What approaches are available to dummy design-time data in WPF?

Using VS2010 you can use Design-Time attributes (works for both SL and WPF). I usually have a mock data-source anyway so it's just a matter of:

Adding the namespace declaration

xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"

Adding the mock data context to window/control resources

<UserControl.Resources>
  <ViewModels:MockXViewModel x:Key="DesignViewModel"/>
</UserControl.Resources>

Setting design-time data context

<Grid d:DataContext="{Binding Source={StaticResource DesignViewModel}}" ...

Works well enough.

As an amalgam of Goran's accepted answer and Rene's excellent comment.

Add the namespace declaration. xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
Reference your design time data context from code.
<Grid d:DataContext="{d:DesignInstance Type=ViewModels:MockXViewModel, IsDesignTimeCreatable=True}" ...

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