You know that little pointing hand?
The one that shows up in old books and vintage posters?
That’s the manicule ☞
And it’s been doing the same job for centuries:
It tells your brain where to look—without asking permission.
The manicule’s origin story (fast, but vivid)
Long before bold text and highlighters, readers marked important lines by drawing a small hand in the margin. Not a cute doodle. A directive.
A finger aimed at a sentence like: This. Remember this.
Eventually, printers adopted it. The private margin note became a public tool—used in pamphlets, legal notices, ads, and signage. By the 1800s, it was basically the original “click here,” pointing people to offers, entrances, warnings, and fine print.
Then it went digital.
Hover over a link and your cursor turns into a hand.
That’s not an accident. That’s the manicule—still working.
Why this tiny symbol is so powerful
Forget “engagement.” Start with attention.
Humans don’t scan information evenly. We orient—fast—toward cues that suggest:
- Direction (this way, here, now)
- Priority (this matters more)
- Social intent (someone is pointing; someone chose this)
A pointing finger is a shortcut. It reduces search. It creates hierarchy. It’s a tiny nudge that saves your brain effort.
And when the brain can save effort, it does.
Cognitive scientist Richard Mayer calls this the signaling principle: people learn better when cues highlight what matters and how information is organized.
The manicule is a low-tech, pre-PowerPoint version of that exact idea.
The problem in most workplace learning
L&D loves “important” information.
So we treat everything as equally important.
Result: a screen full of bullets, all the same size, all the same weight, all the same urgency. The learner scrolls like they’re skimming a terms-of-service agreement—because functionally, they are.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth:
If you don’t tell people what to notice, they’ll notice whatever is easiest.
(Usually: the shortest thing, the funniest thing, or the thing that lets them click “Next.”)
Modern manicules (what to use instead)
You don’t need to paste little hands all over your course. You need the function of the hand: a clear signal.
Here are three “modern manicule” buckets you can steal immediately:
1) Visual hierarchy cues
- One dominant headline that says what matters
- More white space around the key idea
- A single callout box—used sparingly, not everywhere
2) Verbal signposts
- Labels like “The one thing to remember” or “Stop—don’t do this”
- A single bold sentence right before a decision point
- Microcopy that clarifies intent: “Here’s why this matters on Tuesday at 3pm.”
3) Interaction cues
- A question that forces a choice (“What would you do first?”)
- A pause before the answer (give the brain a beat)
- A reveal pattern: show less, then earn the next layer
None of this is flashy. That’s the point.
Signals work best when they’re rare enough to be trusted.
Where this shows up in our book
We don’t mention the manicule in Think Like a Marketer, Train Like an L&D Pro, but Chapter 6 explores the same underlying idea: signaling.
Marketers design cues that say “this matters” without adding more content.
The manicule just happens to be a 700-year-old version of that move.
A quick challenge for your next module
Open the first screen of your next training.
Now ask:
- What’s the single thing you want them to notice?
- Where is your cue that says “look here”?
- If I removed all your headings, would anything still stand out?
If the answer is “not really,” you don’t have a content problem.
You have a signaling problem.
And the manicule—quietly—has been trying to tell us that for 700 years.
If you didn’t design the cue, the learner designed their own.
If this kind of thinking hits home, you’ll probably enjoy our book Think Like a Marketer, Train Like an L&D. It’s packed with practical, real-world ideas to help you make your learning clearer, sharper, and a whole lot more effective.