When designing a product, it might be helpful to imagine what would happen if a drunk tried to use it. Will he be able to complete a flow without any issues? How much time will it take him?
This is important not because drunks are your main target audience (unless you are selling smart beer mugs). But because you should strive to create products that are straightforward and with great UX, that even drunks can easily use.
Below are 10 points that will help you test for UX by entering into the mindset of a drunk user:
- Drunks have impaired vision: Make sure your product has a clear color palette, is color-blind friendly, and all the UI elements are obvious
- Drunks have a poor attention span: Focus your product and avoid pages with a lot of redundant texts, images, and animations
- Drunks make mistakes: Use confirmation messages and make it easy for users to cancel operations, or roll back on some actions
- Drunks need help to perform tasks: It should be easy for users to learn your product. Always onboard your first-time users and teach them how to complete important flows
- Drunks behave unexpectedly: Take into account edge cases. Untested edge cases can lead to crashes and other inconsistent behavior. Which might lead to churn
- Drunks can be brutally honest: If your product has social elements, then make sure they’re moderated. Nothing scares new users more than a message board with a lot of negative posts or bad reviews. A well-respected brand name is worth preserving
- Drunks are impatient: Make sure your product’s performance is up to par. A slow loading page can really harm your UX
- Drunks are bad with directions: Make it easy for users to navigate your product. Eg: Add search functionality and breadcrumbs. The easier it is for users to find information in your product, the better
- Drunks need supervision: Leaving a drunk to his own devices is not a sound idea. Similarly, always track your users’ behaviors and understand how they use your product
- Drunks are not idiots: Give your users the benefit of the doubt and communicate with them important changes such as price increases or new updates
Drink responsibly 😀
