Avoid the Dummy Text. But Why?

Using ‘dummy text’ is one of the common mistakes in design. It’s a good way to create a good figurative picture but the Lorem Ipsum does not tell you how to interact with the web page. Although, we must accept that Lorem Ipsum is a part of our lives and won’t disappear just like that. But why does nobody love Lorem Ipsum and what can we do to reduce its presence in our work?

The history of Lorem Ipsum

Let’s talk about ‘dummy text’ and find out what it is. Lorem Ipsum is a default filler that helps publishers and designers continue their work. The main purpose of this text is to get approval to design from the client and focus on design, not on content. The first mention of this ‘dummy text’ dates back to 1500. Then this text was popular in the printing and typesetting industries but much later began to adapt to the Tech industry. The beauty of Lorem Ipsum is in a certain similarity with real text.

Text first, design — second. Don’t mix it up!

It’s hard to design something special if you don’t understand what you actually need to design. Getting feedback can also be tough if no one knows what they’re looking at. Using Lorem Ipsum just postpones the decision making but it’s the key to understanding the project.

You need to adapt the design to the text length instead of adapting the text length to the design! And this is why: your real content might be not the same size as a default filler. You may know the minimum and maximum text length but no one will give you a perfect piece of text with a fixed number of characters. Moreover, it’s other people who will fill a website with the content later. So if you’ll use only a «perfect» copy in your designs the reality may look like on the picture below.

Real fake content?

Using real content helps you dive deeper into the project and adapt your layout to your content. Remember about the different sizes of devices and think about restrictions, and cases of usage.

Working with real text means working with text that is similar to the one you will use on a web page (the length and message must be the same). Involving your client is a great way to work with content. Usually, your client knows about their sphere much better than you do, so it would be a good decision to involve them in content creating. Ask your questions very clearly otherwise, the client wouldn’t understand what you want.

Dummy text. Summary

Lorem Ipsum makes design kinda emotionless. Only real content could connect you to your users and explain the main message. Don’t avoid writing a real text just for delaying decisions about content. Avoid all these abstract things, like ‘some content goes here and there’.

The website is all about the content. A contentless website is an emptiness. Only with real content, the designer will know what exactly this website tells the people. And one more thing! On our blog, we have quite an interesting article about the most common myths in design, so jump in.

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