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Buttons shouldn't have a hand cursor – Adam Silver – designer, London, UK

adamsilver.io · 562 words · saved by 1 readers

Like many people in the web community, I used to believe that the hand (or pointer) cursor signifies an element is clickable. But that’s actually not what the pointer cursor was originally intended for. In this article I’ll explain why that is and how using the pointer cursor might be harmful to users when it’s used to signify things that are clickable. It’s no accident that browsers don’t apply the pointer cursor to buttons, and many other elements. See the screenshot below which shows a plethora of interactive elements that aren’t given the hand cursor. The screen shot shows an interface with menus, tabs, whitespace (context menus), browser buttons and text box. All of them are clickable, but none of them are given the pointer cursor. The same goes for select menus, sliders, checkboxes, radio buttons, labels, images, and text. None of them are given the pointer cursor. These things can be tapped, dragged, selected, pressed, left clicked, right clicked. But like buttons, they are not

Buttons shouldn’t have a hand cursor – Adam Silver – designer, London, UK adamsilver.io Buttons shouldn’t have a hand cursor Adam Silver 15 July 2016 Buttons shouldn’t have a hand cursor Many designers and developers believe that the hand (or pointer) cursor signifies clickable elements. But it’s only meant to signify links. So using the pointer cursor for other interactive elements like buttons can confuse users. The hand doesn’t mean clickable Browsers deliberately don’t use the pointer for anything else. Check the screenshot below: Google's search page on Chrome Mac OS It shows an interface

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