•Lorem Ipsum: when, and when not to use itDo you like Cheese Whiz? Spray tan?

Fake
eyelashes? That's what is Lorem Ipsum to many—it rubs them the wrong way, all the way. It's
unreal, uncanny, makes you wonder if something is wrong, it seems to seek your attention for
all the wrong reasons. Usually, we prefer the real thing, wine without sulfur based preservatives,
real butter, not margarine, and so we'd like our layouts and designs to be filled with real words,
with thoughts that count, information that has value.
The toppings you may chose for that TV dinner pizza slice when you forgot to shop for foods, the paint
you may slap on your face to impress the new boss is your business. But what about your daily bread?
Design comps, layouts, wireframes—will your clients accept that you go about things the facile way?
Authorities in our business will tell in no uncertain terms that Lorem Ipsum is that huge, huge no no to
forswear forever. Not so fast, I'd say, there are some redeeming factors in favor of greeking text, as its
use is merely the symptom of a worse problem to take into consideration.
You begin with a text, you sculpt information, you chisel away what's not needed, you come to the
point, make things clear, add value, you're a content person, you like words. Design is no afterthought,
far from it, but it comes in a deserved second. Anyway, you still use Lorem Ipsum and rightly so, as it
will always have a place in the web workers toolbox, as things happen, not always the way you like it,
not always in the preferred order. Even if your less into design and more into content strategy you may
find some redeeming value with, wait for it, dummy copy, no less.
Consider this: You made all the required mock ups for commissioned layout, got all the approvals, built
a tested code base or had them built, you decided on a content management system, got a license for it
or adapted open source software for your client's needs. Then the question arises: where's the content?
Not there yet? That's not so bad, there's dummy copy to the rescue. But worse, what if the fish doesn't
fit in the can, the foot's to big for the boot? Or to small? To short sentences, to many headings, images
too large for the proposed design, or too small, or they fit in but it looks iffy for reasons the folks in the
meeting can't quite tell right now, but they're unhappy, somehow. A client that's unhappy for a reason is
a problem, a client that's unhappy though he or her can't quite put a finger on it is worse.
But. A big but: Lorem Ipsum is not t the root of the problem, it just shows what's going wrong. Chances
are there wasn't collaboration, communication, and checkpoints, there wasn't a process agreed upon or
specified with the granularity required. It's content strategy gone awry right from the start. Forswearing
the use of Lorem Ipsum wouldn't have helped, won't help now. It's like saying you're a bad designer,
use less bold text, don't use italics in every other paragraph. True enough, but that's not all that it takes
to get things back on track.
So Lorem Ipsum is bad (not necessarily)
There's lot of hate out there for a text that amounts to little more than garbled words in an old language.
The villagers are out there with a vengeance to get that Frankenstein, wielding torches and pitchforks,
wanting to tar and feather it at the least, running it out of town in shame.
One of the villagers, Kristina Halvorson from Adaptive Path, holds steadfastly to the notion that design
can’t be tested without real content:
I’ve heard the argument that “lorem ipsum” is effective in wireframing or design because it helps
people focus on the actual layout, or color scheme, or whatever. What kills me here is that we’re talking
about creating a user experience that will (whether we like it or not) be DRIVEN by words. The entire
structure of the page or app flow is FOR THE WORDS.

If that's what you think how bout the other way around? How can you evaluate content without design?
No typography, no colors, no layout, no styles, all those things that convey the important signals that go
beyond the mere textual, hierarchies of information, weight, emphasis, oblique stresses, priorities, all
those subtle cues that also have visual and emotional appeal to the reader. Rigid proponents of content
strategy may shun the use of dummy copy but then designers might want to ask them to provide style
sheets with the copy decks they supply that are in tune with the design direction they require.
Or else, an alternative route: set checkpoints, networks, processes, junctions between content and
layout. Depending on the state of affairs it may be fine to concentrate either on design or content,
reversing gears when needed.
Or maybe not. How about this: build in appropriate intersections and checkpoints between design and
content. Accept that it’s sometimes okay to focus just on the content or just on the design.
Luke Wroblewski, currently a Product Director at Google, holds that fake data can break down in real
life:
Using dummy content or fake information in the Web design process can result in products with
unrealistic assumptions and potentially serious design flaws. A seemingly elegant design can quickly
begin to bloat with unexpected content or break under the weight of actual activity. Fake data can
ensure a nice looking layout but it doesn’t reflect what a living, breathing application must endure. Real
data does.

Websites in professional use templating systems. Commercial publishing platforms and content
management systems ensure that you can show different text, different data using the same template.
When it's about controlling hundreds of articles, product pages for web shops, or user profiles in social
networks, all of them potentially with different sizes, formats, rules for differing elements things can
break, designs agreed upon can have unintended consequences and look much different than expected.
This is quite a problem to solve, but just doing without greeking text won't fix it. Using test items of
real content and data in designs will help, but there's no guarantee that every oddity will be found and
corrected. Do you want to be sure? Then a prototype or beta site with real content published from the
real CMS is needed—but you’re not going that far until you go through an initial design cycle.
Lorem Ipsum actually is usefull in the design stage as it focuses our attention on places where the
content is a dynamic block coming from the CMS (unlike static content elements that will always stay
the same.) Blocks of Lorem Ipsum with a character count range provide a obvious reminder to check
and re-check that the design and the content model match up.
Kyle Fiedler from the Design Informer feels that distracting copy is your fault:
If the copy becomes distracting in the design then you are doing something wrong or they are
discussing copy changes. It might be a bit annoying but you could tell them that that discussion would
be best suited for another time. At worst the discussion is at least working towards the final goal of
your site where questions about lorem ipsum don’t.
Summing up, if the copy is diverting attention from the design it’s because it’s not up to task.
Typographers of yore didn't come up with the concept of dummy copy because people thought that
content is inconsequential window dressing, only there to be used by designers who can’t be bothered
to read. Lorem Ipsum is needed because words matter, a lot. Just fill up a page with draft copy about
the client’s business and they will actually read it and comment on it. They will be drawn to it, fiercely.
Do it the wrong way and draft copy can derail your design review.
Asking the client to pay no attention Lorem Ipsum isn't hard as it doesn’t make sense in the first place,
that will limit any initial interest soon enough. Try telling a client to ignore draft copy however, and
you're up to something you can't win. Whenever draft copy comes up in a meeting confused questions
about it ensue.
Summing up, really:
Lorem Ipsum is a tool that can be useful, used intentionally it may help solve some problems. If you go
about content strategy the wrong way, fix that problem.
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