Mouse Cursor History (and why I made my own)

History of the computer mouse cursor, or pointer.
And why I designed my own cursor...

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[puzzLEGO]

This was my ‘fine, I’ll watch it’ to the YouTube algorithm, and I absolutely do not regret it

[zwenkwiel]

I think the angled arrow makes sense as it's less likely to line up with lines on the screen, improving visibility

[montydog]

I've been using your cursor for pretty much 4 years now and I have to say it fits so perfectly sometimes I forget its custom. Thank you 🙏

[rapidreaders]

Ah, so this is where this theme came from. I actually have it set on Linux (it became popular on the KDE store very quickly). I had no idea it came from a YouTube video, of all places. Incredible job! You actually took time to study past cursors before making your own, and the quality really shows in the final product. I respect that quite a lot!

[thomaskaldahl]

Might be worth mentioning the fact that Apple started making their cursor change scale as you use it, specifically it gets bigger when you shake it around quickly. This makes it easier to identify where the cursor is in case you forget where you left it.

[askhowiknow]

“This was possible in XP but was somehow only now done”
That was the internal motto when I worked at Microsoft

[sepiasmith]

ah the era of everything being beveled, rounded, with a gradient and a shadow

also I love these tiny details actually being cared about. graphic design can get super deep and nitpicky it's fun

[matejabokan]

This video just showed up randomly on my feed, and after seeing it I have instantly installed your custom cursor. I've been using it for over 9 months now and it has greatly enhanced my Windows experience. The rainbow hourglass is a piece of art and so much better than the blue spinning circle! The window arrows and the cursor itself are so clear and it makes everything easier; even the text select line is helpful for hundreds of pages I have written in this past period. It was absolutely a life changing decision to shift to your custom cursor!

[TommyLikeTom]

I love how they only apologetically called it a mouse. It's quite beautiful how animal metaphors force their way into our language

[AnonymousFreakYT]

The tilted arrow makes perfect sense to me - most interface elements and characters are vertical-horizontal in nature, so having the pointer at an angle makes it stand out more. I've lost the "I beam" text cursor so many times in word processors over the years, when the tilted arrow would be readily obvious.

[Kashanta]

While watching this video I kept glancing over at my curser where I left it sitting just to the right of the video. You basically had me thinking about something that I normally take for granted, and it was fascinating to hear about how something so small and common evolved over time (and how it could still change!).

[alexbenavidez]

The angle of the tilt is something I noticed being super important whenever a game had a default cursor that was even slightly off

It was always so difficult to get used to, especially when at this point your spatial awareness ability of even using the cursor is so deeply ingrained from years of using one, that you definitely have to be new to computing to get used to any other way of drawing your eye and spatial intent to that point

The straight upwards pointing arrow is always the worst for me, but being even slightly off on the standard angle weirds me out

[hw]

I love the fact that the original apple cursor is EXACTLY the same as the current one, just a bit more pixel-y.

[N]

How in the world do you have only 4.38k subs and only a 100k views on this video? the narrative, the pace, the witty jokes here and there. This was one of the most engaging videos I've EVER watched. And I'm so sad to see this has gone unnoticed


Edit: Update? whatever: Just came back here after watching his newest video. It hit 1m! Guess we got the sail to finally catch some wind. Man this makes me so happy! Let’s

[LTHXM]

This was an absolutely beautiful video. Music, voiceover, editing, information; everything is quality. Can't believe I'm finding it 4 years later. Well done, man.

[joeyscerbo]

14:44 This shot of Doug Engelbart "looking" at a modern mouse cursor is surprisingly beautiful

[DanielTGaming]

Been using your cursor ever since I saw this video, and I never want to go back. A wonderful design that actually upgrades the OS experience.

[Chiphunk]

I like your cursor designs.

I didn't think I would, but I especially like the rainbow hourglass. Somehow modern and fresh despite it being an hourglass.

My only, and very minor criticism would be the text selector. It needs to be a pixel skinnier, maybe. If I'm not paying attention, it can obscure things like periods or commas. It is, however, nice and visible, so I'm not lost on that one.

Great job! It's my new default.

[anormaluser]

I made my own cursors too, but it was totally for personalizing and uniqueness sake, I didnt know cursors had this much history. Thank you, you've inspired me.

[michaelnelson]

Not something I expected to actually notice or care about, but these cursor designs are legit. They're thoughtful and an improvement. Great video to recap the process. Glad you did that!