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.

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.