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Why is the mouse cursor slightly tilted and not straight?

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Re: Why is the mouse cursor slightly tilted and not straight?

#31

Post by treflop »

p-e-w wrote: post #9
simondotau wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The web page which that image is sourced from[0] and the reddit page it is in turn sourced from[1] makes a lot of hand-wavey analogies to optical balancing (which is a real phenomenon[2]) but doesn't make any compelling arguments for why they apply in this specific case. An alternative explanation is that this intentional imperfection exists to match the unavoidable imperfection which occurred when the cursor graphic…

I'm honestly not sure any explanation is needed here. Early UX design wasn't always done with as much thought and sophistication as today's software designers (are claiming to) apply. The first Windows systems had plenty of UI blunders that make the cursor thing look insignificant by comparison, and I can promise you they weren't all about "visual balance" or similar. Lots of them have carried over to later versions.

UX may not have been as big back then but there’s nooo way no one noticed it being uneven if there was any designer involved. I just always assumed it was an artist’s style choice.

Re: Why is the mouse cursor slightly tilted and not straight?

#32

Post by bigfudge »

eastbound wrote: post #28
account-5 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

There was no patent about rounded rectangles. Please stop spreading fake news; News are sensationalized by journalists to the point the reader has an impression they said something that journalists didn’t; Do not repeat them. It’s just that Samsung was the Concordski of the Concorde, it was copying Apple’s designs to the letter, from the unboxing experience to the charger even to the home button. It was an obvious co…

I think you are right in substance, but from memory the radius of the corners of the copy phones did form part of the court case.

Re: Why is the mouse cursor slightly tilted and not straight?

#33

Post by stouset »

account-5 wrote: post #6
behnamoh wrote: post #2

The real question is: Why does Windows cursor look "imperfect"? https://mspoweruser.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/windows-c...

[flagged]

This is tired and uninformed, please just let it die.

Apple was issued a design patent which is a real, common thing and is highly specific. It isn’t just patenting a roundrect and calling it a day.

Re: Why is the mouse cursor slightly tilted and not straight?

#34

Post by travisjungroth »

jusuhi wrote: post #22
raverbashing wrote: post #14

Xerox Park and display reasons aside, I think that the 2nd answer, with the picture of the hand is the best answer apart from historical and technical reasons.

The "best answer" perhaps from the POV of your own intuition. But the question is about a historical fact, and those don't work that way.

> Is this a legacy thing or does a tilted cursor serves a purpose?

It's not just a question of historical fact. There's where it originated from. Then there are the documented reasons they first did it that way. Then the undocumented but plausible reasons it started that way. Then there are the reasons it has stayed this way. Those reasons aren't facts, they're counterfactuals.

Implicit in asking why the mouse cursor is like this is asking why it isn't a different way. If there was a better enough cursor, it would have won out. So all of its reasons of functionality, even the ones the inventor didn't think of or didn't matter historically, are part of why it is the way it is today.

Re: Why is the mouse cursor slightly tilted and not straight?

#35

Post by troupo »

p-e-w wrote: post #9
simondotau wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The web page which that image is sourced from[0] and the reddit page it is in turn sourced from[1] makes a lot of hand-wavey analogies to optical balancing (which is a real phenomenon[2]) but doesn't make any compelling arguments for why they apply in this specific case. An alternative explanation is that this intentional imperfection exists to match the unavoidable imperfection which occurred when the cursor graphic…

I'm honestly not sure any explanation is needed here. Early UX design wasn't always done with as much thought and sophistication as today's software designers (are claiming to) apply. The first Windows systems had plenty of UI blunders that make the cursor thing look insignificant by comparison, and I can promise you they weren't all about "visual balance" or similar. Lots of them have carried over to later versions.

> Early UX design wasn't always done with as much thought and sophistication as today's software designers (are claiming to) apply.

Oh, but it was. Here's Apple HIG from 1987 listing extensive bibliography on the subject: https://x.com/andy_matuschak/status/1447409175596699652 (here's the full PDF: https://andymatuschak.org/files/papers/Apple%20Human%20Inter...)

Modern "designers" apply as much thought and care as a hungry goldfish at feeding time

Re: Why is the mouse cursor slightly tilted and not straight?

#36

Post by troupo »

bigfudge wrote: post #32
eastbound wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was no patent about rounded rectangles. Please stop spreading fake news; News are sensationalized by journalists to the point the reader has an impression they said something that journalists didn’t; Do not repeat them. It’s just that Samsung was the Concordski of the Concorde, it was copying Apple’s designs to the letter, from the unboxing experience to the charger even to the home button. It was an obvious co…

I think you are right in substance, but from memory the radius of the corners of the copy phones did form part of the court case.

Yes. It formed a part of the case. The rounded corners part was a part of the whole design package discussed.

Re: Why is the mouse cursor slightly tilted and not straight?

#37

Post by al_borland »

haunter wrote: post #26

Because it mimics the fountain pen? That’s how you hold it when you write with one (the cursor being the virtual tip) https://youtu.be/U9mWKwXfF6s?t=155s

If this is the case, should someone using a left handed mouse have a cursor that tilts the opposite way?

Re: Why is the mouse cursor slightly tilted and not straight?

#38

Post by szszrk »

p-e-w wrote: post #9
simondotau wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The web page which that image is sourced from[0] and the reddit page it is in turn sourced from[1] makes a lot of hand-wavey analogies to optical balancing (which is a real phenomenon[2]) but doesn't make any compelling arguments for why they apply in this specific case. An alternative explanation is that this intentional imperfection exists to match the unavoidable imperfection which occurred when the cursor graphic…

I'm honestly not sure any explanation is needed here. Early UX design wasn't always done with as much thought and sophistication as today's software designers (are claiming to) apply. The first Windows systems had plenty of UI blunders that make the cursor thing look insignificant by comparison, and I can promise you they weren't all about "visual balance" or similar. Lots of them have carried over to later versions.

I always thought it is obvious - it was done so that it will be well visible on predictable background patterns. Otherwise (if it would be a clean vertical, horizontal, 45 degree design) it would easily "hide" in plain sight, sticking to grids, window borders. Blend in too easily.

Re: Why is the mouse cursor slightly tilted and not straight?

#39

Post by raffraffraff »

Without reading everything there is on the subject, I'd guess it's tilted for the same reason it's tilted to the left.

Humans are tool makers and tool users. After enough time the tool becomes an extension of the body, even if the tip of the tool is mechanically or virtually detached from the hand that is controlling it. The tool maker designed this as a right-handed tool, coming into the frame in the right hand.

If the reason for the tilt direction was not this, then there would be no reason why it shouldn't tilt the other way. If you're right handed, try a right-leading cursor . It doesn't just look wrong, it feels wrong because it looks like a tool held in the left hand.

Does this have an effect on left-handed people? Perhaps. I'm left handed and it always felt wrong to use the mouse in my left hand. Is it because of the direction of the tilt? Who knows!

Re: Why is the mouse cursor slightly tilted and not straight?

#40

Post by nottorp »

eastbound wrote: post #28
account-5 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

There was no patent about rounded rectangles. Please stop spreading fake news; News are sensationalized by journalists to the point the reader has an impression they said something that journalists didn’t; Do not repeat them. It’s just that Samsung was the Concordski of the Concorde, it was copying Apple’s designs to the letter, from the unboxing experience to the charger even to the home button. It was an obvious co…

I didn't follow the lawsuit but i remember seeing a large cardboard model of a samsung phone in a store back then; it wasn't similar to whatever Apple was peddling at the time, it was identical. At least from like 5 m.

So they may have had a point in suing.

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