What is a Thrashed Cursor?

Have you ever gotten bored or frustrated and just kept moving the mouse randomly everywhere chaotically?

This is one of the user frustration signals, just like rage clicks, error clicks, and dead clicks.

The thrashed cursor is when your website visitor moves their cursor vigorously around the website.

They are cursor movements without any significance. The movement of the cursor has no meaning or explanation. These movements are random and really fast.

What does it mean if my client does thrash the cursor?

When your website visitor or customer does thrash the cursor, it means they are bored or frustrated or looking for a call to action button or any other information.

6 Reason Why does thrashed cursor occur?

1. Your visitors are bored while using your website.

Every human gets bored when what they are seeing is irrelevant to them. The visitor just came to your website to see what you are providing and got bored in the middle of their scan. It is a normal human activity to do so.

2. Visitors find something interesting to play with.

I even sometimes play on the website looking at the color or any other element. Some websites have some cool element features where they move or dance according to the cursor movements.

3. The visitor’s baby or pet is playing with the mouse.

There is a chance that the device they use could be used by anyone else in any instance without their knowledge. Babies and pets do not know what exactly they do and play with the mouse as it is easier to handle.

This may sometimes cause thrashed cursors around your website.

4. Visitors are trying hard to search for something in particular.

Sometimes users get frustrated when they don’t find what they are looking for. In a hurry to search, they move their cursor very aggressively around your website.

5. Visitors are checking if their system is working or not.

It is common to have network or system errors and they wanted to check if the system is working or not, so the visitor suddenly moved their cursor randomly to check if it is error-free and not stuck or hanging.

6. Visitors are out of their minds.

Generally, some people think or get their minds out of what they do, and during their daydreams, they may move their mouse aimlessly unconsciously, and this could lead to the thrashed cursor.

How to avoid the thrashed cursor?

1. If many visitors are thrashing their cursor it may be time for you to rearrange your website layout or make your call to action button more obvious for the visitor to find it easily.
2. Or your website may need some color psychology and good copy for your visitors to make it more cheerful for them to read and not so boring or dull in color.
3. The videos and website copy can be so long and meaningless that your visitors feel too uninterested.

There are many other user frustration signals just like the thrashed cursor.

• Rage clicks
• Error clicks
• Dead clicks