Products · Broad category
Web design
Raised as a usability problem by 79 people on Hacker News over 20 years (2007–2026), in 80 threads.
This is a broad category rather than one product, so its issues aren't ranked on the home page.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads in the last 5 years.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Light gray text on white is hard to readUnreviewed
20072026- Body text has too little contrast against background, hard to read with imperfect vision2026-01-18
- Light gray thin body font is hard to read on some screens2020-10-13
- Low-contrast main text is hard to read for many people2019-07-29
Distracting animations and decoration hinder content accessUnreviewed
20072026- New animated UI feels less clear and less responsive than older elements2024-03-08
- Heavy visual effects make pages slow to view and distracting2023-06-14
- Constantly moving text, marquees and autoplay animations distract readers and are hard to use2015-08-28
Complex web UIs are slow to interact with when built naivelyUnreviewed
20072026- Complex web UIs become very slow to interact with when built naively2024-12-20
- Web UIs lack discoverable keyboard shortcuts and expert modes, so power users are slowed down2020-09-09
- Modern web UIs respond too slowly, with 500-5000ms delays on interactions2020-07-10
Clickable elements aren't visually identified, so users can't tellUnreviewed
20072026- Clickable elements are not visually identified, so users can't tell what to click2022-09-10
- Links and buttons no longer look distinguishable, so users can't tell what is clickable2019-01-20
- Decorative circles look clickable but the whole area is one button2014-07-02
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
- Most web interfaces are worse than 1970s Xerox and 1990s Visual Basic apps2026-04-18
- Web interfaces described as bad to use2026-04-04
- Body text has too little contrast against background, hard to read with imperfect vision2026-01-18
- Keyboard navigation breaks: tab fails, dates and comboboxes need mouse, no enter or esc2025-10-18
- Cramming every choice on small screen, leaving users to work out differences themselves2025-04-01
- Ads and recommended content shift, so you can't reliably click the one you want2025-02-19
- Web interfaces are less responsive and usable than native toolkits, with excessive scrolling and whitespace2025-02-07
- Complex web UIs become very slow to interact with when built naively2024-12-20
- Sites now designed around maximizing ad placement, making browsing unenjoyable2024-10-04
- Forces users to resize browser window every time they switch tabs2024-08-30
- Actions fire on the wrong event, so Escape closes two things at once and clicks trigger before release2024-05-24
- Designs use non-obvious buttons and unusual interactions that are hard for people to use2024-05-01
- New animated UI feels less clear and less responsive than older elements2024-03-08
- Web UIs have many clickable controls per item, making them denser and more complicated than old desktop apps2023-12-29
- Janky animations and pointless dropdowns block users from reaching what they want2023-11-12
- Web interface is notoriously nerfed, with more complaints than the API2023-08-25
- RTL text is awkward to read and type in LTR-designed interfaces2023-08-24
- Most interfaces are modal, doing one thing at a time with specific navigation steps to reach the next view2023-07-18
- Heavy visual effects make pages slow to view and distracting2023-06-14
- Modern web interfaces are worse to use than Windows 2000 style interfaces2023-05-29
- Web UIs add animations, wizards and complicated workflows that make development very complex2022-11-02
- Web animations are excessive and make people wait before using controls2022-10-16
- Clickable elements are not visually identified, so users can't tell what to click2022-09-10
- Web forms are slow and clunky to use by keyboard, with browser autofill fighting input and tab order breaking2022-08-18
- Most web UIs are hard to use because experts ignore affordances, signifiers and mapping2022-07-18
- Endless pop-ups, cookie banners and chat widgets clutter pages and block content2022-03-03
- Most article pages are intolerable or unusable without reader mode2021-08-27
- Browser text size and font preferences are hard to set and get overridden by sites2021-04-22
- Modern web designs are bloated and sometimes not intuitive to use2021-04-04
- Modern web-based interfaces force users to guess their way around, unlike predictable older standards2021-04-03
- Light gray thin body font is hard to read on some screens2020-10-13
- Web UIs lack discoverable keyboard shortcuts and expert modes, so power users are slowed down2020-09-09
- Wide-screen layouts waste half the screen, forcing constant scrolling back and forth2020-08-10
- Modern web UIs respond too slowly, with 500-5000ms delays on interactions2020-07-10
- Web interfaces look nice but are hard to get anything done in2020-07-10
- Web app interfaces are hard for kids to use, with janky, counter-intuitive elements and latency2020-05-15
- Body text is so large and wide that reading each line feels like a marathon2020-05-02
- Web interface is impossible to use in older Firefox versions due to bugs2020-03-11
- Simple things are hard to build without frameworks because of browser quirks and cruft2020-02-25
- Low-contrast main text is hard to read for many people2019-07-29
- Modern web UIs are slow to interact with and non-native feeling2019-07-17
- The web interface is noticeably slower to interact with2019-05-21
- Light gray text on white background is hard to read2019-05-01
- Links and buttons no longer look distinguishable, so users can't tell what is clickable2019-01-20
- Each site has its own interface, so users must relearn them as they move between information sources2018-07-22
- Pages take about 10 seconds to load before the user can interact2018-06-23
- Light text on white backgrounds is hard to read on low-contrast screens2018-02-05
- Designs look polished but are unusable because approval prioritizes beauty over function2018-01-19
- Page keeps shifting as images load, making text and photos impossible to read or view2018-01-02
- Must wait for excessively long animations to finish before interacting with elements2017-10-16