Products · Pattern or everyday thing
Drag-and-drop
Raised as a usability problem by 39 people on Hacker News over 17 years (2010–2026), in 28 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Drag and drop is fiddly on touch screens and touchpadsUnreviewed
20102026- Drag and drop on touch interfaces feels clunky and awkward to perform2026-04-25
- Drag and drop is error prone and its consequences are confusing2025-12-19
- Dragging list elements on mobile past the visible screen is hard2025-12-19
Unable to predict whether dragging copies or moves the fileUnreviewed
20102026- Hard to scroll a big directory while holding a dragged file2025-12-19
- Drag-only upload gives no browse option, blocking users without drag-capable file managers and screen reader users2020-10-01
- Dragging files into a drop area is awkward; the standard file picker is easier to use2013-07-30
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 42 complaints
- Drag and drop on touch interfaces feels clunky and awkward to perform2026-04-25
- Making resizable layouts requires clicking through dialogs for every element and redoing them after changes2026-03-23
- Hard to scroll a big directory while holding a dragged file2025-12-19
- Drag and drop is error prone and its consequences are confusing2025-12-19
- Dragging list elements on mobile past the visible screen is hard2025-12-19
- Drag-and-drop between windows requires a lot of movements, making it annoying2025-12-19
- Drag-and-drop word placement is mostly broken on phone, taking many tries to place words2025-04-01
- Hard to work through docs, no API reference, broken links, and a very slow doc site2024-04-27
- Holding and precisely moving while dragging is hard and RSI-inducing, especially on mobile2024-04-25
- Drag is canceled if destination isn't ready, forcing the user to restart the whole drag2023-11-30
- Drag and drop is a chore on touchpads, touchscreens and multi-monitor setups, risking drops in the wrong place2023-06-05
- Drag and drop with touchpads or touchscreens is a chore2023-06-05
- Drag and drop is hard to use on phones due to limited screen space2023-04-15
- Drag-and-drop is not an ideal user experience; the commenter doesn't enjoy using it on any OS2022-10-25
- Adding many repeated elements to a diagram takes a lot of manual work2022-03-23
- Drag and drop is fiddly on touch screens and touchpads2022-01-23
- Blocks and widgets jumble about the page wildly when the page is resized2022-01-23
- Repeated press-and-drag to connect components causes wrist pain2022-01-23
- Conventional drag and drop is fatiguing and error-prone, causing misplaced items2022-01-23
- Too easy to accidentally trigger, leaving users unsure what happened2022-01-23
- Drag and drop is unreliable on trackpads, since lifting a finger interrupts the drag2022-01-23
- Drag and drop has keyboard accessibility problems, struggles with many items, and confuses users2022-01-22
- The page is not usable, not clear, and annoying to use2021-11-19
- Color picker has no accept action; closing discards color and hovering changes it randomly2021-11-19
- Drag-clicking and middle-click make the commenter's hands cringe2021-06-01
- Drag and drop may not work with screen readers or unusual devices2021-05-06
- Block editors are hard to use on phones and pages come out incoherent on mobile2021-05-04
- Drag-only upload gives no browse option, blocking users without drag-capable file managers and screen reader users2020-10-01
- Drag and drop is messy when source and destination aren't both visible2019-10-11
- Easy to accidentally drag items into the wrong place with a mouse2019-10-11
- Drag and drop is hard to do on touch screens and touchpads2019-10-11
- Drag-and-drop requires holding the mouse button, making multi-step moves clunky2018-02-07
- Drag and drop is painful on trackpads and aggravates RSI2018-02-07
- Drag and drop feels like tiring manual labor to perform2018-01-12
- Drag and drop requires juggling windows side by side, harder than using a file dialog2015-07-30
- Forces switching from keyboard to mouse, slowing down use of the tool2014-10-24
- Dragging doesn't work on a mobile device in the demo2014-03-31
- Drag-and-drop is awkward: the target window may be hidden and the mouse button must stay held throughout2013-09-04
- Dragging files into a drop area is awkward; the standard file picker is easier to use2013-07-30
- Impossible to tell which things can be dragged or what drops do2013-03-18
- Users can't predict whether drag and drop will copy or move the file2011-09-05
- Drag-and-drop makes it easy to drop onto the wrong item2010-07-23