Products · Broad category
Desktop apps
Raised as a usability problem by 16 people on Hacker News over 18 years (2009–2026), in 16 threads.
This is a broad category rather than one product, so its issues aren't ranked on the home page.
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
Most desktop apps are a pain to use with touchUnreviewed
20092026- Modern desktop apps are slower, harder to use, and less consistent than older ones2024-06-30
- Apps use inconsistent, cluttered interfaces mixing desktop and touch styles2021-10-02
- Most desktop apps are a pain to use with touch2019-08-06
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 16 complaints
- Desktop apps copy mobile layouts, hiding features and limiting what fits on screen2026-10-15
- Writing desktop apps with web tools feels clunky and unintuitive2026-06-22
- Each app puts common actions in different places, so every new app is a new puzzle to figure out2026-05-03
- Modern desktop apps are slower, harder to use, and less consistent than older ones2024-06-30
- Apps become unusable or cluttered on monitors whose resolution the designers didn't assume2023-10-26
- Most desktop apps and websites force mouse use, disrupting keyboard-based workflows2023-02-24
- Apps are slow to respond, with spinners on every click and tap2022-01-07
- Apps use inconsistent, cluttered interfaces mixing desktop and touch styles2021-10-02
- Desktop apps are hard to uninstall and leave clutter behind2021-09-11
- Touch-sized buttons and wasted space leave less content visible on large screens2021-06-24
- Desktop apps repaint with stutters and hang for seconds during use2020-01-01
- Most desktop apps are a pain to use with touch2019-08-06
- Default avatars have less variety so users blend together2019-01-16
- Settings buttons fall off-screen at some resolutions, and text can't be selected or copied2018-02-22
- Desktop apps packing too much UI into one module are unlearnable for most users2017-01-30
- Installing a desktop app takes many steps, including hunting for the downloaded file and clicking through installer screens2009-09-05