Products · Broad category
GUI
Raised as a usability problem by 22 people on Hacker News over 18 years (2009–2026), in 21 threads.
This is a broad category rather than one product, so its issues aren't ranked on the home page.
People raised many different problems with GUI, but no single problem has yet been raised by 3 people in 3 different months and threads.
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 22 complaints
- Procedures consist of GUI clicks over RDP, so they cannot be scripted or automated2026-06-22
- Clicking through a GUI to get things done is much harder than typing commands2026-02-26
- Getting text to and from the system clipboard is cumbersome in Vim2024-03-29
- Keyboard navigation and focus don't work as standard keys expect, forcing mouse use2023-11-29
- Making small changes takes many clicks through panels and pop-ups2023-06-01
- GUI file searching is unreliable or slow enough that the commenter gave up on it2023-04-28
- A single keypress can delete files, with confirmations the only safeguard2022-05-08
- Existing scientific data GUIs are clunky, slow, and hard to use for visualisation2022-04-11
- Installing software via GUI requires clicking and dragging repeatedly, and GUIs often almost work2021-12-13
- Fancy GUI system monitors take ages to load when the system is already slow2021-01-04
- Panes too small to use on a 1440 screen without constant panning2020-06-10
- Blind users with screen readers cannot use applications built with these toolkits2020-04-25
- Modern GUI and web apps don't support fast Enter/arrow-key field movement that DOS apps had2020-04-11
- GUI mail clients are unreliable and bad, with no specific problem named2019-07-08
- Automation fights the user and hides what's happening when something goes wrong2017-03-08
- Steep learning curve; gets stuck quickly beyond very simple layouts2017-02-10
- GUI metaphors don't match how the OS organises content, forcing users to second-guess the system2016-09-10
- GUI Git clients feel more confusing than the command line2015-02-09
- Built-in search is less powerful and more cumbersome than the original2012-12-18
- GUI hides complexity, leaving users with a clouded view and branching/merging mistakes2010-12-26
- Site requires horizontal scrolling in a small browser window2009-04-24
- Page flashes white on tab switches before dark theme loads, jarring in low light2009-04-23