Demo Tip: Curing Zippy Mouse Syndrome

Do you suffer from Zippy Mouse Syndrome? Here are the symptoms: 

Mouse movements are erratic and haphazard; movement may never stop. Mouse circles constantly around portions of the screen. Audience members grow uncomfortable and turn away from the screen; may reach for Dramamine, Bonine, or another motion-sickness remedy.

Diagnostic Method: Watch other folk’s demos or record your own and time how long before you get uncomfortable trying to follow the mouse flying around the screen: 

- Sick after 5 minutes: Mild, but needs treatment

- Sick after 2 minutes: Moderate, treat right away 

- Really sick within a minute: Severe, emergency measures required! 

Cure: Slow your mouse down. 

Sloooow the mouuuuuse doooooown…! Move your mouse smoooothly and deliiiiiiberately to the location you want, then take your hand off of the mouse while you talk. Repeat for your next point. This is called “Move and stop; move and stop”. 

In severe cases, change the mouse speed setting in your system settings or preferences from “Normal” to “Painfully Slow”: this will compensate and appear comfortable to the audience. Apply treatment right away.

For more remedies, consider enrolling in a Great Demo! Doing Discovery or Demonstration Skills Workshop. For more demo and discovery tips, best practices, tools and techniques, explore our blog, articles, and other content on the Resources pages of our website at https://GreatDemo.com.