Starting a Session

Click the MouseViz icon in your menu bar.
Click Start Recording or use your configured keyboard shortcut.
A configurable countdown (3s, 5s, or 10s) begins before recording starts.
A floating control bar appears on screen showing the live timer and controls.

The Floating Control Bar

During recording, a compact floating bar provides:

Record / Pause / Stop buttons with a live timer
Marker count — how many task markers have been placed
Control bar size is adjustable (compact, regular, or large)

Pausing and Resuming

Click Pause on the floating control bar to temporarily halt recording without losing data. Click Resume to continue. This is useful during breaks in usability testing.

Stopping a Session

Click Stop on the floating control bar, or
Use your configured keyboard shortcut, or
Click the menu bar icon and select Stop Recording

Sessions are saved automatically when you stop.

Session Limits

Free tier: 3-minute maximum per session, last 5 sessions saved.
Pro / Team: Unlimited recording duration and session history.

What Gets Recorded

During a session, MouseViz captures:

Mouse position — continuous cursor coordinates across all displays
Clicks — left, right, and middle clicks with timestamps
Scrolling — direction and magnitude
Gestures — trackpad gestures
Keyboard activity — modifier-only mode or all-keystroke mode (configurable)
Application context — which app is in the foreground at each moment

MouseViz streams events to disk during recording for bounded memory usage, so long sessions won't consume excessive RAM.

Per-App Filtering

You can filter visualizations to show data from specific applications only. This is useful when you want to analyze interaction patterns within a single app.

Multi-Display Support

MouseViz automatically follows the active screen during recording across multiple monitors.

Clean Desktop Mode

Enable Clean Desktop to automatically hide desktop icons while recording, keeping your screen tidy for demos and presentations.

Starting a Recording