4 ms·

Oh man, if only it was a perfect world right? If I had the content I could complete so many of my to-dos. But no, I'm sitting here waiting for the boss to get m

Oh man, if only it was a perfect world right? If I had the content I could complete so many of my to-dos. But no, I'm sitting here waiting for the boss to get me the content. I'd love to have the content first, but it's just never going to happen.

vinspee 12y ago
This is your own fault. You've made your "boss" believe that you can complete designs without content for so long that he now expects it. You should try re-framing the conversation. Something like: — SCENE: BOSS TYPING FURIOUSLY, YOU KNOCK ON HIS DOOR AND HE INVITES YOU IN. BOSS: "We need this design for our new sprocket page as soon as possible - We're going to market in two weeks and need a landing page for our Google AdWords campaign" YOU: "Awesome! The new sprocket is going to be huge for our company. What would you really like to focus on for this page? I want to make sure to prominently feature the most important things." BOSS: _excitedly lists a dozen things_ YOU: Wow - this thing is really great. It's going to be a huge benefit to our customers. How can we show them the three things they're going to react to instantly? BOSS: "Well my favorite is the gizmosis feature. It makes it so you don't have to flim-flam any more!" YOU: "Woah. That's really cool! I'll make sure that is billed highly. Anything else you can thing of that sticks out in your mind?" BOSS: "That's the only thing that sticks out. I do have this detailed list of features here" YOU: "Please do send that to me - I'll try to make some sense of it. If you think of anything else really important, just email it over to me. I'm going to start putting all of these features into the design tomorrow morning - so make sure you let me know by the end of the day! I can't wait to get this page up for our clients to see - it's going to be a huge win." BOSS: "Excellent. I'll send over any additional thoughts I have with that document right now. Thanks." — END SCENE Framing the conversation is important. Seeing yourself as the boss's advocate is important. You're working toward the same goal. The content is more important than your design. Accept that.
- post_break 12y ago
  It's my own fault he wants to see what it will look like before signing off on something? Yeah ok. http://i.imgur.com/seh6p.gif http://i.imgur.com/seh6p.gif
  - vinspee 12y ago
    Nope. It's just your fault the you've told him "this is what it will look like" before having the content. It's not the truth. EDIT: He's not going to "sign off" on it until the content is in anyway… right?
    - talmand 12y ago
      I'm willing to bet many people have "signed off" on things before there was content. People seem to forget that lorem ipsum is not a new thing, it's been a part of design for decades. It is an accepted practice during design phases of a project, whether digital or print.
- talmand 12y ago
  You forgot the laugh track indicators.
- jigg4joe 12y ago
  This assumes that "the boss" is all knowing about all of the content, which in my experience is very rare. However, "I need a mockup by the end of the day" is very common.
zachrose 12y ago
One thing that's worked for me is to make up gibberish text that matches the general contours of the eventual content. For example, a "call to action" phrase at the end of marketing copy might look like: "See can good great. Imperative, yes."
- IgorPartola 12y ago
  The problem with that is that when you are launching the site at the 11th hour, the content editor will overlook this because at first glance it looks like English. Not saying that happens often, but it this makes it a lot easier to happen. I actually like this Blokk thing specifically because it is not text. You can't mistake this for proper content.

vinspee 12y ago

This is your own fault. You've made your "boss" believe that you can complete designs without content for so long that he now expects it. You should try re-framing the conversation. Something like: — SCENE: BOSS TYPING FURIOUSLY, YOU KNOCK ON HIS DOOR AND HE INVITES YOU IN. BOSS: "We need this design for our new sprocket page as soon as possible - We're going to market in two weeks and need a landing page for our Google AdWords campaign" YOU: "Awesome! The new sprocket is going to be huge for our company. What would you really like to focus on for this page? I want to make sure to prominently feature the most important things." BOSS: _excitedly lists a dozen things_ YOU: Wow - this thing is really great. It's going to be a huge benefit to our customers. How can we show them the three things they're going to react to instantly? BOSS: "Well my favorite is the gizmosis feature. It makes it so you don't have to flim-flam any more!" YOU: "Woah. That's really cool! I'll make sure that is billed highly. Anything else you can thing of that sticks out in your mind?" BOSS: "That's the only thing that sticks out. I do have this detailed list of features here" YOU: "Please do send that to me - I'll try to make some sense of it. If you think of anything else really important, just email it over to me. I'm going to start putting all of these features into the design tomorrow morning - so make sure you let me know by the end of the day! I can't wait to get this page up for our clients to see - it's going to be a huge win." BOSS: "Excellent. I'll send over any additional thoughts I have with that document right now. Thanks." — END SCENE Framing the conversation is important. Seeing yourself as the boss's advocate is important. You're working toward the same goal. The content is more important than your design. Accept that.

post_break 12y ago
It's my own fault he wants to see what it will look like before signing off on something? Yeah ok. http://i.imgur.com/seh6p.gif http://i.imgur.com/seh6p.gif
- vinspee 12y ago
  Nope. It's just your fault the you've told him "this is what it will look like" before having the content. It's not the truth. EDIT: He's not going to "sign off" on it until the content is in anyway… right?
  - talmand 12y ago
    I'm willing to bet many people have "signed off" on things before there was content. People seem to forget that lorem ipsum is not a new thing, it's been a part of design for decades. It is an accepted practice during design phases of a project, whether digital or print.
talmand 12y ago
You forgot the laugh track indicators.
jigg4joe 12y ago
This assumes that "the boss" is all knowing about all of the content, which in my experience is very rare. However, "I need a mockup by the end of the day" is very common.

zachrose 12y ago

One thing that's worked for me is to make up gibberish text that matches the general contours of the eventual content. For example, a "call to action" phrase at the end of marketing copy might look like: "See can good great. Imperative, yes."

IgorPartola 12y ago
The problem with that is that when you are launching the site at the 11th hour, the content editor will overlook this because at first glance it looks like English. Not saying that happens often, but it this makes it a lot easier to happen. I actually like this Blokk thing specifically because it is not text. You can't mistake this for proper content.