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by awb 1361 days ago
Thanks for sharing! It looks slick.

Can you address the elephant in the room: why use Figr instead of Excel?

2 comments

Thanks! I'm not the best designer (my background is dev) though am happy people seem to like it!

Why Excel? I feel there's a gap between a "desktop calculator" (like the default calculator in most OSes) and Excel.

E.g. Desktop calculators I can say, "calculate tax for a single item", but sometimes I need to calculate tax or multiple sums in a list. You can probably break out Excel at this point - though I feel there's a bit of inertia in this. I.e. Thinking of how to structure the sheet, where to put values / formulas / etc.

I feel with a notepad calculator, it's a bit closer to how my brain thinks and I can get simple calcs out quicker. I may be biased too, but I find it easier to read my results the next time I load the sheet in Figr vs Excel.

Btw I'm not saying this is an Excel replacement - there's always going to be a place for that, though I think this is a nice middle ground.

Another thing: although I love excel, excel is slower. The startup is less snappy.
Ease of use + A nice UI + A dedicated application