title: WPF see design time binds in UserlControl without MVVM
body: <p>I'm designing a new <code>UserControl</code> for my project and it doesn't use MVVM, because I want to bind its properties directly on the parent XAML. So I have a bunch of dependency properties and my binds are like this: <code>Text="{Binding Title, ElementName=ThisControl}"</code>. All of them works at run time, but I really can't get it to work in design time.</p>
  
  <p>I've seen many solutions here at SO, but all of them are for when you have the binds to a ViewModel property. '</p>
  
  <p>I tried setting up their initial value on the properties themselves and on the constructor, but they do not show in design time. Is there any way to do that?</p>
  
  <p>-- UPDATE --</p>
  
  <p>Here's an example of a <code>UserControl</code></p>
  
  <p>--XAML</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;UserControl x:Class="QualityChecker.Client.UserInterface.Pages.QuickAudit.Controls.InfoCard"
               xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
               xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
               xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006" 
               xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008" 
               xmlns:materialDesign="http://materialdesigninxaml.net/winfx/xaml/themes"
               TextElement.Foreground="{DynamicResource MaterialDesignBody}"
               TextElement.FontWeight="Regular"
               TextElement.FontSize="13"
               TextOptions.TextFormattingMode="Ideal" 
               TextOptions.TextRenderingMode="Auto"   
               Background="{DynamicResource MaterialDesignPaper}"
               FontFamily="{DynamicResource MaterialDesignFont}"
               mc:Ignorable="d" 
               Name="ThisControl"
               d:DesignHeight="450" d:DesignWidth="800"&gt;
      &lt;materialDesign:Card Width="350" Margin="8 2 4 16" Height="180"&gt;
          &lt;Grid VerticalAlignment="Stretch"&gt;
              ...
              &lt;TextBlock Style="{StaticResource MaterialDesignHeadline5TextBlock}" Margin="16 16 16 8" Text="{Binding Title, ElementName=ThisControl}"&gt;&lt;/TextBlock&gt;
               ...
           &lt;/Grid&gt;
      &lt;/materialDesign:Card&gt;
  &lt;/UserControl&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>-- .cs </p>
  
  <pre><code>public CustomUserControl()
  {
      Title = "My Initial value"
  }
  
  public string Title
  {
      get =&gt; (string)GetValue(TitleProperty);
      set =&gt; SetValue(TitleProperty, value);
  }
  public static readonly DependencyProperty TitleProperty =
      DependencyProperty.Register(nameof(Title), typeof(string),
      typeof(InfoCard), new FrameworkPropertyMetadata("Initial Value"));
  </code></pre>