Products · Pattern or everyday thing
Single-page applications
Raised as a usability problem by 246 people on Hacker News over 18 years (2009–2026), in 172 threads.
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Every issue, all time, most people first
Slow first load on low-bandwidth connectionsUnreviewed
20092026- Large JavaScript bundles make the app slow to load on slow networks2024-02-02
- Most single-page apps feel sluggish with slow interactions and loading spinners2023-12-01
- Slow page loads frustrate and disorient users drilling down through many pages2023-05-24
Middle-click to open links in a new tab often failsUnreviewed
20092026- Middle-click does not open links in a new tab2024-11-30
- Middle-click on links is ignored or treated as left-click, navigating away unexpectedly2024-09-11
- Links are DOM elements with onclick handlers, so users can't control or predict browser behavior like copying or opening in new tab2023-04-17
Shows a blank page when JavaScript is disabledUnreviewed
20092026- Most sites stop working when JavaScript is disabled2025-12-05
- Blank pages appear when scripts fail, unlike plain pages that stay semi-usable2022-11-24
- Sites feel slower and less responsive than normal link-based navigation2020-05-15
Empty pages and spinning bars appear before content loadsUnreviewed
20092026- Slow and unresponsive on slower devices compared with server-rendered pages2026-06-10
- Frequently shows empty pages and spinning progress bars before content appears2025-05-03
- Pages show empty shells, spinners and gray placeholder boxes before content appears2021-05-27
Back swipe resets to top, losing page stateUnreviewed
20092026- Back swipe resets to top of page; navigating out and back loses state2025-07-25
- Clicking back loses all state in the app, so the page resets2020-06-01
- Back button, new-tab and scroll position break on single-page apps2019-08-08
Connection errors leave an endless spinner with no retry optionUnreviewed
20092026- Spinner gives no progress or error feedback, so users can't tell what went wrong2026-06-10
- Spinner never appears on weak connections, and reloading loses state unless the app handles it2024-02-02
- Gets stuck on a spinner that never completes, with no way to abort or retry2020-12-22
Content shifts just before clicking, so users tap the wrong thingUnreviewed
20092026- Content appears just before clicking, so users click the wrong thing2023-02-05
- Elements jump around and users click the wrong element2020-09-21
- Pages show placeholders, then content shifts so clicks land on the wrong link2020-05-08
Screen readers lose their place when content changes dynamicallyUnreviewed
20092026- Screen readers don't announce SPA page navigations or fresh content loads2023-03-27
- Framework-built pages with dynamic sections and modals are rarely accessible to screen reader users2023-02-21
- Single page app view changes are not announced to screen reader users2020-05-11
Clicking shows a spinner until the server respondsUnreviewed
20092026- Fake loading spinners and artificial scroll delays make pages slower and confusing to use2022-05-05
- Slow data loads behind spinners make SPAs hard to use on mobile2020-06-16
- Simple static pages show a spinner for 30 seconds before content appears2018-10-31
Reloading and sharing links breaks, losing contextUnreviewed
20092026- Every click reloads all data, which is slow on poor connections2022-03-02
- Multi-minute load times and very high CPU usage make the site slow to use2020-04-18
- Slow loads, lost context, broken reload and link sharing for users2019-08-07
Subsections fail to load with no clear error messageUnreviewed
20092026- Core features don't work and pages stay stuck on endless spinners2025-05-12
- Slow first paint, spinners, and pages that randomly break when requests time out2024-05-31
- Spinners everywhere and unresponsive page when subsections fail to load, with no clear error2019-07-22
Slow mobile networks force repeated reloads of changing bundlesUnreviewed
20092026- Slow mobile network forces repeated reloads of changing bundles to use the app2025-07-26
- Navigation feels slow on mobile because new JS bundles must download, parse and execute first2023-02-15
- Client-rendered sites load slowly on mobile networks and stale caches, giving visitors a poor first visit2015-12-08
No loading signal after clicking links, so unclear if anything happensUnreviewed
20092026- No browser loading signal when clicking links, so users can't tell if anything is happening2024-01-19
- No visual indication that something is loading or downloading, which is infuriating2020-10-28
- Clicks give no visible sign whether anything is loading or broken2019-02-11
Every click reloads the page, causing waitsUnreviewed
20092026- Every click makes the page reload, causing waits when browsing without JavaScript2022-07-19
- Pages look loaded but don't respond to clicks while JavaScript is still starting2022-05-21
- Clicking links gives no feedback, then pages load slowly or not at all2017-08-31
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
- Back button stays inside the app instead of leaving the page as expected2026-07-19
- Waits about 10 seconds before the first redraw while loading unused routes2026-06-18
- Slow and unresponsive on slower devices compared with server-rendered pages2026-06-10
- Single-page apps give a worse user experience than traditional multi-page websites2026-06-10
- Spinner gives no progress or error feedback, so users can't tell what went wrong2026-06-10
- Browser back button does not leave the app as the user expects2026-04-14
- Sites that hijack the back button break the browser's back, forward and history navigation2026-04-14
- Copy and paste and scrolling break, navigation gets hijacked, and dark mode is overridden2026-04-14
- Virtualized tables are slow to scroll, break Ctrl+F, and struggle to show 100 rows2026-04-14
- Most sites stop working when JavaScript is disabled2025-12-05
- Back button fails in SPAs, forcing users to redo steps they already completed2025-12-04
- Sometimes forces users to reload SPAs, causing jarring page loads2025-12-04
- Users wait for content to load and rage-click while buttons fail to react on phones2025-10-28
- SPAs are poorly accessible and slow to interact with on modern devices2025-10-16
- App converts waypoints to addresses and searches on load, so it is unusable offline in remote areas2025-08-05
- Back button does not work on many SPAs, so users can't navigate back2025-07-27
- SPA websites break basic web behaviour and load slowly, so simple pages feel worse than plain HTML2025-07-26
- Forms load empty and the back button doesn't work, forcing users to log out and retry2025-07-26
- Slow mobile network forces repeated reloads of changing bundles to use the app2025-07-26
- Many SPAs leave users with poor experience from badly handled errors and performance2025-07-26
- Shift-click to open a category in a new tab doesn't work when categories are only reachable via a select input2025-07-25
- Back swipe resets to top of page; navigating out and back loses state2025-07-25
- Many SPAs are practically unusable on bad connections because the whole app is slow to load2025-07-25
- Core features don't work and pages stay stuck on endless spinners2025-05-12
- Frequently shows empty pages and spinning progress bars before content appears2025-05-03
- Users can't tell when something is happening or when something went wrong without a refresh2025-04-08
- Back button changes the URL but the page content doesn't update2025-04-08
- SPAs are sluggish, load megabytes of junk, and still force frequent page reloads when clicking2025-03-12
- SPA websites are slower to use and less functional than older sites2025-01-21
- Perceptible click latency in web UIs makes users leave the app2024-12-02
- Middle-click does not open links in a new tab2024-11-30
- SPAs break URLs, back button and scroll behaviour for users2024-11-29
- History stuffing makes the back button seem broken and history falls out of sync2024-10-29
- SPA user experience is broken for typical users2024-10-08
- Breaks the experience for users who open the site in multiple tabs or reopen it after submitting a form2024-10-08
- Middle-click on links is ignored or treated as left-click, navigating away unexpectedly2024-09-11
- Slow first paint, spinners, and pages that randomly break when requests time out2024-05-31
- Clicking gives no response on failure, so users can't tell if the action worked2024-05-22
- Back, forward, refresh, bookmarking and link sharing break in many single page apps2024-04-21
- Pressing back in the browser jumps to the site's home page instead2024-02-12
- Navigating SPAs shows no loading indicator on slow networks, leaving users unsure if anything is happening2024-02-02
- Spinner never appears on weak connections, and reloading loses state unless the app handles it2024-02-02
- Many API round trips make interactions slow and worse on flaky connections2024-02-02
- Poor experience on slow or intermittent connections2024-02-02
- SPAs silently hang on failed requests, leaving users staring at the screen waiting2024-02-02
- Large JavaScript bundles make the app slow to load on slow networks2024-02-02
- No browser loading signal when clicking links, so users can't tell if anything is happening2024-01-19
- Page reloads cause a flickering blank screen during navigation between results2024-01-07
- Optimistic UI updates without failure handling make it unclear what was saved2024-01-07
- Buttons look like links, textboxes block copy-paste, and important pages lack working URLs2023-12-19