Instant responsiveness in user interfaces is annoying

8 zero-sharp 6 7/21/2025, 1:46:46 PM
I hardly make posts on this forum and I don't see people talking about this. This is a personal gripe/rant with a lot of modern applications. Here are some examples of what I mean:

1. As I'm typing text into a search input, the interface wants to instantaneously pattern match my search and offer the best results. Sometimes this is helpful. In other situations, this can take my attention away by opening extraneous menus or interactive elements. To be honest, I just want to finish typing my search. Stop asking me for more input as I'm typing my input.

2. Certain websites are designed to open menus/interactive elements as the cursor hovers over particular web elements. For me, this is sometimes another distraction. Just because I moved my mouse, that doesn't mean I want to see yet another menu. The instant responsiveness can lead me to click in the wrong places due to unexpected interface components showing up. I can't tell you how many times I've chained several misclicks due to unexpected links/buttons (or lack thereof as described in 3 below).

3. Responsiveness creates expectations for feedback. Then, if some part of your application starts to lag (maybe it's the internet, maybe it's my computer), you lose the responsiveness and I get annoyed.

Am I just becoming a grumpy old guy?

Comments (6)

al_borland · 1h ago
#1 is especially annoying when it locks up your ability to type, because the site is busy trying to query the first 2-3 letters of the input. The whole process ends up taking longer. If #1 causes #3 to suffer in any way, it's an anti-feature and slows everything down.

#2 can be an issue the opposite way as well, such as manufactured delays. Think of a modal window that pops-up after you've been on a site for 5 seconds and are just about to click a link, but instead click the modal. Or you begin reading, are 2 sentences in, and the modal pops up. When this happens, I close the page. It's so frustrating.

No comments yet

aosaigh · 1h ago
I agree with your points. I think the main issue is that most developers don’t consider UI.

They consider app functionality and features, or look-and-feel and design, but they ignore UI (or don’t know what good UI is).

Like you described, even a simple search bar requires careful thought and experimentation to get right.

Another issue is UI libraries. People plug these in thinking they solve everything but in reality they only get you so far.

samdoesnothing · 26m ago
This is really a taste issue, and many developers lack it.
bitpush · 5m ago
haha, there is that word again - "taste", another way of saying design sensibility, or "good eye". "Taste" is now gaining popularity, ever since LLMs have made is accessible for anyone to create anything.

At its core, the idea is the same - some folks can produce exceptional products with same tools, but it is now packaged for the LLM era.

jabjq · 13m ago
Or they are just lazy. Recently I had to implement text search and making it load the results instantaneously on every keystroke is easier than implementing a delay. I was hoping the client wouldn’t complain, and thus far he has not.
bediger4000 · 1h ago
Isn't the issue variable response times? You get used to some sequence of clicks and changes in the interface. Occasionally one response is much slower, so your clicks go away