Products · Pattern or everyday thing
Touchscreen controls
Raised as a usability problem by 60 people on Hacker News over 17 years (2010–2026), in 48 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
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Every issue, all time, most people first
No tactile feedback makes touchscreens harder than physical controlsUnreviewed
20102026- Can't feel whether a touch registered or find the control without looking2025-01-31
- Touchscreen controls for basic functions are clearly worse to operate than physical buttons2024-11-04
- Flat touch buttons hidden until used are hard to find, feel and operate without looking2024-10-15
Touchscreen controls force drivers to look away from the roadUnreviewed
20102026- Touch screen climate controls cause confusion and distraction while driving2026-01-06
- Adjusting climate settings on a touchscreen forces drivers to take eyes off the road2023-12-19
- Changing temperature on touch screens requires looking, unlike tactile car controls2022-05-25
Virtual knobs and dragging are hard to operate on touchscreensUnreviewed
20102026- Virtual knobs are confusing and user can never reach the right value2024-10-28
- Virtual controls are generally far inferior to physical ones and harder to use2020-03-31
- Virtual knobs are difficult to operate on a touchscreen, and resistive screens are harder for dragging2019-08-12
Touch interfaces are less efficient than keyboard and mouseUnreviewed
20102026- Touch-only interfaces hide what can be done; gestures are undiscoverable without hover or visual clues2022-07-20
- Touch interfaces lost discoverability, predictability and shortcuts, and got worse as features were added2020-06-26
- Touch-based interfaces are less efficient than keyboard and mouse for many tasks2015-12-08
Text selection is awkward to do on touch devicesUnreviewed
20102026- Text selection is awkward and poorly designed on touch devices2020-01-28
- Touch-screen map selection is imprecise, making destinations hard to pick accurately2014-05-28
- Touch input is tiring and tedious for text editing tasks2012-08-06
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
- Touch screen climate controls cause confusion and distraction while driving2026-01-06
- Timer keeps last duration, so user must fiddle to change it; many steps to reach clock app2025-10-07
- Touch screen UI is poor for the commenter's mobile-only use2025-03-19
- Can't feel whether a touch registered or find the control without looking2025-01-31
- Touch sensors fail to unlock phones for people with dry older skin2025-01-31
- Touchscreen controls for basic functions are clearly worse to operate than physical buttons2024-11-04
- Virtual knobs are confusing and user can never reach the right value2024-10-28
- Flat touch buttons hidden until used are hard to find, feel and operate without looking2024-10-15
- High touch latency makes people think taps failed, so they tap again and undo settings2024-08-21
- On touch screens, panning can edit cells or trigger actions instead of scrolling2024-06-03
- Hard to press the right control without tactile feedback during turbulence2024-02-02
- Adjusting climate settings on a touchscreen forces drivers to take eyes off the road2023-12-19
- Touch controls demand full visual attention, unlike tactile buttons usable by feel in a pocket2023-12-16
- Tip screen appears unexpectedly and preselects a 25% default, causing accidental tips2023-10-24
- Touch controls are less pleasant to play with than physical buttons2023-09-22
- Complex touchscreen controls people never get familiar with, linked to fatal crashes2023-04-27
- Touch-only interfaces hide what can be done; gestures are undiscoverable without hover or visual clues2022-07-20
- Changing temperature on touch screens requires looking, unlike tactile car controls2022-05-25
- Touch-based controls are hard to use and the commenter prefers physical dials and knobs2022-01-15
- Controls become unusable when liquid or heat sits on the surface, so the stove can't be shut off2021-11-21
- Touchscreen software is too complicated for people with combined hearing and vision loss2021-04-29
- Taps land on buttons that appear just before the user touches, causing accidental actions2020-11-02
- Touch screens lack tactile feedback, forcing hovering hands and imprecise input2020-08-13
- Touch interfaces lost discoverability, predictability and shortcuts, and got worse as features were added2020-06-26
- Touch controls activate on contact, so users can't verify by feel before triggering them2020-06-03
- Lifting finger shifts slider, selecting an adjacent value unintentionally2020-05-04
- Touchscreen controls move around between menus and updates, forcing drivers to look away from road2020-04-01
- Touchscreens lack tactile feedback, making them harder to use than physical controls2020-03-31
- Touch controls led to misinterpreting steering input, causing a fatal collision2020-03-31
- Virtual controls are generally far inferior to physical ones and harder to use2020-03-31
- Touchscreen controls are distracting and require stillness to operate2020-03-31
- Touchscreens lack tactile feedback, so use can't become automatic through muscle memory2020-03-31
- Has to repeatedly mash touchscreen to get it to register a press2020-03-31
- Touchscreens make drivers look away from the road to operate them2020-03-31
- Menu hunting and tapping on touchscreens is slower than keyboard-style undo access2020-01-28
- Text selection is awkward and poorly designed on touch devices2020-01-28
- Virtual knobs are difficult to operate on a touchscreen, and resistive screens are harder for dragging2019-08-12
- Operators struggled to adjust virtual knobs on a touch screen2019-08-11
- Car touchscreen climate systems are badly designed and hard to use well2019-08-11
- Touchscreen gives no tactile feedback, so operators can't feel controls without looking2019-08-11
- Touch controls force drivers to look away from the road to operate them2019-08-11
- Controls on the screen only, forcing the driver to look away to operate them2019-06-15
- Voice commands are slower than knobs and risk misunderstanding, forgotten stove states2019-05-03
- Controls are buried several levels deep in menus, hard to find2019-01-26
- Users can't tell how to access functions and get no feedback from touches2018-05-11
- Touching active controls gives no feedback, so user can't tell if input registered2018-05-10
- Finger-sized UI elements waste screen space and reduce information density2016-08-25
- Touch-based interfaces are less efficient than keyboard and mouse for many tasks2015-12-08
- Hidden menus, gestures and icons are hard for first-time and older users to discover2015-08-11
- Computerized tools get generic touch-screen menus that make them awkward to operate, like a hammer with a touch screen2015-08-07