Have you ever noticed the arrow-shaped cursor when moving the computer mouse? The mouse cursor is not perpendicular but slightly tilted to the left if you pay attention.
The mouse cursor is known to tilt about 45 degrees to the left. But did you know that the mouse cursor at the beginning of its appearance has a perpendicular shape?
So why did what was originally a straight line turn into a slanted one?
The mouse and cursor were first invented in 1968 by Douglas Englebart. Much different from today's computer mouse, the mouse was box-shaped and made of wood. In addition, the cursor is also perpendicular, not tilted as it is now.
However, because the mouse was made in the era of computer displays that still had low-resolution pixel arrays, the shape of the mouse cursor with the perpendicular line became challenging to find on the screen.
Because they are perpendicular, the computer cursor is difficult to distinguish from the vertical lines that appear on the screen.
Until then, when the Xerox PARC computer was made in the 1970s, the cursor was then made slightly tilted and transverse about 45 degrees.
The goal is to make it easy for the user to see and find when moving the mouse across the computer screen.
Computer software makers later adopted changes in the cursor's shape until now.
One of them is the founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, who borrowed the cursor for his Mac OS. Then, "competitor" Steve, the founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates, also followed the same design for its Windows operating system.
Reporting from Eternity Marketing, changing the cursor to tilt 45 degrees indeed produces several benefits, such as:
The slanted cursor icon makes the shape more clearly distinguishable from other objects, making it easy to find
This 45-degree angled mouse looks like an index finger pointing at something on the screen so that users are more precise in capturing an object on a computer display screen.
It turns out that the tilt to the left makes it easier for the user to click.
The slanted shape of the mouse cursor shows something more clearly than the cursor with the upright form.
That is why the mouse cursor is tilted and not perpendicular, basically aiming to make it easier to use the cursor is pointing at an object on the computer display screen.