Death to lorem ipsum: A plea to designers
Pretty designs get ruined when you use lorem ipsum.
I didn’t think I would have to write an article on why we should actively declare war on lorem ipsum but here we are.
While looking for inspiration for a project I’m working on, I stumbled on a design and I was taken aback.
“Why is anyone using this in 2023 ?”
I mumbled to myself as I scrolled through the prototype.
I mean I know old habits die hard but I thought we (designers and writers) had an agreement to make this guy (lorem ipsum) disappear.
A quick search on Twitter revealed that lorem ipsum is still commonplace among designers.
You might wonder why using lorem ipsum is so bad. Are writers just being dramatic about it? Do we just want to talk your ears off?
Of course not!
In this article, I’ll discuss reasons you should avoid using lorem ipsum in your designs but before that…
What is lorem ipsum?
Lorem ipsum is basically placeholder text. A broader definition from Lipsum reads thus:
“Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.”
To expatiate, designers often use lorem ipsum as content placeholder text in the absence of a copywriter/content designer or the text needed for the design. There are many varieties of lorem ipsum text, they can look like this or may vary:
Now that we’ve unveiled the imposter for what it is. Let’s discuss just how much damage lorem ipsum can do and why it needs to die.
Reasons not to use lorem ipsum
Content is the framework that upholds design. Without content, design is just aesthetics without value or functionality.
Here are reasons to stop using lorem ipsum:
Bad UX
You can’t design a good user experience with Lorem ipsum. Since it’s just a bunch of scrambled meaningless Latin words, it adds little or no value to your design.
When this placeholder text gets replaced by actual text much later, the design may lose its beauty. Retrofitting content into the design prototype might cause major problems and may truncate the user-friendliness of your product.
You could avoid that stress if you designed with actual content from the get-go.
I believe this is one of the advantages of content-first design.
To be honest, it’s always obvious when content is an afterthought in the design process. You might think it won’t affect anything or people using your product won’t notice but they do.
A few brands/companies are nice enough to bring on a copywriter later but that slows down the design process further and in a fast-paced company, it would be a mess.
Content and design need to be in sync to achieve optimal user experience.
Poor Branding
You probably think copy has nothing to do with branding but you’re awfully wrong. I think people forget that words are so powerful and we can literally evoke and control emotions with them.
Tapping into user/customer emotions through content will create a bond between them and your product. You can make your user feel things through your content and before you know it, you have their attention.
The emotion(s) you want your users/customers to feel are what help you stand out among the multitude of brands in your niche.
Potential customers won’t remember every brand in a product niche but they’ll remember those that were able to tap into their emotions even if it was a negative one.
Take a look at this page from Pixar:
and this one from KonMari
In the examples above from Pixar and Konmari, it is obvious that content was given a front seat in the design process.
From a user experience and branding perspective, they were able to make content and design work together to benefit their brand on their 404 pages.
Poor information architecture
Knowing what content you want to show your visitors will help you create a user-friendly design and layout with which to display said content.
It also helps you build a proper content hierarchy which of course is a piece in the grand SEO puzzle.
The design of a product’s information architecture (web or mobile) involves both the layout/organisation of content and the content itself. Using lorem ipsum will result in the content being all over the place. It deprives your design of the structure it needs to make sense.
Way to ruin a product!
As a designer, you need to understand that people navigate interfaces based on their understanding of the content which is why information hierarchy remains important in content design.
Gillian Massel says:
“If you don’t define a clear content hierarchy before you start designing, then you’re likely going to end up emphasizing the wrong information.”
When people interact with a product, they need to know where they are and most importantly, where they need to go or what they need to do to achieve their goals.
Lorem ipsum doesn’t give you the opportunity to do this.
Bad Design
Lorem ipsum cannot give an accurate representation of the visual space you need for your design. While designing, lorem ipsum text is used in a way that keeps your designs pretty and clean.
However, your actual copy will likely not be the same length as this Latin filler text.
The disadvantage of this is that you will spend extra time reworking your design to fit properly after the real copy is added.
To avoid unnecessary back and forth, focus on both visual design and content simultaneously. This helps you determine how much text you need in certain areas of your design.
It’s better to build your layout around your content instead of the other way around.
How to design without dummy text
You might wonder, how do I design without using dummy text?
It’s common knowledge that you can’t design without any content whatsoever.
However, we’ve drawn a conclusion that lorem ipsum isn’t good for designing.
How then do you get actual content?
Get help from a copywriter
If you have a copywriter/content designer on your team or your client has one, you are in luck.
All you have to do is ensure that they are part of your design process even from the ideation stage.
Ashley Gainer explains that design should incorporate the ebb and flow of the copy itself.
The product designer I currently work with sends design ideas to me, just to be sure our vision of the design & content is in sync.
It’s the most beautiful thing.
You might not have the luxury of time or team size to do this but make sure your copywriter is familiar with the vision and goals of the design and encourage them to send in their copies early so you can incorporate them into the design.
I promise you’ll be glad you did.
Write it yourself
Some clients hire or employ a copywriter much later in the design process.
No need to worry, artificial intelligence (AI) has made everything easier.
You don’t need to stress yourself trying to get copies for your designs.
Scott Kubie suggests using protocopy (which he describes as “quick dashes of text to capture intent without worrying about making it sound good”) in tandem with lorem ipsum.
Tools like Copy.ai, Microcopy, ChatGpt and many others can help you with copies. Don’t get tempted to rely on these or use them in place of actual data-driven copies that are specifically written for the brand/company.
You can also get content from competitors in the same niche. During your research, you will come across different companies that offer similar services to the product you’re working on. You can use their text pending the time, you can get something that’s specifically tailored for your brand.
In summary
Being a world-class designer isn’t about putting up the finest sketches or designs.
It’s about being well-rounded in your skill and understanding that design and content need to be in sync to achieve both functionality and aesthetic value while meeting your client’s business needs.
I’ll leave you with this:
Kyle Fiedler said:
“The very second you make the decision to place Lorem Ipsum into your mock-ups, you have done a great disservice to your design, content, website and users.”
