Pointer-events and user-select: selective disabling

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
  • Dynamic Viewport Units
• 35:34 Full-width scroll traps

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