The biggest usability problems on Hacker News since the beginning
since the beginning
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 2007. 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.
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1
Can't operate controls by feel, must look away from roadReviewed
Car touchscreens · 1,028 people since the beginning · raised since 2010
20092026 -
2
Consent popups are artificially hard to refuseReviewed
Cookie banners · 593 people since the beginning · raised since 2011
20082026 -
3
Rejecting cookies takes more clicks than accepting themReviewed
Cookie banners · 567 people since the beginning · raised since 2009
20082026 -
4
Mobile site constantly pushes app download, hard to useReviewed
Reddit · 395 people since the beginning · raised since 2017
20072026 -
5
Touchscreen controls must be looked at, unlike findable physical buttonsReviewed
Tesla cars · 383 people since the beginning · raised since 2011
20092026 -
6
Quoted terms no longer force results to contain exact wordsReviewed
Google Search · 380 people since the beginning · raised since 2009
20072026 -
7
Slow to interact with, with little guidance on proper useReviewed
Jira · 352 people since the beginning · raised since 2009
20072026 -
8
Local account setup is deliberately painful, pushing Microsoft accountsReviewed
Windows · 344 people since the beginning · raised since 2012
20072026 -
9
Settings are scattered across old Control Panel interfacesReviewed
Windows · 306 people since the beginning · raised since 2008
20072026 -
10
Interface is slow to use, so everyday tasks waitReviewed
Gmail · 292 people since the beginning · raised since 2008
20072026 -
11
Captchas are so hard that users fail them repeatedlyReviewed
CAPTCHAs · 280 people since the beginning · raised since 2007
20072026 -
12
Touch Bar is a poor substitute for physical function keysReviewed
Mac · 279 people since the beginning · raised since 2010
20072026 -
13
Banner covers much of the screen and hides contentReviewed
Cookie banners · 274 people since the beginning · raised since 2012
20082026 -
14
Results look like ads, making organic results hard to tell apartReviewed
Google Search · 261 people since the beginning · raised since 2008
20072026 -
15
Touch-oriented interface on desktops is hard with mouse and keyboardReviewed
Windows · 214 people since the beginning · raised since 2010
20072026 -
16
Recommendations repeat watched videos and push unwanted contentReviewed
YouTube · 206 people since the beginning · raised since 2010
20082026 -
17
Results cluttered with spam pages, hiding useful contentReviewed
Google Search · 204 people since the beginning · raised since 2008
20072026 -
18
Ads play before videos and repeat every minuteReviewed
YouTube · 204 people since the beginning · raised since 2010
20082026 -
19
Takes ages to learn Nix with too little documentationReviewed
Nix · 202 people since the beginning · raised since 2013
20132026 -
20
Banners designed to push users into accepting trackingReviewed
Cookie banners · 190 people since the beginning · raised since 2012
20082026 -
21
Pages, tickets and every click take seconds to respondReviewed
Jira · 183 people since the beginning · raised since 2008
20072026 -
22
Start menu shows adsReviewed
Windows · 180 people since the beginning · raised since 2009
20072026 -
23
Built-in file search is slow or poor, so people avoid itReviewed
Windows · 168 people since the beginning · raised since 2008
20072026 -
24
Updates frequently force a reboot, interrupting the userReviewed
Windows · 166 people since the beginning · raised since 2009
20072026 -
25
Clicking X on pop-up silently agrees to upgradeReviewed
Windows · 160 people since the beginning · raised since 2012
20072026