Where Should I Look? 3 Small UX Problems in Remote Demos

In remote software demos, the biggest problem is not always the product itself. Sometimes the audience simply doesn’t know where to look. A button may be visible. A setting may already be on screen. The presenter may be explaining everything correctly. But if attention isn’t directed clearly, people can still get lost. After doing a lot of screen sharing and software demos, I kept noticing the same small UX problems. 1. The cursor is visible, but not necessarily noticeable When you're presenting your own screen, you always know where your pointer is. The audience doesn’t. On a large monitor, a compressed video call, or a busy application UI, the pointer can easily disappear visually even though it is technically visible. This becomes especially obvious when you say something like: “If you look over here…” You know exactly what “here” means. The audience may need another second or two to find it. That delay sounds minor, but during a demo it can happen again and again. A presenter moves on to the next step while part of the audience is still trying to locate the previous one. 2. Moving the pointer is not the same as directing attention A common workaround is to move the mouse around whatever you want people to notice. I’ve done this many times myself. Circle the button with the cursor. Move back and forth over a chart. Quickly point between two settings. It works, but it also adds visual noise. Eventually I realized there are really two different actions happening: Navigation — using the mouse to operate the software. Attention — telling the audience where to look. During a demo, those aren’t always the same thing. Sometimes I don’t want to click anything or change the interface. I just want to say: Look here. 3. Highlighting something can interrupt the demo There are plenty of powerful screen annotation tools available. They make sense when you want to draw arrows, write notes, add shapes, or explain something in detail. But during a live product demo, switching int