Defaults vs. Placeholders

A good default value and a placeholder value differ significantly. While a good default value has a reasonable chance of being the right value, a placeholder value is practically never right. For example, when you create a new document in Word, a placeholder name is used until you save the file. Saving the file establishes the filename you choose. Until then, the placeholder name makes it clear that the name hasn't been set. It is fairly certain that placeholder names like "Document1" or "New Folder" are not what the user wants. Using placeholders is appropriate when either you want to draw attention to the fact that a value hasn't been set or it is impossible to determine a default value with even a chance of being right.

TIP

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Use placeholders to make it clear that a value hasn't been set.