Tiny things in computer applications that make you want to stab the designers with a rusty spoon

[Balthisar]

The Office Ribbon. Look, if the Mac version of Office still gives me the menu, why can’t the lame Windows version?

[Beware_of_Doug]

Dialog boxes that assume you’ve read all the documentation (if any exists) and/or know the application like the back of your goddam hand.

(Attention signal: doink) I have to go to the what? The framistan panel? Wha where huh fuck? Oh, it’s this little bitty thing two screens back and three menus deep? Shit! Now I’ve lost all the data I typed in on whatever the fuck page I was before. Holy fucking shitcocks. Why can’t developers pull their heads out of their fucking assholes?

[Projammer]

@Jragon

Mine has to be inability to type.

This was the core of my first thoughts when I first saw the thread title.

I should be able to use an app without ever having to touch the mouse using hot keys and tab. It’s especially annoying since I’m a programmer myself and know that most of the functionality for this is written into the language. Want a hot key? Put an & in front of the letter you want. &File is displayed as File and Alt-F pops it right up for you. No special coding required. Don’t make me slap you with a keyboard.

Which leads to the second half. Tab order. Hitting tab should take me to the next logical field. Not to the next field the programmer added to the form. Again, functionality provided by the platform. Just update the value in the ‘tab order’ property.

@Colophon

Laggy response times! Some of the applications I use at work have what I assume are Javascript drop-down menus (sorry, I know nothing of programming

This may be a fault of the server rather than the program. Many menus are contextual and are built on the fly based on other information you’ve put in. If the server is overworked or just outdated. So while it could be poor coding, I’d be more likely to suspect the server or network.

[Skald_the_Rhymer]

@Lynn_Bodoni

Also, there is absolutely NO excuse for any website which will not allow the user to click X to close the screen. I don’t like the nag screens that ask if I’m really, really sure that I want to leave the site, either. Oh, and whoever thought up that little trick of a gazillion popup windows when you try to close the screen, so you have to turn off the computer or use a function key? One of these days, my cousin Vinnie WILL find you. And he’s going to hurt you.

I use this “feature” to my benefit. If a website won’t let me close the screen by clicking X, or gives me that nag screen, I’m not going back unless that’s the only way I can get a desperately needed liver transplant.

[Sudden_Kestrel]

@Harmonious_Discord

I hate software that doesn’t let you type in the two letters of your state. Sometimes they will allow the first letter but never the second and you still have to use the scroll down window. I live in WI which is always hidden on the bottom of a scroll down select window. Typing WI takes two seconds to type and much much longer to scroll and click. You’ve already typed in the whole of your address. It started out so people didn’t type in invalided states, but if the programer can’t program a check for a valid state before submission they shouldn’t be programing.

@Joey_P

As a fellow Wisconsinite I can tell you the trick isn’t to hit WI, but to hit WW. Each time you his W it’ll go to the next W state. Weather you have to hit WW or WWW depends on if it’s sorted alphabetically by state name or abbreviation. IME it’s almost always WWW.

WWW if it’s by state
Washington
West Virgina
Wisconsin

Or

WW if it’s by abbreviation
WA
WI
WV

This unfortunately only works if the list doesn’t include territories or other geographical oddities. I know I just have to hit MMMMM to get to MN on a 50-state list, but sometimes they throw in the Marshall Islands and it screws me all up.

@Rick

Entering phone numbers into boxes on a form where the cursor does not automatically jump to the next box after the third and sixth number are entered.
Lazy programmer.

Yeah, or when it all goes into a single field and they make you put in whichever punctuation they think is pretty (555-555-5555, 555.555.5555, etc.). I almost always enter numbers using the keypad and I don’t have the operands down 100% and it pisses me off to have to think about it. Why can’t I just put in the numbers and the software puts in the punctuation? Same with date fields. Don’t make me pick it from a tiny little calendar or type in the slashes or hyphens; just let me put in the digits and you format it to your liking.

Oh yeah, and fields that are case-specific but do not tell you they’re case-specific make me want to fill them all with cuss words.

[Mangetout]

@beowulff

On all Apple laptops, you can turn off all those features. Dunno about Windows, though.

Depends on the trackpad driver in Windows. Some allow more control and tweaking than others.

[Mangetout]

@Balthisar

The Office Ribbon. Look, if the Mac version of Office still gives me the menu, why can’t the lame Windows version?

Oh the ribbon. I’ve been using Office 2007 for nearly three years now and I still hate the bloody ribbon. I don’t need a great thick swathe of the screen stolen by a bunch of patronising touchy-feely icons (sure, I know you can show and hide it at will, but that’s then additional clicking).
I also find the grouping of the functions arbitrary and infuriating. For example: Powerpoint - want to insert a new slide? - it’ll be somewhere in the INSERT tab, right? No. It’s bloody not.

[bouv]

@beowulff

On all Apple laptops, you can turn off all those features. Dunno about Windows, though.

Every laptop I’ve used I’ve been able to turn all of that off…though to be fair, I’m mostly referring to “tap to click” (oh,how I hate ‘tap to click.’)

The only laptop I’ve used recently and frequently enough, that’s also new enough to have ‘2-finger scrolling’, or a scroll bar on the side, is my personal one. And I know it’s touchpad drivers allow any and all features to be turned off, or have the sensitivity changed, etc…

My software peeve is related to my phone. I have an Android phone, and i really, really hate lazy ports of iOS programs. The biggest offender is Popcap. All of their games run like shit on ALL Android phones, are MASSIVE in size to what they need to be, and all because they did a shitty port of the iOS versions rather than start from scratch, or at least closer to scratch.

Another big clue that it’s a shitty port is if the ‘menu’ button on the phone does nothing. Since iOS programs only need to recognize a few buttons (volume up/down and home,) they have all the menu buttons on screen…ok, that’s fine, I don’t mind if it’s on screen, but I’m used to hitting the menu button on the phone itself, so is it so hard to add one freakin’ line of code that has that button do the same thing on the on-screen menu?