Products · Pattern or everyday thing
Multi-column layouts
Raised as a usability problem by 7 people on Hacker News over 17 years (2009–2025), in 7 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
Multiple columns force scrolling down, up and sideways to readUnreviewed
20092026- Scrolling through overflowing columns is constant and awkward, with no intuitive side-scroll controls on desktop2025-10-07
- Zoomed-in columns force back-and-forth scrolling and users lose their place2021-11-10
- Sliding columns confuse readers and make the article impossible to skim2020-12-24
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 8 complaints
- Scrolling through overflowing columns is constant and awkward, with no intuitive side-scroll controls on desktop2025-10-07
- Long single-column text makes it hard to track position and find progress through the page2022-09-25
- Zoomed-in columns force back-and-forth scrolling and users lose their place2021-11-10
- Horizontal swiping between columns on mobile is inaccurate and hard for users with a thumb2021-11-04
- Sliding columns confuse readers and make the article impossible to skim2020-12-24
- Reading columns forces scrolling back up to find the next column's top2014-12-28
- Multiple columns for continuous text make reading annoying and awkward2014-12-28
- Multiple columns force scrolling down, up, and sideways to read2009-07-14