Products · Broad category
Graphical programming and editing tools
Raised as a usability problem by 14 people on Hacker News over 17 years (2010–2026), in 14 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
Complex graphical programs become hard to maintain, search and diffUnreviewed
20102026- Graphical software is bloated, overly complex, inflexible, opaque and slow2019-02-28
- Building programs in graphical editor takes too much input effort per instruction2017-08-14
- Complex graphical programs become hard to maintain, search and diff2015-08-17
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
- Schematic design gets bogged down in fiddly graphical editing instead of design thinking2026-05-11
- Terminal apps draw incorrectly and misplace characters, unlike old DOS and VT-100 screens2025-10-22
- Developers avoid graphical debuggers and waste hours on print debugging instead2024-11-23
- Graphical software is bloated, overly complex, inflexible, opaque and slow2019-02-28
- Using the mouse to click through graphical controls feels slow compared to typing2019-01-29
- Menu bars, file trees and panels take up screen space and are useless at large font sizes2018-05-05
- Building programs in graphical editor takes too much input effort per instruction2017-08-14
- Restructuring a whole expression in tree-based equation editors gets messy quickly2017-02-06
- Managing servers through GUIs without a command line is very annoying2016-11-11
- Flowchart visual tools become harder to comprehend as diagrams grow larger than text2016-05-13
- Seniors can't tell which button to click amid many popping-up windows2016-04-08
- Complex graphical programs become hard to maintain, search and diff2015-08-17
- Tools force clicking through wizards and dropdowns instead of editing the text file directly2015-06-23
- Selecting notes and choosing durations from palettes or menus takes forever with a mouse2010-07-15