Mrs. Iyer runs a laundromat in Indore. She's 62, uses WhatsApp for everything, and cannot remember a password to save her life. Her site gets 140 orders a month. She is the silent reviewer of every design we ship.
The rule
Before any design ships, we ask: would Mrs. Iyer's customer — a 54-year-old accountant's wife, picking up a duvet — figure this out on a 5-inch screen, in sunlight, while distracted? If the answer isn't immediately yes, the design isn't done.
// FIG 03
What it kills
- Hamburger menus on the primary action.
- 'Cart' with no running total visible.
- Hover-only affordances on touch.
- Icons without text labels.
- Anything that requires remembering a username.
None of this is innovative. It's basic accessibility dressed up as a personal rule. The trick isn't the rule — it's having a specific person you're designing for, whose name you can say out loud when a designer proposes something clever.