Products · Pattern or everyday thing
Computer mice
Raised as a usability problem by 18 people on Hacker News over 20 years (2007–2026), in 19 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads in the last 5 years.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 18 complaints
- Side buttons are easy to press by accident, triggering unintended actions2026-08-31
- Mouse is less intuitive and accurate than a digitizer for drafting2024-04-29
- Wheel moves when clicked, so middle clicks register unreliably2023-02-14
- Clicking the scroll wheel as a middle button is awkward and hard to press2021-12-30
- Side buttons get pressed accidentally, causing unwanted clicks2021-08-24
- Switching from keyboard to mouse, finding the pointer and aiming at small targets breaks flow2020-10-28
- Painting with a mouse is so hard that most users never make art2016-03-24
- Pointing devices cause physical problems for the user, so they avoid them2015-07-05
- Stiff, minimal-travel buttons cause pain from constant clicking2015-02-13
- Middle button is easy to press accidentally while scrolling2013-08-27
- Engelbart's mouse interface is considered poorly designed compared to later drag-based interaction2013-07-04
- Mouse is error-prone and frustrating for text editing, causing fatigue and anxiety2012-11-24
- Users find the mouse-to-pointer relationship and double-clicking unintuitive, still double-clicking links after years2012-11-19
- Horizontal scrolling with a mouse wheel is hard or unpleasant to do2012-03-30
- Mouse requires precise hand-eye coordination that is hard for elderly people to learn2011-08-19
- Older user struggled to learn mouse, and windows hidden behind other windows confused him2010-04-22
- Older users accidentally move the pointer when trying to click2007-09-18
- Mice are extremely hard to use for people past about age 702007-09-12