jank

Jank (often rendered as janky) is slang used to describe something that is awkward, unreliable, or of low quality. In technology and digital media, jank refers to observable performance issues that disrupt smooth operation, most commonly stuttering, lag, or inconsistent frame rates in animations and interactive interfaces.

Origin and usage: The exact etymology of jank is uncertain, but the term developed in online slang and gamer and developer communities. It is widely used across software engineering, game development, and user experience discussions to characterize suboptimal behavior rather than a specific defect.

In software performance, jank occurs when a system cannot maintain a target frame rate. In 60 Hz contexts, frames should render roughly every 16.7 milliseconds; when tasks take longer or the runtime incurs long pauses, subsequent frames are delayed, producing stutter. Common causes include heavy main-thread work, expensive layout and paint operations, frequent garbage collection, large assets, and blocking I/O. Measures to reduce jank include profiling to identify long tasks, reducing work per frame, moving work off the main thread, asset streaming, and using frame budgets and asynchronous processing.

In other contexts, jank is used to describe hardware, interfaces, or software that behaves inconsistently or feels unfinished. In product design, a janky experience may combine rough edges, misaligned visuals, and unreliable interactions, even if individual components are functional. The term remains a descriptive label rather than a formal metric, emphasizing perceived quality and smoothness of operation.