January 21st, 2026 × #MobileWeb#WebPerformance#CSS#UX
These Things Make Your App Feel Like Crap on Mobile
Scott and Wes break down every little thing that makes a web app feel janky on mobile, from zooming inputs and accidental horizontal scroll to layout shift and map scroll traps. Plus, a glorious live roasting of OptumRx's website.
Wes Bos Host
Scott Tolinski Host
#972
Wes and Scott talk about why mobile web apps often feel “janky” compared to native—and how to fix it. They cover input zooming, accidental horizontal scroll, pointer/user-select quirks, frame rate consistency, full-page refreshes, and more.
Show Notes
- 00:00 Welcome to Syntax!
- 01:11 Brought to you by Sentry.io
- 02:57 Zooming inputs
- 06:11 Horizontal scrolling
- 08:49 Proper use of pointer-events: none, and user-select: none
- 11:27 Allowing zoom on everything
- 16:37 Cleaning up the "jank"
- 19:48 Full page refresh
- 24:05 Slow loading times
- 29:50 Cumulative layout shift
- 32:47 Address bars and viewport units
- 35:34 Full-width scroll traps
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