Products · Pattern or everyday thing
Scrollbars
Raised as a usability problem by 113 people on Hacker News over 18 years (2009–2026), in 57 threads.
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Every issue, all time, most people first
Scrollbars so thin they are almost impossible to see or clickUnreviewed
20092026- A slightly misplaced click on the scrollbar causes a disorienting scroll2026-05-13
- Scrollbar accidentally touched on touchscreen makes the page jump away2026-05-12
- Thin scrollbars are hard to grab and unusable on touch screens2026-01-27
Scrolling is choppy and sometimes fails to start depending on right-clickUnreviewed
20092026- Can't scroll with keyboard, and scroll wheel is slow or broken2023-06-15
- Horizontal scrolling with a mouse wheel is hard; needs ctrl or awkward dragging2021-03-10
- Content not obviously scrollable, no sense of position, hard to jump to a precise location2021-01-22
Scrolling animation makes reading a whole article distractingUnreviewed
20092026- Animated character distracts and pulls focus every time the user scrolls2025-03-03
- Horizontal bar animates in response to vertical scrolling, which is distracting2023-10-13
- Scrolling animation makes it distracting to read the whole article2015-04-02
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
- Without a scrollbar, it's hard to tell how long a page is2026-10-27
- Users can't tell whether content exists below the fold without scrolling2026-10-15
- A slightly misplaced click on the scrollbar causes a disorienting scroll2026-05-13
- Scrollbar accidentally touched on touchscreen makes the page jump away2026-05-12
- Thin scrollbars are hard to grab and unusable on touch screens2026-01-27
- Scrollbar is 2 pixels wide, only visible on hover, and sits beside action icons2026-01-16
- Hidden and narrow scrollbars are very annoying to use on desktop2025-07-06
- Scrollbars are too thin to grab and hard to see against background2025-03-31
- Modern scroll bars are one or two pixels thick, so they are hard to grab2025-03-03
- Animated character distracts and pulls focus every time the user scrolls2025-03-03
- Existing scroll bars are useless and hard to use2025-03-03
- Scrollbars hide progress and make jumping to a position hard to do2024-11-29
- Tiny scroll bars are impossible to use on a touch screen2024-11-29
- Custom scrollbar is hard to see and too narrow to click2024-10-21
- Scrollbars disappear and reappear on hover, which is a huge annoyance2024-07-12
- Scrollbars are narrow, hidden by default, and lack a visible thumb, making them hard to use2024-06-24
- Hidden scroll bars no longer show scroll position or size or allow direct clicking and dragging2024-06-04
- Scrollbars are transparent, disappearing, tiny and hard to grab, hiding that content scrolls2024-06-03
- Scrollbars are hard to see, so users don't notice scrollable content2024-04-17
- Scrollbars in modern interfaces are hard to discover and use2024-03-04
- Static scrollbar styles dominate visual weight, making intuitive UI design impossible2024-02-01
- Scroll thumbs are too thin to grab and vanish quickly, so they are hard to find and use2024-01-30
- Scroll bars are hard to use on popular platforms2024-01-05
- Tiny scrollbar buttons are a precision target that is harder to use than keyboard shortcuts2023-10-15
- Hidden scrollbars give no visual hint of which part of the page is shown2023-10-14
- Native scrollbars disrupt layouts and clash with branding in scrollable containers2023-10-13
- Designers hide scrollbars or treat them as position indicators only, so users can't grab them to scroll2023-10-13
- Scrollbars in textareas and iframes look out of context and are mis-sized2023-10-13
- Scrollbars autohide by default, so users can't tell content is scrollable2023-10-13
- Tiny scrollbars with poor contrast are hard to see and inaccessible2023-10-13
- Scrollbar contrast is so poor that users struggle to see position; many apps ignore theme fixes2023-10-13
- Tiny scrollbars with poor contrast are hard to see and inaccessible2023-10-13
- Users can't tell scrolling is possible when scrollbars disappear or never appear2023-10-13
- Thin, hard-to-grab scrollbars make scrolling hard, especially for accessibility2023-10-13
- Scrollbars are hidden and minimised, so users can't see or grab them2023-10-13
- Scrollbar thumb becomes tiny and hard to find on long pages2023-10-13
- Thinner, less visible scrollbars are hard for many people to see and use2023-10-13
- Thin desktop scrollbars are hard to grab, a mobile-driven design choice hurting desktop usability2023-10-13
- Scroll bar jumps around on infinitely scrolling or resizing content, making navigation hard2023-10-13
- Horizontal bar animates in response to vertical scrolling, which is distracting2023-10-13
- Can't tell a small frame has scrollable content because its scrollbar is hidden2023-10-13
- Scrollbars are so thin that only the exact centre pixel can be clicked2023-10-13
- Scroll bars are one pixel wide, too small to hit reliably with a mouse2023-10-05
- Auto-hiding scrollbar makes the handle hard to grab, especially in long lists2023-09-10
- Tiny scroll bar slivers are hard to hit and hunt down2023-09-10
- Low contrast scroll slider is hard to see, so user loses their place on the page2023-07-30
- Scrollbars are so small users don't notice content can scroll2023-07-18
- Overlay scroll bars fade away, so users must be quick to catch and grab them2023-07-11
- Clicking the track doesn't page-scroll like Mac scroll bars2023-06-15
- Scrollbars vanish when pointer leaves area, hiding that content can scroll2023-06-15