It seems to be popular to engage in Lorem ipsum-bashing.

There are a lot of well-written, well-reasoned articles out there about why we shouldn’t use Lorem Ipsum. These articles for instance:

• Now that ChatGPT is here, can we please let lorem ipsum die? | by Kai Wong | UX Collective (uxdesign.cc)
• Lorem Ipsum is our enemy: Perfecting the copy in design | by Vasudha Mamtani | UX Collective (uxdesign.cc)
• Death to Lorem Ipsum or: Information Architecture and REAL content: yes, it really is important | by Martita Meier | UX Collective (uxdesign.cc)

These articles espouse this general design philosophy:

Content precedes design. Design in the absence of content is not design, it’s decoration. — Jeffrey Zeldman (@zeldman) May 5, 2008

However, if I might entertain your indulgence for a moment, I’ll tell you about a couple of times when the use of Lorem Ipsum would have saved me a whole lotta heartache. I think the ‘use copy instead of placeholder text’ might be a bit of a utopian/ideal-content-world philosophy. And I work in the real world. You know … where the content expert is brought in at the last minute? And all of the content decisions have already been made? That’s the situation that I’m talking about. The team has decided against using Lorem Ipsum and instead has thrown in some hastily written content to avoid placeholder text. By the time I, the content expert arrived, the content in the product had already been through several lots of usability testing. And I want to make some changes. But changing copy, particularly when it’s hard-coded in, is hard. Some of the arguments I’ve came up against are:

Project team: But it’s been through usability testing and the users didn’t bring up any issues.
Me: Well they mightn’t. They might not know that it’s the copy that’s the problem.
Project team: Well the user outranks you, so you can’t change the copy.

And then this chestnut …

The project team: You’ll need approval to change the copy.
Me: No probs! What’s the approval process?
The project team: Don’t know. We haven’t sorted out governance yet.

In this case, the use of Lorem Ipsum could have saved me a lot of trouble.

Because the thing is, we know what Lorem Ipsum is. We know it needs to be changed. Users that see any old copy in the design are going to think that it belongs there.

I can think of other cases for the use of Lorem Ipsum.

Flexible content development

Content often evolves. Locking in content too early can limit your flexibility. Lorem Ipsum keeps the design adaptable, so when the real content is ready (or the real content expert is finally brough in) the content will be closer to the ‘right’ content.

Reduced content pressure

Good content takes time. By not needing the right content immediately, you reduce pressure on content creators. They can take the time to craft quality material, which ultimately enhances the overall project.

Getting user feedback on early prototypes

Users often get hung up on the words instead of the design. During usability testing, I’ve seen users become distracted by typos in hastily created copy. Lorem Ipsum helps mitigate this by making it clear that the text is just a placeholder.

Conclusion

Look, I get it. Real content is crucial, but there’s still a place for Lorem Ipsum.

Knowing when to use Lorem Ipsum and when to use copy that looks like real content is key. Lorem Ipsum holds its own, when the alternative is really bad copy that the content expert is going to have to use every resource they have in changing it. You might just save your content expert some sleepless nights by using Lorem Ipsum.