"The response has been absolutely incredible"
March 30, 2015 11:29 AM   Subscribe

One of the core tenets of UX is that you've got to design like "the user is drunk." Any feature of your site has to be able to be used by someone who could be drunk - because, invariably, the user will mess it up otherwise. Wonderful idea. The thing is, it is hard to test. I and a lot of beer will test this for you.
Review of Mathbreakers. Review of Gizmodo.
Related Gizmodo article
posted by Going To Maine (14 comments total) 14 users marked this as a favorite
 
I mean, I know metafilter's been trying to work out some kinks with the Modern theme for a bit...
posted by Going To Maine at 11:47 AM on March 30, 2015 [1 favorite]


It's not quite the drunk standard, but there is a similar threshold that I endorse for film special effects production software. At some point in the production crunch there will be a deadline and there will be people trying to meet it that have become pretty much zombified by sleep deprivation.

You need explicit prompting of where you are in the process, what to do next, where all the elements are located, etc. There should be validity tests and flags on all of the elements. Resource availability displays, like how many frames you can write, how long the job will take, a list of cued jobs, etc.

Ideally there is a help message for every action that gives both a quick reference and explains it like you are five years old. There should be a base-level navigator with four direction buttons and a GO button, that allows you to progress with work, if slowly.

This "drunk" level should be part of a ramp-like expertise environment where you can optionally work at higher levels of skill. There should be a "protect" switch that turns on auto-backups and enables undo. This protection can be by degrees, more safety at more expense. You can push a button for marking the current place and time with, "I know I'm OK here." So then if you want to stumble forward into a plunge you can give it a shot, but you can also reset to your last known fully conscious moment, give up for the day, and go home to sleep.
posted by StickyCarpet at 12:23 PM on March 30, 2015 [4 favorites]


When we launched our *ahem* SaaS online startup product business a couple years ago, we totally had the idea of creating a "viral video" by filming someone drunk and using the product.

"So easy to use, you can do it while drunk!!"

Man... I wish we had!
posted by maupuia at 12:28 PM on March 30, 2015


>It's not quite the drunk standard, but there is a similar threshold that I endorse for film special effects production software. At some point in the production crunch there will be a deadline and there will be people trying to meet it that have become pretty much zombified by sleep deprivation.

This is similar to what a mentor of mine used to say about flight dynamics systems: "This is going to be used by people who are sleep-deprived and over-caffeinated and should be easy to use in that state."

I guess that's why we made them under the same conditions.
posted by johnnydummkopf at 12:54 PM on March 30, 2015 [2 favorites]


Seems like a useful design standard to me.
posted by Drinky Die at 1:09 PM on March 30, 2015


Sigh. I Remember when power users got some feature love.
posted by srboisvert at 1:21 PM on March 30, 2015


If I was only 10 beers younger...
posted by Splunge at 2:09 PM on March 30, 2015 [1 favorite]


The drunk experience of Gizmodo is kind of close to my sober experience.
posted by carter at 4:05 PM on March 30, 2015 [1 favorite]


Wait... There are websites that people use that are too hard to use? I mean I remember Jim Carey's website was a bit out there and confusing, but even that was usable drunk... I mean, it isn't like the experience was better sober...
posted by Nanukthedog at 4:15 PM on March 30, 2015


half of all populations are [because they have to be] of below average intelligence is a fact often forgotten by designers.
posted by SteveLaudig at 4:56 PM on March 30, 2015 [1 favorite]


Drunk is only one of your users. You want:

- timid anti tech, possibly much older than your target audience
- teen hacker looking to break things for the lulz
- a baby or monkey doing this regular humans would never do

Drunks combine a little but if the last two, maybe.

Not what you would call full coverage.
posted by clvrmnky at 6:01 AM on March 31, 2015 [2 favorites]


I'm right now half-working-on an app to manage a semi-competitive pub crawl event. This is what terrifies me. No matter what I do, it is going to break when drunks hammer on it. It's practically guaranteed.
posted by uncleozzy at 6:17 AM on March 31, 2015


You know what happens when your first rule is to think about your users as idiots? Or when your only worry is the person who's using it for the first time, or the first time this year?

You get a nightmare for the user who's competent, uses it every day, and wants to get something done. That's what happens.

Usually with rotten security, too, because proving who you are hurts the "experience".
posted by Hizonner at 8:38 AM on March 31, 2015 [1 favorite]


I once met an Australian who insisted Americans were dumb for keeping all their paper money green instead of making different denominations in different colors: "Otherwise, how can you tell your 1 dollar note and your 10 dollar note when you're drunk?"
posted by jonp72 at 6:39 AM on April 1, 2015


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