Hello searchingandcurious:
Thank you for the interesting question.
I can see several ways your cheat sheet could be improved:
Usability and Readability
*************************
* It can be a little difficult to tell which table cells belong in
which rows when some of the cells have multiple lines and others
don't. Use alternate row shading to provide readability across rows.
So, for example, the shading of the Basic Arithmetic section would be:
OPERATOR, MEANING, TYPE INTO SEARCH BOX ... in a deeper gray
+ or plus row ... in white background (as is)
- or minus row ... in light grey background
* or times row ... in white background (as is)
/ or divided by row ... in light grey background
...
* Use more of the navigational elements available to webpages. Right
now, though you use some hyperlinks to Google searches, etc., this
page works more like a printed page from a book than a WEBpage. (Of
course, if you envision most people using this page by printing it out
first, then these suggestions MAY not be necessary.) Some examples of
things you could add/change:
** Add a "top" link in each of the major heading rows (BASIC
ARITHMETIC, ADVANCED MATH, etc.) that takes the reader back to the top
of the page.
** Similarly, you could add a row of quick jumps to each major heading
right below your introductory paragraph and above the "BASIC
ARITHMETIC" row.
Errors/Consistency
******************
* The entire title "Quick Reference: Google Calculator (Cheat Sheet)"
should not be linked to the Google Guide calculator page. If you want
to link to that page, just link "Google Calculator" from the title, or
link "Google's built-in calculator" from the introductory paragraph.
* In the ADVANCED MATH/OPERATOR section, don't captitalize the first
letters in the FUNCTION column. You don't capitalize these (unless
they're proper names) anywhere else in the cheat sheet. Keep it
consistent.
* In the PHYSICAL CONSTANTS section, the links for "u or atomic mass
units" do NOT work. However, links for "amu or atomic mass unit"
would.
* Why two copyright symbols in "İİ2005 Google Guide" - is this an error?
Missing Information
*******************
In playing with the Google calcuator, I noticed a few things that are
not listed in your page. They are a little more esoteric than what you
have listed, so I suggest you could do one of the following with each
of them:
1. Don't bother making note of them at all.
2. Make an explicit note of them in the "TIPS" section.
3. Make implicit note of them by making one of your examples show them.
* Decimals work! Almost all of your current examples use integer
values. However, decimal values work in almost all cases. (I would
suggest changing some more examples to decimal).
* Mixing letters and numbers. You can do things like "1+three" or
"twelve mod 4". As well, the resulting answer is given in the FIRST
representation type used, except when there's a decimal anywhere in
the input where the output automatically becomes decimal. (Again, I'd
suggest slipping this in some more examples.)
* Writing out larger values. You don't have any example of writing out
"larger" integer values, e.g., "twelve + thirty four". I'd say this
wasn't a problem, except that even larger values are tricky. "1 + two
hundred thirty seven" and "1 + two hundred and thirty seven" work, but
neither "1 + two-hundred thirty-seven" nor "1 + two hundred, thirty
seven" does. (I think an explanation of this might be in order.)
* In the "TIPS" section, where you discuss parenthases and order of
operations, I'd suggest mentioning that if you leave parenthases out,
Google shows you the order of operations it used in the answer itself.
Try "1+2*3/4".
Those are all the suggestions I can think of at this time. I hope this helps!
Search Strategy:
* used the Google calculator many times
* plus personal editorial experience
websearcher |
