I’ve been reading a lot about the debate among designers regarding whether or not lorem ipsum text should be used when presenting a UI design to a client.
On one side, some designers argue that ‘content is king’ and without using real copy in your design the design isn’t the least bit accurate. Essentially they argue that the content is the design and therefore without having the copy up front, the design bears no real value.
I don’t think too many if any designers would argue with that. However, that doesn’t negate the use of lorem ipsum all together as I believe there are still situations in where it can be necessary, helpful or even beneficial to the design process.
For instance, lorem ipsum is advantageous when the client does not supply copy during a fixed design stage. That is, the project timeline simply does not allow for it. In this case, lorem ipsum is a down right necessity.
Again, as much as they may complain about bad practice, I don’t think any designer could argue with the reality of that situation as I’m sure anyone in the industry has had to deal with it first hand, reluctantly or not.
My next suggestion however may come with some criticism. In the case above, it is obvious that lorem ipsum is absolutely necessary given the time constraints and it is implied that it is not preferable but rather an acceptance of poor planning.
Contrarily, as I will argue, it may actually be beneficial to use lorem ipsum depending on what kind of client you are designing for.
A client developing a digital presence for the first time for example likely won’t know anything about web copy – how long it should be, what kind of spacing it should use, how call to actions work, the advantage of excerpts, placement in regards to ‘the fold’ and so on.
Using lorem ipsum may educate the client or at the very least inspire the client to write more appropriate copy for the medium than what they would have done on their own without examining proper execution. In other words, using lorem ipsum the designer is able to guide the client and show them what kind of copy works where.
Of course at the end of day, it is ideal if the client is familiar with writing copy for the web and is able to provide that in advance. If they are not able to provide copy in advance and the project has a strict deadline, which so often is the case, then lorem ipsum is a necessity. On the other hand, if the client isn’t familiar with writing copy for the web, it may be advantageous for both the designer and client if the designer provides lorem ipsum before the client writes the copy with special attention to how the copy should be placed. This will avoid any misunderstanding and avoid a revision stage where the client is forced to edit what they have already written.
