If you are a UX/UI Designer, you’ve probably got away with using dummy text in your prototype.  We don’t blame you coz Lorem Ipsum is just too tempting & always supports a good design.  However, that good design is not a great Go-Live design, which puzzles up the process at the  development level for the product. One tends to lose the context of the product design with  dummy text.

It’s a designer’s job to create a visually appealing design that communicates the right brand  message/ tone. Read that again, Content is at the core & rightly said by experts: Content is  King. Filler content is like a missile that will sink the research and product development ship  sooner or later.

Hence, we stay away from using dummy text and here’s why:

1. Lorem Ipsum can murder User Experience  

Assume a user requires an important document copy to be submitted on level 3 of a form. Only  if you knew the context to the field of the form, would you alert the user about it before he/she  begins the submission process. The inefficiency of doing so will leave you with a low conversion  rate.

That’s why designing with Lorem Ipsum is like designing with loose context and it takes away  the opportunity to evolve content through the process. When you actually include real content  (not final, just real is fine) from stage one, it gives you a window to scrutinize every piece of information appearing within a flow; you end up questioning what’s being communicated? And why? What tone of voice is the brand coming across as?

The analysis lets you pin the apt tone and communication as the design is still strengthening.

2. Design is as powerful as the content it projects  

Being mindful of the content from the start makes you accountable for where the information is being fetched from the system. Ask these questions:

• At what point of the user journey should we be pushing a certain content piece?
• Are certain parts adding value to the user experience or they are simply creating overlaps?
• Does the content need edits? If yes, who is going to edit it?

The questioning can go on until we find reasoning, just like a design interface process. Aim to get into the depths of each element to ensure there are no open loops and project flows get logical conclusions.

3. Leads to Communication Gap within the team

Placeholders are surely tempting with their convenience. But they can actually cause a lot of  confusion within the product team, where each member assumes the type of content that will  get filled in the placeholders. In UX UI, assumptions can be catastrophic. When the product gets  to the development phase, the team wouldn’t understand the real importance of sections &  randomly would add content as per their own understanding of the user.

In the end, if testing and reviewing isn’t thoroughly conducted, it can reverse the efforts of a UX  Architect (who gathers brand requirements) & a UX Researcher (who defines the user & their  requirements)

4. Breaks in Layout leave’s everyone fixing the design at the end 

With placeholders, it gets difficult to estimate the length of the actual content, hence the layout  is created with the desired length of dummy text (what suits the design) rather than dynamic  data sets in mind. Eventually, when the actual content gets implemented, the output is nothing  like the first phase design screens.

This lack of mindfulness can drag the efforts all departments rock bottom and can sometimes  lead to last minute shabby work & fixes (at times, Lorem Ipsum gets greeted at user interactions  too)

Takeaway:

(if you are a Designer) Product ownership is key, COZ when a dummy text design goes LIVE  because of negligence, it equally looks bad on your job profile.

(if you are a client) Remember to be cautious of content details, they make a world of a  difference to your user. Now that’s our 6 years of experience talking.