Good UX isn’t just for websites
UX unplugged
Our lives are constantly influenced by UX design — and our online and offline experiences are more alike than you may expect.
In our increasingly digital world, using the phrase “bad UX” may give the impression that I’m frustrated with a poorly designed website. But bad UX doesn’t actually care whether we’re online or not. With all the snappy buzzwords and acronyms that tie UX to the web, we can lose sight of its core roots in convenience, efficiency, and accessibility. Good or bad: UX follows us everywhere (even when we’re offline).
UX in the wild
Hopefully I’m not the only one here who panic-orders at counter shops. Something just throws me off when the only thing between me and the cashier is a cash register. Plus, I’m more than aware of the line growing behind me while I’m deciding. The pressure to order quickly means that I end up blurting out orders before I’m fully decided. I usually blame myself for this — it’s not like it’s against the rules to slow down and read the menu for a minute longer. But, as a UXer, I have to wonder if the shop owners put any thought into the customer experience when choosing this ordering process.
A few days ago I visited a boba tea shop that just opened near my house. At the store front, I started to browse the menu pinned on the door, but quickly noticed that I was blocking the entrance. I continued inside to make my decision, where a slow-moving line trailed from the register to where I stood at the door. I hopped into the back of the line and scanned the shop for the menu I had just been reading, but after a few seconds of searching I realized that I would have to wait to resume my browsing. In this shop all menus point away from the line in a way that makes them visible only to the person at the front of the line.
A little annoying, but at least I had a general idea of what kinds of tea flavors I liked. I spent the next few minutes traveling closer to the register and admiring the decor until I could finally sneak a peek at the menu. But, once I got there, my irritation was renewed. The text was as small as book print! Okay, it wasn’t quite that small. But it was more challenging to read than I anticipated, and deciphering the options just led to more questions. Questions like, “what’s a ‘Breeze’ drink?” and “what’s in a ‘Purple Rain’?” I wasn’t certain, but it sounded good enough, so I placed my order, grabbed my drink, and took a seat to enjoy it.
The “lid” to my drink was a plastic film that you’re meant to poke your straw through like a juice box. Luckily I already knew this, but I couldn’t help but remember a TikTok I saw where someone trying boba for the first time peeled the lid clean off to sip out of the cup. At the time I chuckled, but really why would they have known that wasn’t the way to do it?
I poked my straw through the film, drank my boba (spoiler: “Breeze” meant that it was actually a slushy), and it tasted okay. Maybe next time I’ll look at the menu online first.
Bringing it back online
My boba shop experience highlights how poor UX can affect our lives beyond technology, but it does still reflect UX issues we see online.
1. Difficulty with menus
For most websites and apps it is essential for users to be able to reliably find navigation options. Navigation menus should be consistently placed on the site and should outline all of the pages that users can land on. The naming convention of navigation options should also be as clear as possible so that users end up on the pages they expect. If menus don’t provide users with a reliable way to locate and view information, then they may become frustrated and leave the site without finding what they were looking for. These same needs apply to menus in shops and restaurants.
At the boba shop, the menu was hard to locate, the text was too small, and the product names were ambiguous. These were just irritations for me, but these are actually huge accessibility issues for people with different vision, attention, and reading abilities. There are a few ways that the shop could make their menus more useful and accessible. To start, they could move one of the existing menus to instead face the line of customers, or they could add a second menu facing the line so that both directions are covered. The text size could (and should) be increased if they were to balance the design of the menu by utilizing unproductive white space. They could also change the name of their products to better reflect the contents of the drink. Or, if they really want their products to have fun names, they should at least give some context to their flavors.
I wasn’t certain what would be in my “Purple Rain”, but a few small edits would have made it more clear:
2. Missing instructions
Even if we have an inkling of how to complete a task, instructions are still helpful to let us know when our instincts are right or wrong. An uncommon drink lid without instructions is like a website button without text. At least on the web, actions like clicking a button are usually reversible with a back button, but it’s not like you can put the film back on a boba cup.
Just as button labels should be explicit, instructions on the boba lid should be clear. For example, it could be tempting to just slightly alter the lid design to encourage correct use. But popular workarounds like adding a circle target for the straw or using a fun phrase like “poke me” won’t be clear enough for first time users. Those changes may be more aesthetically pleasing and subtle, but it’s important to be clear and direct. Instead, the lid could explicitly say “insert straw here” to instill confidence in an action that may otherwise feel wrong.
Making these adjustments wouldn’t guarantee that customers would never make mistakes or get frustrated, but they’re actionable changes that would give them fewer opportunities to do so.
If UX doesn’t care whether or not we’re online, we shouldn’t just demand good UX from the websites and apps we use. Even activities as mundane as buying tea can be full of oversights that make our experiences difficult and frustrating. We deserve to understand the websites we use, but we also deserve to enjoy good boba tea!
Have a story of your own? Write with us! Our community thrives on diverse voices — let’s hear yours.
