[compute] Re: [Sigia-l] Flash Calculators and Usability

[tOM Trottier]

On Saturday, March 18, 2006 at 18:21,
Skot Nelson <skot at penguinstorm.com> wrote:

> On Mar-17-2006, at 1:27 PM, cheryl kimble wrote:
> > i'm working with a design team who wants to build a financial  
> > calculator in flash. there are lots of benefits but i'm concerned  
> > about usability issues, particularly with slider bars.
> 
> slider bars? is this a general comment on them as an interface  
> device, or specific to how flash embeds in a browser.
> 
> I think financial calculators -- which by their nature try to present  
> a simple, but rich, view of complex issues -- are a great market for  
> this sort of thing. Beats creating CDs.
> 
> The Alpinestars web site used to have just about the most heinous  
> flash content I'd ever seen, with content that went off my Powerbook  
> screen causing you to use both browser sliders & navigation built  
> into the Flash app to move content around the screen. It seems to  
> have been fixed, but if this sort of behaviour is what you're  
> referring too then yes...I'd avoid it

Flash will adapt to windowsize if you let it, avoiding any navigation bars.

Bars may also be useful in a calculator to see how other variables react when you change one 
variable, eg, baloon payments, dates, interest rates, compounding, etc., but you also need to be 
able to type in numbers for an exact result.

tOM

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