Taking Claritee for a Spin: First Impressions of a Design Tool for Site Mapping and Wireframing

Hi, this is Evelyn from Thinker & Co, a newsletter with Short Notes on Design Thinking (Light), Human+Tech Systems, Innovative Product Design and Development, and Being a Solopreneur.

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A new tool found me today, and I decided to give it a quick spin.

The founder of Claritee reached out to me on LinkedIn. Curious as always (and admittedly a bit distracted), I spent an hour diving into what the platform has to offer.

Here’s what I found:

What is Claritee

Claritee is a tool for planning and sharing design ideas. It aims to tackle a common issue in the design process: the confusion between design requirements and visual aesthetics. Most tools combine these discussions, often resulting in costly miscommunication and project delays. Claritee, however, separates the two with its Site Map and Wireframe builders, designed for more efficient collaboration across stakeholders.

There is also an assistive AI which can generate site maps based on prompts or URLs.

Does it live up to expectations? Here’s what I discovered through a few experiments.

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Experimenting with the Site Map Builder

Attempt #1: Building an App Site Map for Neurodiverse Families

Prompt: "Create a site map for an app to help neurodiverse families find and organize playdates."

Result: The home page contains irrelevant sections. The AI-generated site map was perplexing and disorganized. It also included irrelevant sections like "AI Assistant for App" with subcategories that had no relation to the prompt (e.g., "Natural language processing" and "Task Management"). Not a great first impression.

I have listed all details below for your reference.

• HOME

• ABOUT

  • Mission

  • Team

  • Contact

• AI ASSISTANT FOR APP

  • Overview

  • Features

    • Natural language processing

    • Task Management

    • Scheduling

    • Reminders

    • Customization

    • User profiles

    • Matching Algorithms

    • Messaging

    • Event Scheduling

    • Safety Measures

  • How it works

  • Use cases

    • Personal Productivity

    • Professional Use

  • Pricing

  • FAQs

• PLAYDATE APP FOR NEURODIVERSE FAMILIES

  • Overview

  • Features

  • How it works

  • Success stories

  • Pricing

  • FAQs

• BLOG

  • AI Trends

  • Neurodiverse community

  • Parenting tips

  • App updates

• SUPPORT

  • Help centre

  • contact support

  • Community forum

  • Feedback

• LEGAL

  • privacy policy

  • terms and conditions

After this confusing start with App design, I moved onto to try how Claritee AI fares in designing a Website structure.

Attempt #2: Building a Website Site Map for Families Organizing Playdates

Prompt: Similar to the previous attempt, but for a website.

Result: The site map was much more structured, including logical sections

• HOME

• ABOUT US

• HOW IT WORKS

• CONTACT US

• PLAYDATES

  • Find a playdate

  • Arrange a playdate

• COMMUNITY

  • Discussion forums

  • Success stories

  • Events and meetups

• RESOURCES

  • Articles and guides

  • Support groups

  • Recommended activities

• MEMBERSHIP

  • Sign up

  • Log in

  • Benefits

  • Pricing plans

• BLOG

• PRIVACY POLICY

• TERMS AND CONDITIONS

I particularly liked the thoughtful additions like “Resources” and “Success Stories”. However, inconsistencies between the Home Page sections and the rest of the hierarchy persisted.

Attempt #3: A Simple Landing Page for My Career and Specialties

Prompt: "Create a landing page to showcase my career and specialties."

Result: The AI generated a template that was much closer to what I expected. However, the same issue of mismatched Home Page sections cropped up again, making me question whether I misunderstood how it worked)

Then I moved on to try a feature that seems most fun - asking AI to copy a sitemap from a URL.

Attempt #4: Reproducing a Site Map from a URL

Test: I provided a simple URL and asked Claritee to replicate its site map.

Result: Success! Claritee’s AI successfully generated an accurate site map on the first try, demonstrating its potential for quick, baseline site maps when clients point to preferred websites.

There may or may not be nuances associated with this feature when it comes to more complicated sites. But for the basic experiment I conducted, Claritee passed with flying colours.

Next I moved onto their Wireframe Builder.

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Wireframe Builder: Claritee’s Strong Suit

Moving to the Wireframe Builder, Claritee truly stood out:

• Smooth Interface: The drag-and-drop experience was super fluid, with no freezing or lag.

• Extensive Library: The library is divided into:

  • Sections

  • Blocks

  • Elements

  • Icons

  • Images

  • My Library

• Nice graphics: simple, clear, and elegant

• Low-to-Medium Fidelity Options: You can keep wireframes low-fi with monochrome themes (pink, black, blue or beta dark) or show images in colours for a medium-fi option.

• Collaboration Focus: The built-in conversation tool encourages real-time feedback, ensuring team alignment.

Where Claritee Falls Short

Although the Wireframe Builder is impressive, Claritee’s reliance on templates can be limiting. Customization options are sparse, with only basic drawing tools available (lines, arrows, text boxes, and basic shapes). Still, for most wireframing purposes, the predefined elements may suffice.

Final Thoughts

After a brief hour-long test, here’s my take:

• Wireframe Builder: Exceptional. I will use this for my next project.

• Site Map Builder: Just okay. Inconsistent AI, basic functionality, and a clunky layout make it less appealing.

For minimal needs (up to three projects and a few pages), the free plan is worth exploring. However, the pricing model (per seat, per month) could add up quickly if your needs expand.

While an hour is not long enough for me to really get to know the tool, first impressions do count. I hope this gives you a quick idea of the Claritee experience.