The Greek Problem

Q: What’s wrong with using lorem ipsum placeholder text?

A: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Pellentesque pulvinar risus vel ornare vehicula. The most tangible remnant of print thinking and print culture is latinate text filler used to delay thinking about words until the last possible moment. (Yes, it’s weird and wrong that we call it greeking.)

A historical relic deserves a little history. The original text is a mucked up quotation from Cicero. (Cicero was a Roman philosopher and politician, as well as a notable prose stylist.) Its use as placeholder goes back to the 1960s or earlier when Letraset produced iron-on transfer sheets of type for laying out ads (ask your grandma about her Mad Men days). The digital version dates to 1985, when Aldus PageMaker 1.0 — early desktop publishing software — shipped with Lorem Ipsum built-in (ask your mom about the zine she ran in college). But in our exciting dynamic post-print publishing lifestyle, when is gibberish an advantage?

The popular arguments in favor of designing with lorem ipsum are:

• Real words are so distracting, the power of words compels literate people to start arguing over them.
• Calls attention to when the words are baked into the framework as opposed to being dynamic content
• Less likely to be published accidentally because it looks weird
• Sounds cool, and smart and Harry Potter-y
• Lets us off the hook for thinking about the meaning

I don’t buy any of it.

This technique perpetuates the idea that words are content and not-words are design. This is a destructive myth that lets designers off the hook for thinking about meaning. Yes, thinking about meaning and communicating in words is hard. Meaning is primary though. Effective presentation can enhance meaning. But however delightful your graphic presentation, it will not have any meaning without the words.

We are not discussing the design of non-verbal objects. We are not talking about illustration. We are not talking about whipping up an off-the-rack template set. We are talking about designing interfaces.

You are not Dr. Frankenstein, first finding an attractive dead body, then counting on someone else to breath life and a personality into it.

If you need to make a visual distinction between persistent and dynamic elements, you can use a variety of other visual cues to do that. Otherwise you are in fact, requiring that people evaluating the design read the words.

To be an effective interactive designer, you have to think about the meaning, not simply the framework.

To be an effective interactive designer, you have to think about the meaning, not simply the framework. So maybe you don’t have a final recommendation for the words. You should at least be able to describe what goes there. Instead of lorem ipsum, try:

The Entire Title Of The Article Goes Here Up To 12 Words

Text of the complete article including any accompanying in-line images or media goes here. Text of the complete article including any accompanying in-line images or media goes here. Text of the complete article including any accompanying in-line images or media goes here.

Call to action »

Think of this as semantic placeholder. Placeholder text implies the meaning doesn’t matter at all. You need to be honest about whether the meaning really doesn’t matter. If the meaning affects design decisions, you need to talk about it, even if it’s hard. How do you possibly prototype an interaction with gibberish?

Communication exists in time not in space. Thinking of a layout focuses attention on the space. Using lorem ipsum is a problem when it draws focus on the shape when that is the wrong thing to focus on.

Graphic design and interface/interaction design are very different. Graphic designers copyfit. Graphic design is static. If you’re designing something interactive that goes on the internet you are far more than a graphic designer. If you are laying something out for print, by all means lorem ipsum your layout. Not my purview.

Online, we have to get away from form-first design. The form is malleable and context-dependent.Meaning matters most of all.

Postscript: Following the death of Julius Caesar, Cicero ended up on the wrong side of the Second Triumvirate. He tried to flee, but soldiers caught up. Cicero’s severed head and hands ended up as part of the decor in the Roman Forum.

Erika Hall is the co-founder and Director of Strategy at Mule Design Studio. She believes bikes and dogs to be humanity’s greatest design achievements. Erika also wrote Just Enough Research, the shortest possible book on design research, so no excuses.