Re: [lmi] UI for entering amounts in bp

[Vadim Zeitlin]

On Wed, 6 Jun 2018 22:51:01 +0000 Greg Chicares <address@hidden> wrote:

GC> That's an interesting question. If we accept '%' and 'bp' suffixes,
GC> then we might use them in default strings, e.g.:
GC> 
GC>    4%  interest rate credited
GC>   30bp investment management fee
GC> 
GC> Then the suffixes would be easily discoverable. OTOH, if an
GC> interest-rate field contains "4%" and the user types "3", they
GC> might expect spreadsheet behavior...

 We could implement similar behaviour, of course, but I'm not sure if it's
really ideal.


GC> I think all the people who would use a field commonly denominated in bp
GC> are all actuaries.

 Sorry, I don't quite grasp the implications. Does this mean that there are
too few of them to care or something else?

GC> >  Maybe we could use a compromise solution: instead of using a standalone
GC> > combobox, show the units in a sort of icon (like in the search control,
GC> > except on the right) that, when clicked, would show a popup menu allowing
GC> > to select a different unit. Popup menus are used a lot in lmi UI, so this
GC> > should be familiar to lmi users.
GC> Then '%' isn't discoverable, but the means to discover it is discoverable.
GC> I think a directly-discoverable combobox is better. But discoverability
GC> isn't all that important for a boutique system like lmi: end users number
GC> in the dozens only, and they all sit together, so discoveries spread like
GC> a rumor in a small room.
GC> 
GC> The behavior of a '%' suffix is likely to surprise many, no matter what
GC> behavior we give it (the "4%" overwritten with "3" problem).

 No because in this approach the "%" would remain unless explicitly changed
and so entering just "3" would look like "3%" and, of course, converted to
"0.03" internally. I.e. it would behave as expected because you just
wouldn't be able to erase "%" by typing in the control.

GC> Any new GUI element is (1) novel and (2) clutter.

 I think the unit element could be made very unobtrusive. As for novelty, I
might be underestimating human capacities again, but I don't think anybody
would be puzzled by what "%" in a numeric entry indicates...

GC> Either of those options requires reworking the input-sequence GUI.

 Reworking is too strong a word IMO, but some changes would be indeed
required.

GC> Doing nothing grows more appealing the more I think about this.

 It's certainly the simplest solution. But IME people really want to enter
the values in percents/bp when they're used to working with the values
expressed in this way (e.g. in financial domain people just want to see,
and enter, yields in bp), so I think that doing nothing could be a real
usability problem in this context.

 Regards,
VZ