Is your user faking it?

When it comes to creating wireframes in the initial phase of most projects, the level of effort is pretty simple. Sketch a line here, place a box or button there, drop in some lorem ipsum and your done. As your project progresses, your the level of detail and fidelity should follow suit. As a result, a functional wire is conceived to personify the scenarios initially framed within the components of the requirements.

But, who provides the content or data? Where does the content come from? Gathering the assets for such an endeavor can be a pain. Lorem Ipsum can only take you so far with detailing the users experience. Last, testing with real data can be dangerous.

Allow me to introduce a resource that has been a big help in creating content needed for such testing. It's called Fake Name Generator.

Here are a few examples of how the Fake Name Generator can be used for user experience purposes:

• Quality test data can be hard to come by, especially with laws (such as HIPAA) preventing use of real data. 
• Get ideas for names to use for personas.
• Generated credit cards can be used to test basic client-/server-side validation techniques without accidently processing a real card.
• Generated national identity numbers can be used to test basic client-/server-side validation techniques without risking disclosure of real information.
• Generated test emails can be sent to fake names to test confirmations and email deliveries

The great thing about this tool is that there is no need to create an account. It's a proven "thumbs up" for me when using it for e-commerce or member centric data intense prototypes. They also have other freemium tools like the Smiley Generator used to create your own unique smiley by picking a head, eyes, and a mouth.