The Life of a Cursor

Summary

An animated history of the computer cursor tracing its evolution from Engelbart's 1968 NLS arrow through macOS Tahoe, with each era's design shown on a minimal timeline scrubber.

Visual description

A white screen with a centered, slightly blurred vertical black arrow, with the year 1968 in bold and a short caption beneath it that is mid-crossfade with another line. Below sits a timeline of thin vertical tick marks that start tall at the left and shrink quickly to uniform short ticks. A 1968 label is at the left and a light gray Today button with a cursor on it is at the right.

Key takeaway

Use a tick-mark timeline whose heights decay from the first era to the present, so the history visually shows how quickly change slowed. Crossfading captions under a single hero object keeps the story to one focal point.

Reuse notes

Reach for this as a motion still reference. Pairs with typographic, minimal directions. Original by joshpuckett.