A mousepad, or mouse mat, is a surface for enhancing the movement of a computer mouse. History of the mousepad. Doug Engelbart's original 1968 demo video of mouse usage shows a keyboard/mouse "tray" special-made for the purpose.According to Alex Pang, Jack Kelley, the Herman Miller office furniture designer, invented the first mousepad while working in Engelbart's lab; this claim is also made on the Herman Miller site. This "pad" was probably the "tray" seen in the video. The first known publication mentioning the mousepad is in the Xerox Disclosure Journal, 1979...