5 ms·

Something else scroll-related I personally hate: Sticky 'headers' that disappear when you scroll down, and appear when you scroll up. I hate them so much. It h

Something else scroll-related I personally hate: Sticky 'headers' that disappear when you scroll down, and appear when you scroll up. I hate them so much. It hurts my brain to see the stupid thing appear and disappear constantly if I scroll around a page. The worst part is you can't even zap them out of the way with something like uBlock, because then there's no header even when you're at the top of the page. >:( EDIT: Whoops, flipped the directions. Complaint still stands though.

adventured 7mo ago
Screen real-estate for legitimate content is often at a premium and then they go and steal some of that land with sticky headers and or footers. I occasionally run across mobile sites that use both at the same time, while throwing in ads here and there, it's an atrocious experience.
- tylervigen 7mo ago
  Yes but then I think they should leave the header at the top of the page. If I need it I'll scroll all the way back up! Don't make it randomly re-appear and cover the text I wanted to see because I decided to re-read that last paragraph.
  - swiftcoder 7mo ago
    Especially since mobile browsers typically have a shortcut for scroll-all-the-way-to-the-top
adito 7mo ago
Oh. This. Tho I solved that with userstyles.
- Griffinsauce 7mo ago
  Joke's on you, we implement all animations in JS
cowpig 7mo ago
Interesting, I find sticky headers to be the bane of my existence, and the ones that disappear but reappear on scroll up are a lesser evil
lebuin 7mo ago
God yes. For some reason, I automatically scroll in such a way that I always keep what I'm reading at the very top of the screen. Which means that every time I want to reread a sentence I first have to scroll past the header.
vmg12 7mo ago
Also if anything it should disappear when scrolling down and appear when scrolling up.
- hbn 7mo ago
  That's how they work. It's what the GP said.
  - Night_Thastus 7mo ago
    I accidentally had it flipped backwards in the original comment, and edited it to fix that. So the person you're responding to was right at the time.
Illniyar 7mo ago
This is literally the best ux pattern you can have. It is intuitive - user immediately discovers it when performing the obvious action, it increases the user experience (more text to read) without any real downside. It is the first thing I suggest to anyone when I see someone didn't implement it. I've never heard a complaint about it until now.
- deleted 7mo ago
  [deleted]
- nativeit 7mo ago
  I consider it context-dependent. If a site is intended for users to jump around to different pages often, then sticky headers make sense. If it’s designed for long-form articles or scrolling through feeds, then non-sticky headers make sense. When I have implemented them on my own sites, I try to keep them minimal and unobtrusive. But I also have never heard this complaint specifically, until now.
- zbrozek 7mo ago
  I absolutely hate it. If you haven't heard a complaint about it, you haven't tried hard enough to get feedback. There is no context which makes it OK.
- underlipton 7mo ago
  You could just have a "hide bar" button. Dunno how you get it back, maybe put your design smarts there. Stop making things "intuitive" and expose explicit options to users.
- HerbManic 7mo ago
  The user discovers it because it is practically forced on them. It is awful UI.
  - Illniyar 7mo ago
    When a user wants to return to the navigation bar at the top he scrolls up. The navigation bar then immediately gets nearer. The user discovery happens because the act he performs provides the exact intent you need to give him the shortcut. Also for clarity this is only relevant for content based sites and not apps. It is vanishingly rare for users to scroll up when reading content unless they want to reach the top
deleted 7mo ago
[deleted]
gibspaulding 7mo ago
This only really works easily on desktop and requires a click, but is very satisfying to use: https://alisdair.mcdiarmid.org/kill-sticky-headers/ https://alisdair.mcdiarmid.org/kill-sticky-headers/
m463 7mo ago
same thing intersects with ios safari when it hides top and bottom tool bars, hate that too. and with the website doing the same thing, it's a mess.
kreyenborgi 7mo ago
Oh god yes I absolutely hate those. Who on earth thought that was a good idea. There is a special circle in hell where designers of such sites have to actually use the sites they design.
- dylan604 7mo ago
  someone designing for mobile first and wanted to maximize screen space. we don't have to be obtuse about it. it was an idea that just didn't go over as well as hoped. clearly, some people like it. it's not your cup of tea, great. now, we all know your feelings. next time i build a site, i'll be sure to get your opinions first.
  - toss1 7mo ago
    Even on mobile, where I most frequently encounter it, it really stinks. I don't know where you found any personality who actually likes it, outside of your own head. If you really must show me the content of the header because in your judgement I can _NOT_ be left alone to read the article I opened instead of your critical header info, show me first and once, and let me access it again off the hamburger menu if it's that damn important. If you know so much about how people actually use the web, you would also know that they almost NEVER actually see or read what is in those damn drop-down or pop-up headers/footers. Dead serious, you could monitor me, and 10sec after I dealt with one of those headers, offer me a million dollars to tell you what was in it, and if I didn't you'd shoot me, you'd shoot me 999 times out of 1000. I may be a bit better self-trained for ad-blindness than many, but I know I'm nowhere near unique. Whoever is selling them to the advertisers is defrauding them. >>next time i build a site, i'll be sure to get your opinions first. Seriously, with that attitude, it is obvious you think you are so much better than every reader that you do not need to check their opinion. And it is even more obvious the opinion that needs to be held in check is yours.
    - dylan604 7mo ago
      > I don't know where you found any personality who actually likes it, outside of your own head. That's probably because I don't like it myself. You thinking I did like it is something in your head. As a developer, I can understand why it was created. Sometimes, ideas sound good as a concept, but you really don't know if it is or not until it's actually done. I find this much less annoying than sites that hijack the scroll bar to do their own cool scrolling. For somethings, it's neat. Kind of like some Flash sites did some cool things. It's the ones that try to be like the cool thing but have a totally different site where it just doesn't fit. Those are the really annoying sites. I don't like a lot of the way lots of other developers have implemented things. I just make a note of something I found annoying, and avoid doing that thing on my projects. I'm only able to do things I'm in control of, and try hard to recognize when it's not in my control and just move along. I don't let it ruin my day.
nathanaldensr 7mo ago
ZeroHedge is one of the worst offenders for this.
matheusmoreira 7mo ago
I just zap them with uBlock Origin anyway. Whatever was in that header, chances are it was not important.
deleted 7mo ago
[deleted]
zombot 7mo ago
Safari has a "Remove Distracting Elements" feature. Try that. Some web sites can only be visited with the weapons of an exterminator at hand.
codenighter 7mo ago
[dead]
bouke 7mo ago
This! And to make matters worse is the header is removed from the document flow, causing the content to jump up when scrolling down. And if you then scroll up to try to read the content that jumped out of the viewport, the stupid header is injected back into the flow causing the content to jump down again. Sigh.
WickyNilliams 7mo ago
Mea culpa: this is kinda my doing. I released a library headroom.js (https://wicky.nillia.ms/headroom.js/ https://wicky.nillia.ms/headroom.js/) for this purpose in 2013 or something, announced here on HN, and it got very popular. It got ported to every framework imaginable. And tons of websites either used it or imitated it. I think it can be done well, but most do not do it well. Partially my fault because the defaults in headroom were not how I would recommend it. It had a tolerance option, which meant you had to scroll up so far/fast to trigger the reveal. But in my eternal foolishness I set this to zero by default. Adding a little tolerance makes it much less jittery and more intentionally triggered. And thus much less annoying. See the header on the site, it doesn't appear/disappear with every 1px movement
marcjensen 7mo ago
Could a custom filter for uBlock solve the problem (if there's nothing useful on the header? For one of my pages I tried this: ! 21 Mar 2026 https://oko.press oko.press##.navbar__mobile

adventured 7mo ago

Screen real-estate for legitimate content is often at a premium and then they go and steal some of that land with sticky headers and or footers. I occasionally run across mobile sites that use both at the same time, while throwing in ads here and there, it's an atrocious experience.

tylervigen 7mo ago
Yes but then I think they should leave the header at the top of the page. If I need it I'll scroll all the way back up! Don't make it randomly re-appear and cover the text I wanted to see because I decided to re-read that last paragraph.
- swiftcoder 7mo ago
  Especially since mobile browsers typically have a shortcut for scroll-all-the-way-to-the-top

adito 7mo ago

Oh. This. Tho I solved that with userstyles.

Griffinsauce 7mo ago
Joke's on you, we implement all animations in JS

cowpig 7mo ago

Interesting, I find sticky headers to be the bane of my existence, and the ones that disappear but reappear on scroll up are a lesser evil

lebuin 7mo ago

God yes. For some reason, I automatically scroll in such a way that I always keep what I'm reading at the very top of the screen. Which means that every time I want to reread a sentence I first have to scroll past the header.

vmg12 7mo ago

Also if anything it should disappear when scrolling down and appear when scrolling up.

hbn 7mo ago
That's how they work. It's what the GP said.
- Night_Thastus 7mo ago
  I accidentally had it flipped backwards in the original comment, and edited it to fix that. So the person you're responding to was right at the time.

Illniyar 7mo ago

This is literally the best ux pattern you can have. It is intuitive - user immediately discovers it when performing the obvious action, it increases the user experience (more text to read) without any real downside. It is the first thing I suggest to anyone when I see someone didn't implement it. I've never heard a complaint about it until now.

deleted 7mo ago
[deleted]
nativeit 7mo ago
I consider it context-dependent. If a site is intended for users to jump around to different pages often, then sticky headers make sense. If it’s designed for long-form articles or scrolling through feeds, then non-sticky headers make sense. When I have implemented them on my own sites, I try to keep them minimal and unobtrusive. But I also have never heard this complaint specifically, until now.
zbrozek 7mo ago
I absolutely hate it. If you haven't heard a complaint about it, you haven't tried hard enough to get feedback. There is no context which makes it OK.
underlipton 7mo ago
You could just have a "hide bar" button. Dunno how you get it back, maybe put your design smarts there. Stop making things "intuitive" and expose explicit options to users.
HerbManic 7mo ago
The user discovers it because it is practically forced on them. It is awful UI.
- Illniyar 7mo ago
  When a user wants to return to the navigation bar at the top he scrolls up. The navigation bar then immediately gets nearer. The user discovery happens because the act he performs provides the exact intent you need to give him the shortcut. Also for clarity this is only relevant for content based sites and not apps. It is vanishingly rare for users to scroll up when reading content unless they want to reach the top

deleted 7mo ago

[deleted]

gibspaulding 7mo ago

This only really works easily on desktop and requires a click, but is very satisfying to use: https://alisdair.mcdiarmid.org/kill-sticky-headers/ https://alisdair.mcdiarmid.org/kill-sticky-headers/

m463 7mo ago

same thing intersects with ios safari when it hides top and bottom tool bars, hate that too. and with the website doing the same thing, it's a mess.

kreyenborgi 7mo ago

Oh god yes I absolutely hate those. Who on earth thought that was a good idea. There is a special circle in hell where designers of such sites have to actually use the sites they design.

dylan604 7mo ago
someone designing for mobile first and wanted to maximize screen space. we don't have to be obtuse about it. it was an idea that just didn't go over as well as hoped. clearly, some people like it. it's not your cup of tea, great. now, we all know your feelings. next time i build a site, i'll be sure to get your opinions first.
- toss1 7mo ago
  Even on mobile, where I most frequently encounter it, it really stinks. I don't know where you found any personality who actually likes it, outside of your own head. If you really must show me the content of the header because in your judgement I can _NOT_ be left alone to read the article I opened instead of your critical header info, show me first and once, and let me access it again off the hamburger menu if it's that damn important. If you know so much about how people actually use the web, you would also know that they almost NEVER actually see or read what is in those damn drop-down or pop-up headers/footers. Dead serious, you could monitor me, and 10sec after I dealt with one of those headers, offer me a million dollars to tell you what was in it, and if I didn't you'd shoot me, you'd shoot me 999 times out of 1000. I may be a bit better self-trained for ad-blindness than many, but I know I'm nowhere near unique. Whoever is selling them to the advertisers is defrauding them. >>next time i build a site, i'll be sure to get your opinions first. Seriously, with that attitude, it is obvious you think you are so much better than every reader that you do not need to check their opinion. And it is even more obvious the opinion that needs to be held in check is yours.
  - dylan604 7mo ago
    > I don't know where you found any personality who actually likes it, outside of your own head. That's probably because I don't like it myself. You thinking I did like it is something in your head. As a developer, I can understand why it was created. Sometimes, ideas sound good as a concept, but you really don't know if it is or not until it's actually done. I find this much less annoying than sites that hijack the scroll bar to do their own cool scrolling. For somethings, it's neat. Kind of like some Flash sites did some cool things. It's the ones that try to be like the cool thing but have a totally different site where it just doesn't fit. Those are the really annoying sites. I don't like a lot of the way lots of other developers have implemented things. I just make a note of something I found annoying, and avoid doing that thing on my projects. I'm only able to do things I'm in control of, and try hard to recognize when it's not in my control and just move along. I don't let it ruin my day.

nathanaldensr 7mo ago

ZeroHedge is one of the worst offenders for this.

matheusmoreira 7mo ago

I just zap them with uBlock Origin anyway. Whatever was in that header, chances are it was not important.

deleted 7mo ago

[deleted]

zombot 7mo ago

Safari has a "Remove Distracting Elements" feature. Try that. Some web sites can only be visited with the weapons of an exterminator at hand.

codenighter 7mo ago

[dead]

bouke 7mo ago

This! And to make matters worse is the header is removed from the document flow, causing the content to jump up when scrolling down. And if you then scroll up to try to read the content that jumped out of the viewport, the stupid header is injected back into the flow causing the content to jump down again. Sigh.

WickyNilliams 7mo ago

Mea culpa: this is kinda my doing. I released a library headroom.js (https://wicky.nillia.ms/headroom.js/ https://wicky.nillia.ms/headroom.js/) for this purpose in 2013 or something, announced here on HN, and it got very popular. It got ported to every framework imaginable. And tons of websites either used it or imitated it. I think it can be done well, but most do not do it well. Partially my fault because the defaults in headroom were not how I would recommend it. It had a tolerance option, which meant you had to scroll up so far/fast to trigger the reveal. But in my eternal foolishness I set this to zero by default. Adding a little tolerance makes it much less jittery and more intentionally triggered. And thus much less annoying. See the header on the site, it doesn't appear/disappear with every 1px movement

marcjensen 7mo ago

Could a custom filter for uBlock solve the problem (if there's nothing useful on the header? For one of my pages I tried this: ! 21 Mar 2026 https://oko.press oko.press##.navbar__mobile