Drunk CSS by Terence Eden (September 27, 2025) Overview Terence Eden revisits an idea first discussed a decade ago: testing user interfaces while simulating drunkenness. The premise is that some users might interact with your app or website while inebriated, so designing for that condition could improve usability universally. Why Drunk Testing? People may access sites while drunk. Interfaces easy for drunk users likely work well for sober users too. Physically getting drunk to test interfaces is unhealthy. Drunk CSS provides a non-alcoholic way to simulate inebriation effects on UI. Drunk CSS Theme A "🥴 Drunk" theme button applies simple CSS rules to visually mimic drunkenness, affecting fonts, alignment, colors, and animations. Key CSS Features: Special font applied to lower-case vowels. The rest of the text uses a cursive, slanted style. First letter of paragraphs shrinks. Various child elements randomly rotate or skew for unsteady effect. Entire page is blurred and color-saturated. Hyperlinks gently bounce, making clicking harder. Example CSS Snippets: Reflections on Accessibility This simulation is a "pale simulacrum," not a true experience of drunkenness. It deliberately creates an inaccessible experience, prompting reflection. Questions raised include: Does it frustrate or tire your eyes? Are links harder to click? Does reading take longer? Empathy and Real Usability Testing Previous posts discuss "cosplaying as disabled" for empathy. Using visual impairment simulators (like Glaucoma Goggles) only shows a glimpse of difficulty. Real usability comes from testing with disabled users involving cognitive, physical, or fine motor impairments. Pay disabled individuals for usability studies and incorporate their feedback. CSS tricks like Drunk mode have limits in understanding real disabilities. Additional Site Features Theme switcher offering Dark, Light, eInk, xterm, Drunk, Nude, and Reset modes. Share buttons for Mastodon, Facebook, LinkedIn, BlueSky, Threads, Reddit, HackerNews, Lobsters, WhatsApp, Telegram. Interactive relationship graph. Comments section with moderation. Webmention form for responses. Extensive archive calendar dating back to 1987. Email subscription form. Footer with links about copyright, support, about, contact, open source contributions, subscriptions, citations, library, trending posts, random posts, and link rot. --- This post encourages developers to better understand users' diverse needs and challenges by simulating impaired experiences and, more importantly, engaging disabled people directly for usability research. The Drunk CSS mode is both a fun UI experiment and a thought-provoking invitation to consider accessibility deeply.