5 ms·

Ask HN: What minor UI/UX issues annoy you on frequent basis?

7 points by cainxinth 3y ago

rossdavidh 3y ago
Scrollbars that disappear when I want them, or are too thin to easily get hold of.
cainxinth 3y ago
Two of mine: 1. In Chrome's bookmark manager, if you delete a bookmark it notifies you in a popup in the lower left corner of the screen... covering some of my bookmark folders, so if I want to move a bookmark into one of those folders, I have to first wait for the popup to disappear. 2. In Spotify's Windows app, the scrubbing bar is on the bottom center of the window. So when I have the window maximized, it's at the bottom of my monitor. When you change the volume in Win11, it notifies you in a popup in the same place, blocking the scrubbing bar until it disappears.
lukey_q 3y ago
A red message saying "Please enter a valid e-mail address" when I've only typed the first three letters
gardenhedge 3y ago
When I create a function or variable and it immediately has a squiggly line under it because it is not used yet. Yeah.. of course it's not! I am just writing it now.
daltont 3y ago
Confirmation dialogs "Are you sure you want to cancel xxxx" with "Ok" and "Cancel" buttons. The "Cancel" button cancels the cancel and always gives me pause.
- opyate 3y ago
  Yes, just do the thing already, then show an "undo" nearby after the thing is done.
Leftium 3y ago
Superfluous alerts[1] (dialogs). Like after you enter a TFA verification code, you have to close an alert dialog telling you TFA was successful instead of just completing the login. Even if the verification code was incorrect, alerts are lazy design. Usually a toast or error message on the form is better. Japanese and Korean (Asian?) web/game design seems to (mis)use alerts more often. [1]: https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/alerts https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guideline...
idontwantthis 3y ago
Clicking on a profile picture (or album art) used to make that picture bigger! Now it either does nothing or takes you to a slideshow of different pictures.
nicbou 3y ago
- Disabling zooming on mobile web apps. My vision is fine and I still zoom onto things all the time. - Content that doesn't get to the damn point. I write content that gets to the damn point to a living so it annoys me to no end. - Big sticky scrollbars. On my 12" Macbook it was annoying.
RetroTechie 3y ago
1. Not minor, foundational: UI element appearing before code to handle it, is ready for action. I'm seeing this regularly with smartphone on slow mobile connection. Eg. cookie dialogue appears, but tapping options doesn't respond, because scripts handling those actions are still being loaded. Load or setup a handler first, then present UI element to trigger it. 2. Some webpage element sliding in from the top of the screen. And hiding. And back in. And hiding again, ad infinite. Super annoying. If it's considered 'necessary', keep it visible. If not, let it go offscreen with the rest of a page when reader scrolls down. If designer meamt it to appear when user scrolls up: fine, but put some threshold (hysteresis) into it. But either way: pop in, pop out, pop in, pop out: aaargh. Just... don't. 3. "Subscribe to newsletter! Enter email / no thx" popup. I can find a "subscribe" link by myself, if present & desired, thank you very much!

7 points by cainxinth 3y ago

Scrollbars that disappear when I want them, or are too thin to easily get hold of.

Two of mine: 1. In Chrome's bookmark manager, if you delete a bookmark it notifies you in a popup in the lower left corner of the screen... covering some of my bookmark folders, so if I want to move a bookmark into one of those folders, I have to first wait for the popup to disappear. 2. In Spotify's Windows app, the scrubbing bar is on the bottom center of the window. So when I have the window maximized, it's at the bottom of my monitor. When you change the volume in Win11, it notifies you in a popup in the same place, blocking the scrubbing bar until it disappears.

lukey_q 3y ago

A red message saying "Please enter a valid e-mail address" when I've only typed the first three letters

gardenhedge 3y ago

When I create a function or variable and it immediately has a squiggly line under it because it is not used yet. Yeah.. of course it's not! I am just writing it now.

daltont 3y ago

Confirmation dialogs "Are you sure you want to cancel xxxx" with "Ok" and "Cancel" buttons. The "Cancel" button cancels the cancel and always gives me pause.

opyate 3y ago
Yes, just do the thing already, then show an "undo" nearby after the thing is done.

Leftium 3y ago

Superfluous alerts[1] (dialogs). Like after you enter a TFA verification code, you have to close an alert dialog telling you TFA was successful instead of just completing the login. Even if the verification code was incorrect, alerts are lazy design. Usually a toast or error message on the form is better. Japanese and Korean (Asian?) web/game design seems to (mis)use alerts more often. [1]: https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/alerts https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guideline...

idontwantthis 3y ago

Clicking on a profile picture (or album art) used to make that picture bigger! Now it either does nothing or takes you to a slideshow of different pictures.

nicbou 3y ago

- Disabling zooming on mobile web apps. My vision is fine and I still zoom onto things all the time. - Content that doesn't get to the damn point. I write content that gets to the damn point to a living so it annoys me to no end. - Big sticky scrollbars. On my 12" Macbook it was annoying.

RetroTechie 3y ago

1. Not minor, foundational: UI element appearing before code to handle it, is ready for action. I'm seeing this regularly with smartphone on slow mobile connection. Eg. cookie dialogue appears, but tapping options doesn't respond, because scripts handling those actions are still being loaded. Load or setup a handler first, then present UI element to trigger it. 2. Some webpage element sliding in from the top of the screen. And hiding. And back in. And hiding again, ad infinite. Super annoying. If it's considered 'necessary', keep it visible. If not, let it go offscreen with the rest of a page when reader scrolls down. If designer meamt it to appear when user scrolls up: fine, but put some threshold (hysteresis) into it. But either way: pop in, pop out, pop in, pop out: aaargh. Just... don't. 3. "Subscribe to newsletter! Enter email / no thx" popup. I can find a "subscribe" link by myself, if present & desired, thank you very much!