Products · Pattern or everyday thing
Pop-ups
Raised as a usability problem by 91 people on Hacker News over 20 years (2007–2026), in 87 threads.
- 1
- 2
- 3
Every issue, all time, most people first
Popups interrupt reading, forcing users to block themUnreviewed
20072026- People click accept on popups out of fatigue without reading them2026-10-23
- Users reflexively dismiss popups without reading them, causing errors2026-08-31
- Popups interrupt and block content, making people leave immediately2026-08-20
Hover pop-ups appear unintentionally and block the content users wantUnreviewed
20072026- Popups are added as modals to disguise an annoying, poor user experience2026-07-01
- Hover popup can only be closed by hovering over and off it2022-09-28
- Hover popups appeared immediately and annoyed real users, requiring a delay2022-08-28
Login pop-up windows open unexpectedly and work unreliablyUnreviewed
20072026- Pop-ups for logins, sign-ups, cookies and deals have returned everywhere2026-07-01
- Popup chains hijack the OS windowing system and make the computer unusable2024-05-10
- Login pop-up windows are unreliable and user-hostile; sites open windows unexpectedly2022-03-18
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 50 complaints
- People click accept on popups out of fatigue without reading them2026-10-23
- Drawer can't be partly opened, so form and needed info can't be seen together2026-10-20
- Users reflexively dismiss popups without reading them, causing errors2026-08-31
- Popups interrupt and block content, making people leave immediately2026-08-20
- Pop-ups for logins, sign-ups, cookies and deals have returned everywhere2026-07-01
- Popups are added as modals to disguise an annoying, poor user experience2026-07-01
- Popups on mobile are hard to close, so people leave the page2026-05-30
- Modal pops up while typing in search, interrupting the user2026-01-01
- New tabs get blocked unless user taps a small permission button2025-12-21
- Dismissing a popup by accident, then not knowing what it said2025-10-07
- Users click any button just to dismiss intrusive popups, which gets counted as engagement2025-10-07
- Users ignore warning pop-ups because so many are irrelevant, so critical alerts go unheeded2025-10-06
- A double-click on a popup's dismiss button passes through and adds an item to cart2025-09-12
- Payment only via Venmo or exact cash, revealed after food handed over2025-06-18
- Popups obscure content and the hide button is hard to reach2025-05-08
- Users dismiss message boxes reflexively and never read the error text2025-04-10
- Autocomplete popups and tab-complete interrupt the commenter's flow of writing code2024-12-25
- Pop-ups are unusable on iOS mobile devices2024-08-03
- Popups annoy every visitor on arrival and are closed without being read2024-05-30
- Popup chains hijack the OS windowing system and make the computer unusable2024-05-10
- Too many annoying popups make users dismiss all of them reflexively, even important ones2024-04-10
- Pop-ups in the user's face force interaction and block using the product2023-12-22
- Popups make the web increasingly unusable to browse2023-04-24
- Full-screen signup popup appears within half a second and blocks reading2023-01-06
- A pop-up appears mid-typing and a space press hits a button, leaving the user confused about what happened2022-11-23
- Hover popup can only be closed by hovering over and off it2022-09-28
- Hover popups appeared immediately and annoyed real users, requiring a delay2022-08-28
- Close buttons are nearly transparent and tiny, so users must hunt for them2022-05-18
- Can't find a human contact; must create an account just to open a fraud ticket2022-03-24
- Login pop-up windows are unreliable and user-hostile; sites open windows unexpectedly2022-03-18
- Feature popups interrupt active work when users are trying to get something done2022-03-14
- Browsers block popup windows by default, so the MSAL popup login flow fails2022-02-01
- Focus lands automatically on the Sure button, so pressing Space confirms it by accident2022-01-11
- Crypto wallet pop-up asks users to authorise spending all their money after clicking enter app2021-12-21
- Modal popups block page scrolling even after removing the overlay2021-06-28
- Modal popup blocks page scrolling even after it is removed2021-06-28
- Pop-up renders with its close button off-screen in landscape orientation, so the user can't dismiss it2021-06-25
- Popup reappears on every new navigation because it doesn't remember it was dismissed2021-03-31
- Visitors must quickly close pop-ups and cookie notices before reading articles2021-03-08
- A link opened endless pop-ups that could not all be closed2021-02-09
- Content is hidden from users behind a popup that must be bypassed with scripts2021-01-22
- Multiple layered popups obscure content and must be closed before reading2020-11-29
- Popup close button is hard to find every time2020-11-19
- Sites trick users into clicking buttons whose labels misdescribe the permission prompt they open2020-10-21
- Popups like cookie warnings and subscribe prompts are intrusive enough that the commenter blocks them all2020-08-11
- Constant per-site and per-app pop-ups cause fatigue and a terrible user experience2020-07-03
- Tiny low-contrast close X is hard to spot for non-technical users2020-03-22
- Popup is unusable on a OnePlus 5 phone2020-02-21
- Sneaky overlays get forced on users who don't want them, interrupting browsing2019-11-08
- Annoying pop-ups that must be clicked away, pushing people into something they didn't choose2019-10-26