Screen Works

摘要

For financial companies offering services on the Internet, function generally trumps form. Whether for meeting internal data requirements or for transactions on markets or with clients, systems must deliver maximum firepower with a minimal number of clicks, and computer screens are designed accordingly. Fancier graphical user interfaces - GUIs in Web development parlance - are concerns for programmers of video games, not trade-order management systems. But now that the online population -financial firm employees and customers included - is growing accustomed to the interactive wonders of Google Maps, iPods and TiVo recording devices, industry technologists are getting into the GUI game. They reason that unless they modernize old, static Web pages and keep up with the Amazons and Apples in terms of user experience, known in the trade as UX, they will look slow and stodgy and lose touch with the wired generation.