use its 210+ templates and 550+ blocks for any purpose. Its first website is free. The premium plans start at $10/month.
Google Sites is a no-code website builder tool for businesses. You can use it for free. Get insights from the use cases to build a website mockup. You can also buy templates for professional website building. All you need is a Gmail account.
The prepping part entirely depends on how well you have generated a website mockup. It should be a clear image of what your client wants and what elements you want to add. Here is the checklist you must follow to keep the workflow smooth.
Define a theme for spacing, typography, and color style consistency. Use a website mockup design tool by following it. Set consistent style properties that easily translate to CSS. This step will make website element building faster and more accurate.
Export assets in correct formats: SVG, PNG, JPG, etc. Provide optimized image files that developers can use without additional editing or conversion.
Use handoff tools like Zeplin if collaborating with developers. Follow the transition from design to code with specialized tools that extract CSS values and organize assets.
Static mockups work for presentation, but you might have to develop a functioning prototype for these aspects.
If you have coding skills, tools like Webflow or Framer let you build functioning prototypes that can evolve into production sites. This step eliminates the design-to-code translation step.
When clients need to see actual interactions that Figma can’t replicate, like working input fields or complex animations.
Code-based tools demonstrate exactly how elements will respond across different devices and user interactions. These tools will assist you in making a working prototype of your website mockup.
Code with a visual canvas, along with a CMS for collaborative website prototype development. This tool offers tools for AI-powered personalization, SEO, localization, and A/B testing.
Framer is a go-to website coding platform for its templates and plugins. Start with a template and then scale up the website design as per the client’s requirements.
Bootstrap Studio is a good choice for a more technical website prototype design. It’s a no-code Bootstrap framework that lets you design complex prototypes fast and show them to clients.
So, you have the list of website mockup tools and the process to start your venture. There will be pitfalls and unseen hurdles to tackle. Here is a list of pitfalls that newbie website designers face.
Be clear about your website development project and avoid any ambiguity in the process. Keep the clients in the loop and avoid these common pitfalls.
Such pitfalls slow down the development process and complicate the operations unnecessarily. Communicate with clients and clarify their perception of what a website development process is.
When your website mockup is done, the final step is to select a proper communication channel to convey the finished product.
Your aim should be a clean presentation of what you have prepared that clients can perceive easily. The general ways website designers follow are:
That’s it. You are well set to proceed and create a website mockup, and you know how to present it to clients.
The ideal size for desktop mockup designs is 1280×720 to 1440×900 pixels. For mobile devices, 360×800 is the best choice. For tablets, 768×1024 is the ideal choice.
Follow these steps to generate UI mockups.
1. Define project goal and scope.
2. Sketch your ideas.
3. Use a website UI mockup design tool.
4. Present the mockup and get feedback.
5. Work on the feedback and get approval.
