Don’t Make Me Do Math

As a wise woman once said, “Math is hard.” But it’s not hard for computers. So it’s a pretty good idea to not make your users do math.

In preparation for our anarcho-libertarian dystopian future, I was looking into the world of bitcoins (I know. Shut up.)  Coinbase is a legit and largely well-designed exchange, wallet, and merchant service provider.

However, one little thing bugged me about buying coins. On the right side of the screen, you can see your limits in dollars for instant transfers (where the coins are deposited in your wallet without waiting for the cash to be transferred to Coinbase) and total transaction limits. But you specify the amount you want to buy in bitcoin.

So if you’re trying to determine how  many coins to purchase based on these limits, you have to enter the amount of bitcoin and then wait for Coinbase to calculate the total in dollars to see how it matches up to your limits.

Why not give the option to set the purchase amount in terms of dollars? Or list the limit in terms of bitcoins as well? Such a tiny little change would make a big difference in interacting with this screen.