Final Project Manifesto

Here is my overview for the final project:

Manifesto

This application is meant to combine two very similar ideas: Interest and the CPI. The most prevalent changes will involve changes to the interface to make the application more easy to use and understand. However, there will be noticeable changes to the rest of the program as well, such as an intro animation and more choices for what the user in terms of what exactly they want to do with their interest calculations or CPI data. It is meant to teach how much inflation/CPI can change prices of different items over time as well as how much money a person can lose when they take out loans.

Art

The largest change to the art aspect of the application will be an introduction animation before you get to the calculators for interest and CPI. I am thinking of having a kid trying to buy a lollipop for a nickel and have a little sign in the background with the month's CPI number. Then have the animation repeat with the number going up more and more and the kid having to use more and more nickels and eventually dollars until he runs out of money, then going straight to the CPI calculator. Another possibility for the Interest introduction animation would be a man buying expensive things and taking out more and more loans until a big stop hand pops up and turns into a wagging finger telling the man to stop and going to the interest calculator to help illustrate how this would be a bad idea. The purpose of this application is to show how loans and the CPI lose you money, and this animation is supposed to help illustrate this and show how this is the purpose right off the bat.

Applied Math

Interest could be good or bad. It is the money you earn from the bank, or money you lose from loans. More applied math concepts will be included in this application in the interest calculator. It will have methods to calculate amounts paid or earned on all of the interest equations we went over in class. This will include things such as simple interest, compound interest, payment plans, and loans. The user will be able to select any of these and see how much money they would have saved if they didn't take out a loan and paid it all up front, as well as how much that value can change with different time periods the loan is taken out for.

Programming

This code in this program will make everything outlined before work. Not much will change, except for integrating the code from the two applications together into one. The code will grab the input text from the user and perform the mathematical operations on it. Then, the code will display the output back to the user. It also lets the user select whatever calculator or calculation they wish to perform.