Products · Pattern or everyday thing
Progress bars
Raised as a usability problem by 17 people on Hacker News over 17 years (2010–2026), in 13 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Progress bar gets stuck at a percentage and does not reflect progressUnreviewed
20102026- Progress bar speed doesn't match actual time, misleading users about remaining wait2026-05-13
- Progress bar shows only upload, not the later transcoding stage2024-07-02
- Progress bar reaches 100% and never goes away2023-10-19
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 16 complaints
- Progress bar speed doesn't match actual time, misleading users about remaining wait2026-05-13
- Progress bar shows only upload, not the later transcoding stage2024-07-02
- Progress bar reaches 100% and never goes away2023-10-19
- Loading screens hide the mouse cursor, so users can't tell whether the computer is working or frozen2022-09-29
- Single progress bar jumps or stalls across phases, so estimates of time remaining are misleading2022-09-23
- Progress bars give misleading sense of timing and stall at percentages2021-10-14
- Progress bar fills the screen and blocks using the app during a task2020-11-25
- Progress bars misrepresent what is actually happening, misleading users about progress2020-11-25
- Progress bar stalls with no status text, so the user cannot search for the specific problem2020-11-25
- Bar jumps to 99% quickly then stalls, so it stops indicating progress2020-11-24
- Progress bar gets stuck on a certain percent and does not reflect actual progress2020-11-24
- Indeterminate spinners leave users waiting without knowing how long a task will take2017-12-19
- Progress bar hits 99%, then a second progress bar appears, so user keeps waiting2016-02-27
- Progress bar jumps to 100% after long wait, misrepresenting time remaining during installations2010-12-26
- Cancel button does not stop loading; progress bar is inaccurate2010-10-09
- Progress bars stall at 99% and users learn not to trust them2010-09-29