Products · Pattern or everyday thing
Date pickers
Raised as a usability problem by 50 people on Hacker News over 19 years (2008–2026), in 40 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Date pickers are harder to use than typing datesUnreviewed
20082026- Forced to scroll through years, months and days to pick a date2026-07-14
- Date pickers don't let you type a date as plain text, forcing clicking through a calendar2025-11-11
- Month and year selection in most UI libraries is awkward and non-intuitive2024-11-24
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 50 complaints
- Forced to scroll through years, months and days to pick a date2026-07-14
- Year chips reset the selection unexpectedly; button stays disabled without clear reason2026-04-10
- Date picker in date mode still appends a local timezone, forcing a sanitizer2026-01-12
- Huge 15-minute list can't be searched by typing because of AM/PM format2025-11-12
- Custom web time pickers with spinning wheels are hard to use on Android2025-11-12
- Date pickers don't let you type a date as plain text, forcing clicking through a calendar2025-11-11
- Year looks like a plain heading, so users can't tell it's tappable and must tap months endlessly2025-11-11
- Date and unit formats ignore user preferences, forcing repeated friction when scheduling2025-01-06
- Month and year selection in most UI libraries is awkward and non-intuitive2024-11-24
- Date picker has no validation, so an invalid date is only rejected on the next page2024-06-04
- Date fields reject or rewrite input on every keypress, so typing a date by hand is frustrating2024-01-08
- Can't tell whether input fields take effect immediately or need a separate submit action2023-12-02
- Separate day, month, year boxes accept invalid dates like 31 February2023-11-13
- Date pickers are awkward for entering birthdays, requiring much navigation2023-11-13
- Fancy jQuery date picker unusable with a screen reader2023-08-21
- Picking dates with the standard picker is an ordeal for accountants2023-08-02
- Date pickers that don't allow typing the date are hard to use2022-12-27
- Date pickers force tedious navigation to reach far-off months and years2022-12-27
- Scrolling through 90+ items to choose a date instead of typing it2022-12-27
- Date pickers are hard to use and unintuitive, especially for picking a date range2022-12-27
- Date pickers are frustrating; paging years one click at a time is painful2022-12-27
- Spinning the year wheel on iOS is slow; typing the year would be faster2022-06-16
- Date range UX is hit-and-miss, and pickers sometimes don't function as expected2022-01-27
- Tiny buttons with unknown behavior take too long to click through2022-01-27
- Can't type a date directly, forced to click through the calendar2022-01-27
- Date pickers are horrendous to use; typing dates is easier2022-01-27
- Date picker widget is cumbersome to use2022-01-08
- Imprecise scrolling through decades of years makes entering a birthdate tedious2021-06-28
- Birthdate picker starts at current year and only moves back month by month, with no year selection2021-06-25
- Datepicker component is so stupid and hard to use2020-11-15
- Clicking year-by-year through tiny plus and minus buttons from the current date wastes time2020-07-22
- Scrolling number spinners takes many swipes and makes it hard to stop on the right time2020-07-11
- Using separate date and time pickers for one value is painful2020-03-30
- Safari on macOS lacks a native date picker, so the control is basically unusable without a polyfill2019-10-16
- Scrolling through 30 dropdown options to enter age is tedious2019-08-19
- Browser date pickers differ per browser and are nearly impossible to style2019-08-02
- Date pickers are hard for blind users and fail accessibility assessment2019-02-23
- Standard date pickers assume near-future dates, so picking a decades-old birthdate is awkward2018-07-18
- Screen reader user cannot choose a date, blocking bookings and other completions2018-07-18
- Easy to select wrong hour or minute, and must repeatedly go back to hour selection2017-10-25
- Users must learn a new calendar widget on every website, hurting regular users and accessibility2016-10-23
- Flexible pickers take forever to reach the right date or time2016-09-19
- Native date input on desktop has odd colors and layout that clash with site design2014-10-14
- Browser date pickers are poorly implemented on desktop, making them unusable2014-10-14
- Setting a time requires scrolling two small spinning wheels and tapping through several screens2014-01-04
- Unclear what happens after clicking date or time, and what arrows skip2012-12-28
- Dropdown date selection is slow and annoying for experienced users2012-07-13
- Forces users to click outside the picker to close it2012-03-08
- Going back a decade requires many clicks through year dropdown and month button2011-09-07
- Calendar silently switches between depart and return modes, confusing users who select dates2010-12-03