Products · Pattern or everyday thing
Web forms
Raised as a usability problem by 127 people on Hacker News over 20 years (2007–2026), in 116 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
- 1
- 2
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
Every issue, all time, most people first
Users miss fields, resubmit and abandon split-up formsUnreviewed
20072026- Submitting a form with one wrong field wipes out the other filled-in fields2020-04-27
- Errors in early form fields only surface after filling out the entire form and clicking save2020-02-11
- Submitting a long form with one error wipes out all entered data, including passwords and card numbers2017-10-28
Restyled forms are harder and slower than native controlsUnreviewed
20072026- Custom-built web form widgets are less accessible and harder to understand than native forms2024-04-17
- Complex web forms and JavaScript-heavy UX are frustrating to use2021-12-15
- Web forms are laggy, slower to respond than decades-old terminals2021-11-25
Slow loads with no feedback make users resubmit formsUnreviewed
20072026- No feedback after submitting, so users press repeatedly and cause errors2025-05-12
- Submitting a form with progress feedback is too hard, so most sites do it wrong2023-11-08
- Submit fails after one AJAX timeout, leaving the page unusable on slow connections2017-01-14
Enter key doesn't submit forms and fields don't autofocusUnreviewed
20072026- Enter key no longer submits forms; input fields don't get focus automatically2026-04-12
- No form field is focused when the form appears, so typed input is lost2021-04-20
- Pressing Enter in a form does nothing because the submit button uses a click handler2020-12-31
Phone fields reject dashes or parentheses, forcing reformattingUnreviewed
20072026- Over-clever input formatting mangles pasted phone numbers, forcing users to fix them by hand2024-10-29
- Government site rejects phone numbers with dashes or parentheses, forcing users to reformat input2018-08-19
- Card and phone fields reject spaces or phone-style formatting, forcing users to reformat input2015-07-03
Fields turn red with errors before users finish typingUnreviewed
20072026- Fields turn red with validation errors before the user has finished entering a value2026-05-07
- Invalid field makes users retype the entire form instead of fixing one part2024-01-08
- Fields reject valid input formats and turn red before the user finishes typing2019-02-24
Tabbing through form fields skips or follows the wrong orderUnreviewed
20072026- Tab focuses wrong elements in odd order and Enter submits forms prematurely2022-10-03
- Tabbing through form fields doesn't work or follows the wrong order2022-02-24
- Tabbing through badly designed forms doesn't work correctly and is cumbersome2020-11-22
Forms reject one-letter surnames, blocking submissionUnreviewed
20072026- Apostrophe in surname gets mangled or rejected by forms and nametags2022-10-04
- Forms reject a one-letter surname as invalid, blocking submission2021-10-21
- Form rejects long input like a 12-letter town name, cutting off the last characters2016-04-03
Numeric fields reject commas and non-US keyboard number entryUnreviewed
20072026- Numeric fields reject valid input like commas or non-US keyboard number entry, forcing layout switches2020-02-16
- Numeric PIN fields open the regular keyboard, obscuring the number keys2019-02-11
- Forms force specific number formats and block pasting or editing normal input2016-04-14
Forced pickers block typing known values like birthdatesUnreviewed
20072026- Date pickers barely work, forcing custom components and JS for touch interfaces2026-10-21
- Forced pickers and calendar widgets slow entry and block typing known values like state or birthdate2022-09-15
- Date fields disallow typing, forcing many clicks through a calendar2022-08-15
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
- Date pickers barely work, forcing custom components and JS for touch interfaces2026-10-21
- Required input looks non-interactive and submit button hidden until validation passes2026-07-17
- Fields turn red with validation errors before the user has finished entering a value2026-05-07
- Date and number fields force the user's locale format, not the English convention they want2026-04-13
- Enter key no longer submits forms; input fields don't get focus automatically2026-04-12
- Split per-character code fields break copy-paste and autofill for users2026-03-16
- Page says 'and country' but form only works for US, wasting user's time2026-03-08
- Each filter change adds a history entry, so going back takes hundreds of clicks2026-03-07
- Country dropdown requires scrolling through a long list instead of guessing from known info2025-09-16
- Users with motor control issues struggle to issue a single click reliably2025-08-07
- Autofill fails and forms reject addresses in differing character widths, so entries won't go through2025-05-29
- Inconsistent character rules per site and vague errors force users to retype addresses2025-05-29
- Lag when a form updates based on inputs is frustrating2025-05-12
- No feedback after submitting, so users press repeatedly and cause errors2025-05-12
- Over-clever input formatting mangles pasted phone numbers, forcing users to fix them by hand2024-10-29
- Multi-select requires ctrl+click, which is hard to use2024-10-29
- Validating or saving large forms takes forever and sometimes loses data to timeouts2024-09-22
- Forms reject 'None' for missing postcode, forcing users to guess an accepted format2024-08-25
- Without street names, finding places and the right station exit took hours2024-06-15
- Submitting a form opens an email client with raw URL-encoded data, confusing users2024-04-27
- Custom-built web form widgets are less accessible and harder to understand than native forms2024-04-17
- Accidental drag in the URL bar reloaded the page and deleted a typed comment2024-04-17
- Disallowed actions blocked by developers' wrong assumptions, frustrating users who want to proceed2024-02-16
- Invalid field makes users retype the entire form instead of fixing one part2024-01-08
- Long JavaScript form flows break back button, autofill, and randomly restart at step 6 of 192024-01-07
- Stuck requests leave page unrecoverable; user must toggle network or lose form state2024-01-05
- Users must re-type or copy form data like usernames and addresses across sites repeatedly2023-11-09
- Submitting a form with progress feedback is too hard, so most sites do it wrong2023-11-08
- Disabling a focused button drops keyboard focus to the document, confusing users2023-11-08
- Name fields demand different scripts, pronunciation and romanization sets, making non-Japanese names hard to enter2023-08-31
- No clear indication that changes are being saved automatically2023-08-20
- Errors only appear after submit, forcing retyping of passwords and captcha2023-07-29
- Auto-inserted number on erase makes correct value hard to enter2023-07-25
- Native checkboxes, radios and sliders can't be styled with CSS, must be fully replaced2022-12-23
- Users can't see the full sign-up flow in advance, hiding requirements until later steps2022-11-23
- Apostrophe in surname gets mangled or rejected by forms and nametags2022-10-04
- Tab focuses wrong elements in odd order and Enter submits forms prematurely2022-10-03
- Swapped name attributes confuse screen reader users filling in the form2022-09-20
- Forced pickers and calendar widgets slow entry and block typing known values like state or birthdate2022-09-15
- Next button gives no sign it is clickable and does not respond to taps on iPad2022-09-03
- Pages and forms load very slowly, and error popups appear and vanish with no way to dismiss them2022-08-27
- Date fields disallow typing, forcing many clicks through a calendar2022-08-15
- Typing 12 sometimes yields 0.12 and sometimes 12.00, so users must guess the format2022-07-22
- Number fields are plain text, so arrow keys cannot increment values2022-07-18
- Server-only validation forces full page reloads and makes users hunt for error messages2022-06-13
- Sort code fields vary randomly in format, and pasting into them fails.2022-04-12
- Submit button stays active so users can submit the form twice2022-03-12
- Tabbing through form fields doesn't work or follows the wrong order2022-02-24
- Complex web forms and JavaScript-heavy UX are frustrating to use2021-12-15
- Web forms are laggy, slower to respond than decades-old terminals2021-11-25