

In this list, we take a closer look at custom cursors to get inspiration and use them on our sites. And more importantly, to make your website stand out from the crowd. Give users directions on where to go and what to do. Instead, you can use a custom cursor to make it more fun to interact with the website. However, the cursor has the same old system default design. Imagine designing an incredible website experience for an event page with animations, parallax effects, and moving objects. All that would make a memorable experience for the websites. With the help of HTML, CSS, and a little bit of JavaScript, You can create unique cursor designs for websites and add great interactions like hover animations, click effects, and more. What is a Custom Cursor?Ī custom cursor is changing the default icon design of the mouse cursor “pointer”. If you are creative enough, you can use this cursor to your advantage to boost website interaction and engagement rates like never before. Together, these elements, the cover and the propositions, render a unique final touch to the thin booklet that in itself is not merely a dataset or a design but more of a personal account.When viewing a website from a desktop device, the cursor is the main component that bridges the gap between the user and the website. Often hot-takes, they allow the candidate to use the platform of their defence ceremony to discuss and defend views far beyond the substance of their thesis, be it quantum mechanics, football, the state of scientific publishing, climate change, or politics, giving yet another glimpse into the person at the lectern. Similarly, the propositions, usually a set of ten, are statements accompanying the thesis that express the candidate’s opinion not just on their research, but on science as a whole or a commentary on society.

Naturally, the skillset differs vastly across candidates (somehow the TU/e hasn’t managed to come up with a PROOF course on illustrations) but it’s always commendable when colleagues pick up a tutorial to draw up their artist’s impression of the thesis in the last stretch of the PhD. It also imposes a certain appreciation for aesthetics, something engineering disciplines may often scoff at and yet the one thing that can get most of the public hooked. After several years of deep-diving into something highly specific, it gives the opportunity to think broader for once, almost helping the candidate reconnect with society. The thesis cover allows, or sometimes forces, the author to go beyond data, graphs, and schematics in communicating with the audience. Instead, here I remember visiting a research group at the University of Amsterdam in my first year and seeing a whole wall displaying recent dissertations, each as unique in its appearance as in its research topic. In most of the world, the thesis is meant to be a sombre folder with university-mandated lettering on the front, wildly exuding the sobriety of its contents even without having to flip a page. In the Dutch system, my favourite peculiarities are the front covers that the graduating doctoral candidate creates for the theses and the set of propositions that occasionally accompany them.

Far more ingrained are the ceremonial elements of PhD defence – outlandish gowns, caps and regalia, sceptres and swords, and bowing, bowing, and bowing – that form a key part of that final step that many look forward to for years.
