Products · Pattern or everyday thing
Gesture-based interfaces
Raised as a usability problem by 14 people on Hacker News over 14 years (2010–2023), in 11 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
Gesture controls aren't transparent or guessable, so hard to useUnreviewed
20102026- Gesture controls in cars are frustrating and worse than touchscreens2023-04-27
- Gesture controls are hard to use because they are often not transparent or guessable2019-08-07
- Gesture and touchscreen interfaces misread tremors as intentional input and need too much grip strength2016-11-17
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 14 complaints
- Gesture controls in cars are frustrating and worse than touchscreens2023-04-27
- Gesture controls are hard to use because they are often not transparent or guessable2019-08-07
- Swipe typing often picks wrong words, forcing users to stop and check each word2018-02-21
- Gesture and touchscreen interfaces misread tremors as intentional input and need too much grip strength2016-11-17
- Gesture input is non-haptic and unnatural to use2016-05-23
- Gesture input gives no force feedback, so interactions feel unintuitive and users revert to other interfaces2016-02-03
- Users can't see where their hand is relative to the interface2013-02-26
- Users can't tell which swipe or pinch does which action, and gestures trigger unintended actions like photos2012-06-24
- Gestures like tapping the top to scroll are hard to discover2011-05-05
- Basic tasks require slow, inefficient physical movement like waving arms around2010-06-05
- Gestures are inaccurate for precise tasks and must be learned, being unintuitive2010-06-05
- Hidden gestures trigger menus and keyboards users can't find or reproduce2010-05-29
- Users can't tell which gestures an app supports, so they must guess by trial and error2010-05-29
- Users can't discover gesture alternatives, accidentally trigger actions, and get no feedback on misses2010-05-29