Simple Machines

For assignment number two, I chose to explore the features of a simple scientific calculator. As a Computer Science student, I have spent some time studying the different routes a person can take when designing a calculator. The machine presents its capabilities as buttons that the user presses to enter their input. After selecting an operator and any number of operands the calculator completes the operation and outputs the solution. The only affordances allowed by the calculator is the ability to be held and the ability to select operations and numbers by pressing the buttons. The interface of this calculator is fairly straightforward, using a PEMDAS type method to solve input problems. This was a deliberate choice by T.I., as a Reverse Polish Notation calculator is simpler to make, but much less intuitive. The only flaw to this calculator’s otherwise flawless design is that when a mistake is made in the syntax, sometimes the calculator will try to guess what the user meant instead of displaying an error message leading to an incorrect calculation. A large part of this problem is parentheses errors that could be avoided if the calculator automatically appended a parenthesis to both ends of the problem. Also, displaying long problems on multiple lines would be an improvement to the current endless scrolling situation.