The biggest usability problems on Hacker News
What’s this?
What am I looking at?
A ranked list of the specific usability problems people keep raising in Hacker News comments, such as “rejecting cookies takes more clicks than accepting”. Each one shows how many different people raised it and links to their comments. Search any product to see its own list. Inspired by Andrej Karpathy’s HackerTube, which ranks the videos Hacker News recommends.
Whodunnit?
Adnan Khan, founder of Justusability, which helps teams see where their customers get stuck. Claude read and grouped the comments; Adnan reviews the issues on these lists by hand. Not affiliated with Hacker News or Y Combinator.
Why?
Other projects built on Hacker News rank what it recommends: videos, books, tools. This one ranks what it keeps complaining about, because a problem that many people raise for years is one a design team can fix. Each reviewed issue names the usability principle behind it and suggests a fix.
Can I have the data?
Yes. Download every issue and the comments behind it as JSON or CSV. No cookies, no analytics, and search runs in your browser.
How is it ranked?
By how many different people raised each issue since Nov 2025. An issue is listed once at least 3 people have raised it, in at least 3 different months and 3 different threads. To rank in a period it also needs 3 people and 3 threads within that period. No thread counts for more than a third of an issue’s people, so one launch thread can’t carry it to the top. How we count
What does “Reviewed” mean?
Justusability checked that it’s a real usability problem, named the principle behind it and suggested a fix. Unreviewed issues, further down product pages, are grouped and counted by machine: you get the counts and comment links, but no quotes, principle or fix.
Is this what all users think?
No. Hacker News skews towards developers and technical people, and towards the US, so treat these as problems people report, not a measure of all users. The counts are a floor too: Claude has read only the part of Hacker News most likely to hold complaints. Method and limits
Something wrong?
Use the “Something wrong here?” link on the issue, or open a public correction report on GitHub.
How do I give feedback?
Send us feedback: email us, or leave a public note on GitHub. Ideas, products we should cover and things we got wrong are all welcome.
-
1
Can't operate controls by feel, must look away from roadReviewed
Car touchscreens · 72 people this year · raised since 2010
20092026 -
2
Rejecting cookies takes more clicks than accepting themReviewed
Cookie banners · 69 people this year · raised since 2009
20082026 -
3
Local account setup is deliberately painful, pushing Microsoft accountsReviewed
Windows · 47 people this year · raised since 2012
20072026 -
4
File Explorer takes several seconds to openReviewed
Windows · 45 people this year · raised since 2010
20072026 -
5
Consent popups are artificially hard to refuseReviewed
Cookie banners · 45 people this year · raised since 2011
20082026 -
6
Start menu and taskbar right-click menus open slowlyReviewed
Windows · 41 people this year · raised since 2007
20072026 -
7
Autocorrect changes typed words to wrong ones, causing typosReviewed
iPhone · 38 people this year · raised since 2008
20072026 -
8
Start menu shows adsReviewed
Windows · 31 people this year · raised since 2009
20072026 -
9
Window resizing is so hard it seems brokenReviewed
Mac · 39 people this year · raised since 2008
20072026 -
10
Slow to interact with, with little guidance on proper useReviewed
Jira · 27 people this year · raised since 2009
20072026 -
11
Ads appear in search results and are never the wanted appReviewed
App Store · 26 people this year · raised since 2017
20082026 -
12
AI answers crowd results so real links are hard to reachReviewed
Google Search · 23 people this year · raised since 2020
20072026 -
13
One-second animations slow switching workspaces and fullscreenReviewed
Mac · 22 people this year · raised since 2011
20072026 -
14
Banners designed to push users into accepting trackingReviewed
Cookie banners · 22 people this year · raised since 2012
20082026 -
15
Reject option hidden or less prominent than acceptReviewed
Cookie banners · 21 people this year · raised since 2016
20082026 -
16
Passkeys tied to current device make logging in elsewhere complexReviewed
Passkeys · 21 people this year · raised since 2022
20122026 -
17
Hard to switch between multiple windows of the same appReviewed
Mac · 20 people this year · raised since 2009
20072026 -
18
Unwanted passkey prompt keeps interrupting attempts to use the passkeyReviewed
Passkeys · 20 people this year · raised since 2022
20122026 -
19
Parental controls are hard to set up properly with many tradeoffsReviewed
Parental controls · 19 people this year · raised since 2018
20122026 -
20
Search returns unrelated videos after a few matches, hiding the wanted oneReviewed
YouTube · 22 people this year · raised since 2009
20082026 -
21
Captchas are so hard that users fail them repeatedlyReviewed
CAPTCHAs · 18 people this year · raised since 2007
20072026 -
22
Settings are scattered across old Control Panel interfacesReviewed
Windows · 18 people this year · raised since 2008
20072026 -
23
Keyboard typing is stressful and error-proneReviewed
iPhone · 18 people this year · raised since 2008
20072026 -
24
Banner covers much of the screen and hides contentReviewed
Cookie banners · 18 people this year · raised since 2012
20082026 -
25
Shorts keep appearing after 'show less', with no permanent disableReviewed
YouTube · 18 people this year · raised since 2012
20082026