
Ask HN: Products that suck but you still use? - albertgudl
Hi, I&#x27;m a full stack developer who really wants to build something.<p>What are products you use frequently but still hate&#x2F;they suck? What are products you use frequently but think they could be done better?
======
shakna
Ffmpeg.

The results don't suck. They're awesome.

However, the insane number of combinations of flags, the fact order of flags
can change things, and the "defaults aren't best" are all issues that make it
a true pain to use.

... Yet the GUIs and wrappers that exist to make it friendlier inevitably
either make it slower (Handbrake's thread limitations) or don't support about
half of the filters it can provide.

~~~
true_religion
I always felt that ffmpeg should give up on the config flags except for basic
presets, and use Lua scripting to allow any deeper modification of the
workflow.

~~~
Aearnus
Then you end up with something that has the usability of `wpa_supplicant`:
confusing command line arguments _and_ strange, hard to parse input files.

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CM30
The Mac OS app store. The fact you have to have an account to update programs
you already have installed on your computer is ridiculous. As is how the
system makes you login/register to do anything, the fact it seems to require a
credit card number even for free apps as well as the stupidly lengthy
registration process in general. Then again, the registration process for
Apple accounts in general seems kinda busted, and makes me wonder what the
hell happened to their UX designers when coming up with that bit.

For something you can actually do more with?

Well, I guess every A/B testing program I have to use would count there. Both
VWO and Adobe Target have their strengths, but it definitely seems like they
were designed by people for whom good UI and UX design was not a strong point.
Target has a confusing interface with buttons that say save not actually
saving the content and rather limited targeting rules, whereas VWO seems to
think no one should be able to edit projects associated with multiple
subaccounts at once, or that anyone using the code view shouldn't be able to
upload new images.

It'd be nice to see one of these tools designed by a company/individual who
knows how to design something worth a damn.

~~~
albertgudl
This is actually a really interesting idea.

Could you give me some more details about the different pain points you have
with these softwares? Where you see an opportunity to do things differently
etc.

Thanks in advance!

~~~
CM30
Well to be honest, the issues really just come down to UX not being held as a
priority here, since quite a few elements of the program's design flow just
don't work as you'd logically expect them too.

For example, in both VWO and Target you're basically encouraged to put the
test live before you're given the option to preview it in a web browser. The
process only gives you the chance to save a draft and preview after you've set
up the goals and been encouraged to put it live.

How I'd do it on the other hand is that the system would create a draft test
as you start building it, and the editor window would have an option to
preview it in a browser, which would do the same thing as the preview option
for 'saved' tests. That way, people can browser test as they go along.

Images would work more like the WordPress media gallery, with a button
accessible in both versions of the editor to select them there, plus the same
option coming up if you choose to edit an image in the visual one. This would
let people add/update images in the code only mode, plus make it much easier
to find existing uploads, since VWO doesn't give you any way to see what media
you've uploaded before.

(Target doesn't even seem to let you upload new images to their servers at
all, which is kinda ridiculous)

Making the UI consistent in other places would be useful here too. For
instance, both the rules for running the test and the audience segmentation
use a very similar interface (with a dropdown menu and options for browsers,
IP addresses, device types, etc) but the former has options the latter
doesn't, like going by cookie values or JavaScript variables. These look the
same, and the rules available to filter by should be the same.

I also feel such a piece of software needs to be able to know what's on the
page/in the DOM and run/segment audiences based on that too. Because at the
moment, if certain pages don't have a certain URL structure/cookie
value/window variable, we can't limit the test to those pages (on either VWO
or Target).

However, in some cases, they may have an element with a certain ID or class
present instead. So we should be able to have the platform check for that, and
run the test/segment results based on whether a certain element exists in the
DOM. Same with the actual content of an element too; we should be able to run
a test only if say, the h1 tag has a certain word in it.

The whole 'only one subaccount at once' and 'editor/preview window is tired to
the main one' suck to deal with too. That's because at the moment, if I have
two sites on VWO and want to compare a test across them, it flat out doesn't
allow that. But this makes no sense. The subaccounts shouldn't be completely
firewalled for those with the right permissions here, they should only be
separate for those who only have access to one or the other. It should be like
a forum permissions setup, where say the owners of Google.com and
Microsoft.com can only access tests on their domain, but a marketing team
working with both can compare them without having to use multiple browser
sessions.

And the window thing... well that needs to stop existing at all. At present,
closing the test window/tab will also close any separate windows/tabs
associated with said test, at least in VWO.

They should just stay open as you'd expect them to.

So yeah, that should give you a bit more detail here. However, I'll probably
write a whole article on the matter later too, complete with pictures and
videos showing the issues from a user perspective, since both VWO and Target
are pretty much UX/usability trainwrecks that need real designs teams like the
ones used for Slack/Apple/Netflix/whatever.

------
rgovostes
Anki's interface really discourages me from using it. Quizlet seems like a
much better alternative (though spaced repetition requires a subscription).

A while back I was looking for something that would index my external hard
drives so I could browse them and view file metadata. None of the options
seemed appealing.

I really want a personal, locally-hosted wiki that lets me write in Markdown,
keep revision history, link between documents, and attach files. Having
inline-executable code like Jupyter would be cool also. I've bought a few
versions of VoodooPad only to be disappointed by how basic it is.

~~~
audiometry
Yeah. I use it, but I don’t feel like I have any facility with it. Flash cards
sound simple, but there is a lot of subtlety to more advanced use cases. The
problem is they cannot communicate the ideas very clearly,quickly. Thus the
interface feels pretty awful because I am not entirely sure what everything
does. I think it has a lot of power, just a difficult learning curve. The
shared decks online are hit and miss too. (From a learning Japanese person’s
view)

------
chendragon
Facebook Messenger.

They keep moving the buttons and the UI every once in a while, hiding message
requests in some new place every once in a while. They never talk about the
changes and the Messenger Web app is slow to load and often has UI bugs.

------
sgillen
I really don’t like most pdf viewers. Adobe acrobat and preview are the two I
go between and I don’t really love either.

~~~
pinewurst
Acrobat bites but I actually like Preview. Okular (on Linux) is the other one
I use but don’t think it’s any better than Preview.

~~~
sgillen
I actually usually like preview but for very large files (1000+ pages) and for
some form fillables I’ve had a lot of issues. Unfortunately those are two
situations I run into a lot!

------
true_religion
Gmail.

It's wildly slow going from one mail to another, but I still gravitate towards
it because I don't want to install an actual app.

~~~
mattrp
Heh, Mac mail because I don’t like using a web browser for mail.

~~~
dzhiurgis
Yeah but that still slow. If you scroll while it loads your 8k of emails, you
end up in a weird scroll position. Working with received attachments is always
a mistery.

Plus it's the only Mac app that loads it's main window instead of your draft
letter when clicking on app icon.

Oh and no cmd+(+/-) for zoom while composing emails.

And it occasionally opens while I watch YouTube in full screen

------
billfruit
Ubisofts Uplay: they have serious problems with user accounts and log in. They
hoisted a 2factor authentication on it, but some thing's not right with it:
fails to accept the 2 factor codes for many users saying code is wrong,
locking people out from there accounts and purchased games, even locking out
their access to support which may be the only way of resolving these issues.

So frustrating that something as fundamental as user login is botched up by a
major software company.

------
psyclobe
Logitech harmony universal remotes

~~~
adperry
I actually like mine and get super upset when mine is misplaced and have to
use my phone.

------
csixty4
Amazon Music. I paid for it because I could intermingle my Bandcamp music and
obscure CD rips and then they took that feature away.

I should switch to Google Music but that doesn't work with my Echo very well.

The state of online music sucks.

~~~
brickmort
What's not to like about Amazon Music? I use it for streaming music and have
been pretty happy with it.

~~~
csixty4
I want all my music in one place. If I want to hear the new Janelle Monae, I
want it there. If I want to hear Braindead Sound Machine's cover of Walking
After Midnight that I ripped off the EP I bought in 1996, I want it right
there. I want my voice assistant to be able to find any of it without me
having to know if it's something in the streaming library or if it's something
I ripped.

There's only two streaming services left that let you do that: Apple and
Google. And I'm not letting Apple anywhere near my music collection after what
that iTunes Match bug did to my mp3s.

That leaves Google. So now I'll have to upload my music to yet another service
until they too decide not to allow uploads anymore and then I'm screwed.

------
scarface74
Roku. I have three Roku TVs and a Roku stick. My main one also has an AppleTV
4K attached.

Why do I hate it?

The remote has hardcoded buttons that went to the highest bidder.

Half the home screen is an ad and even the screensaver has an ad.

~~~
Corrado
As a rider on this comment, I would like to add Plex. Plex used to have
plugins, which were super useful. However, in the latest version they removed
the plugins in favor of their own options. Instead of being able to stream
local news from the local news station's website, we now have the opportunity
to pay for this stream instead.

~~~
scarface74
That sucks. I haven’t used Plex in about three months and didn’t realize it.
The Plex channels had the benefit of being able to watch supported video on
websites like the CW without commercials.

------
billfruit
Windows 10: its update process is broken it randomly cuts of in the middle of
doing my work. Then it spends hours rebooting, doing its update etc, all the
time, the pc remains unusable.

~~~
lifehacked
This is configurable.

~~~
lstamour
And in the most recent version, it appeared to install more of an update
behind the scenes, so there was less waiting if a reboot was required. As to
why it’s more visible than Apple updates, I blame the lack of good, settled
power management strategies for overnight wake-from-sleep use cases that Apple
can specifically include parts and driver tuning for but that Microsoft seems
to have a hard time with... oh and they refused to break legacy apps by
introducing new APIs that restore app state after a reboot, which Apple
introduced back in 10.7 Lion if I recall correctly.

------
RandomBacon
My vehicle's infotainment system.

~~~
mattrp
Agreed... I know I have 39.5% oil life but I have no clue how many remaining
miles of gas I have left. Thank you to Honda for messing up their trip
computer in 2016... oh and the disappearing USB ports, dc ports and cup
holders vs the prior gen Honda’s.

~~~
ericpauley
Are you aren't just on the wrong screen? I have a current gen civic and oil
life is one of the info screens, you can use a button on the left side of the
steering wheel to cycle through them (stacked pages with an "i"). The mpg page
also shows remaining miles on current tank.

~~~
mattrp
Yes there is a screen for mpg/remaining but oil life is always displayed by
default. If it were me I would have maybe implemented a timer on oil life so
maybe you see it at startup but then it rolls to fuel stat later. But ask me
why I can’t see the bottom of the analog fuel gauge... that’s where my wife
stacks a bunch of crap. So it’s a combo of user error and rigid design! :)

------
gesman
1\. BMW infotainment screen/menus.

3,500+ variations of menus and multiple ways to accomplish the same thing via
combinations of push-button and turn-knobs. This is becoming such a nonsense.

I ended up using my phone as GPS device and ignoring BMW anything-navigation
wise.

While mechanically almost perfect car - my next car is going to be another
brand just because of this bad design decisions.

2\. BMW steering wheel. With weird bulges on sides and no space to rest the
hand at it's lowest point.

------
muzani
Facebook.

I use it as a blog that targets people who live in my geographical area and
are likely to know me.

It's full of problems. It ruthlessly violates privacy, it's slow and a memory
hog. It's designed to be addictive. It rewards and spreads unpopular opinion.

But the privacy thing is the worst. If there was a duckduckgo version of
Facebook, that would be great.

------
ncmncm
Every. Single. Thing.

It would be more meaningful to get a list of the two or three things that
don't suck.

Bananas. LEDs. Maybe cats, on a good day.

~~~
zxcmx
With you on the bananas but I’ve had to put darkeners on all the superbright
LEDs in the house :/

Not the fault of the LEDs themselves I guess.

------
Corrado
Apple iCloud.

    
    
        * Sharing photos is super difficult, much more so than it should be.
        * We have multiple devices spread across multiple family members and its not clear what belongs to whom.
        * Pricing seems to be a bit out of line: 3/month for 200GB; 10/month for 2TB.

~~~
yakkers
As someone who uses iCloud Photo Library extensively, sharing an album of
photos is horrible.

You can’t just instantly share an existing photo album, you have to select the
contents of the album, then share it to a shared album. Even worse is that the
photos will then have a copy uploaded into the shared album, even if the album
was already on iCloud Photo Library.

------
kull
Podcasts app from apple. So many complains but still better than any other
competitor. Recently I tried Spotify for podcasts but I could not switch to
it. I guess a super simple interface of the native Podcasts app and a few core
options there make me stick around.

------
runjake
TurboTax.

The Kindle touch UI. I want everything about the Kindle, except I want
physical buttons to turn pages.

~~~
milesokeefe
The Kindle Oasis has two physical page turn buttons, and the option to disable
the touch screen. You put it to sleep and wake it up to reenable touch.

I got one recently and think it's a great design.

~~~
runjake
God, that's almost worth the extra $100 for me. I'll have to consider that.

------
zillfacon
Well, I often use Mobirise web page creator. It's quite decent but has a lot
of glitches. For example with the gallery during the sorting. When you choose
some certain sorting option, the outcome isn't correct.

------
limw
I think ,win 10 is the only product,which sucks,but have to use it.

------
makz
Macbook Pro 13" nTB 2016

Sucks, but for me the alternatives suck even more.

------
meekins
LastPass. Often unstable, horrible client with bad UX but works well enough
most of the time for the customer not to consider switching to an alternative.

~~~
highhedgehog
Do not use LastPass. Change it ASAP

~~~
duggable
Would you mind expanding on this? Quite curious as a LastPass user.

~~~
highhedgehog
Not open-source, and has been hacked before.

------
sevilo
Amazon Seller Central It’s actually painful to think of how all the sellers
have gone through their interface over and over again

------
anotheryou
Thunderbirds Calendar

Bound to by company or cost of switching: Jira, Conflunece, Exchange/Outlook,
Windows.

~~~
albertgudl
Bound to Confluence because of work? There's a lot of alternatives

~~~
anotheryou
Yes, there are. Notion for example looks sweet. But there is a lot of friction
involved:

\- migrating content

\- marketing just now grasped or bothered to use confluence

\- product thinks auto-linking stories are the shit

Only me and the devs are in agony when yet another nested list from markdown
just won't migrate nicely to confluence (let alone back).

------
diehunde
* Email clients * Password managers * Podcast apps

Probably all of them could be improved

------
sandov
Cell phones.

~~~
kochikame
To this day, typing on a smartphone still annoys the crap out of me on a daily
basis

Dumbphones were better in this regard

~~~
tehlike
There must be a t9 keyboard for android.

------
millergaston
Asana.

Switched to Quire but since they dont have the Gantt chart, still need to use
Asana.

------
Ultramanoid
Android.

------
chungleong
Atom. Still crashing after all these years!

------
pinewurst
iTunes

~~~
kochikame
I was so happy when I ditched iTunes a few years back

It's entirely replaceable with other services and software now

------
zdwolfe
Hacker news.

jk ;)

------
bfrydl
The web.

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brickmort
Bluetooth.

------
kochikame
Outlook

