Here is an interesting use of Excel. Use it to design User Interface Prototypes.
A UI Prototype is one of the steps we do while developing systems. It contains a clear and detailed user interface mocked up so that we can clearly find-out how end-users would react to such a system.
Now, there are a ton of great tools to build UI prototypes, easiest of them being pencil and paper. But I have been using Excel (ahem!) for creating UI prototypes for the last few years with great success.
In almost all the projects where I worked as a business analyst, I used Excel (or Powerpoint) to create clear, well defined UI mockups to show what the end system would look like. This has helped greatly in understanding various unstated needs of users and speeded up system development.
A Practical Example of UI Prototypes made in Excel
Today I want to show you a practical example of how UI prototypes designed in Excel helped me choose one alternative over other.
While creating Excel School sales page, I needed to clearly show both options and provide a way to select one of them for the prospective students. I had 2 ideas in mind. I wasn’t sure which one would work. My initial thought is to draw both of them on paper and show it to my wife and find-out which one she would prefer. But then, my drawing is as good as my skateboarding. Just plain awful.
Even though I cannot draw a peanut on paper, I can create a whole peach tree in excel. So I turned to it and created 2 exact mockups of what I had in mind.
Then I showed both of them to my wife. She pointed to the one on left.
So I went with that option and designed it in HTML / CSS later that night.
But, this is a lame example. What if I want to make a complex UI in Excel?
Of course my example is lame. But you can make complex UIs in Excel with same ease. Remember form controls? You can use them to quickly create a mock up of almost any system and show it to your users to get instant feedback.
Here is an example:
Download Excel UI Prototype Examples Workbook:
In this workbook, you can find above 3 examples. See them, play with them, poke them to get inspiration for your next UI prototype.
Do you use Excel for Prototyping?
As I said, I have more than once impressed my customers by quickly churning out a mockup using excel. You can easily add drawing shapes, icons, form controls and place them on the grid layout to give perfect alignment and look. I think this is a great use of Excel.
What about you? Do you use excel for UI Prototyping? Share your experiences using comments.
26 Responses to “Get busy this weekend, with OR XOR AND [Excel Homework]”
first solution for AND
The two numbers are in A1 and B1
= SUBSTITUTE (SUBSTITUTE (A1+B1*9*9, 9, 1), 8, 0)
regards
Stef@n
next solution for OR
=1*SUBSTITUTE (A1+A2;2;1)
regards
Stef@n
last solution for XOR
=1*SUBSTITUTE (A1+A2;2;0)
regards
Stef@n
Or you could make use of the VBA logical operators!
Define the following as custom functions
Public Function BITXOR(x As Long, y As Long)
BITXOR = x Xor y
End Function
Public Function BITAND(x As Long, y As Long)
BITAND = x And y
End Function
Public Function BITOR(x As Long, y As Long)
BITOR = x Or y
End Function
and then use them such:
A B =BITOR(A,B) =BITAND(A,B) =BITXOR(A,B)
0101 0100 0101 0100 0001
an another solution for AND
=1*SUBSTITUTE (SUBSTITUTE (A1+A2;1;0);2;1)
note:
the binary numbers are in A1 and A2 !
regards
Stef@n
I was obviously playing hooky at the beach during the bit-wise math lesson – you lost me at “Understanding bit-wise operations” 🙂
After looking at the above solutions, I find my solution silly, but still:
For the following formulae,
Row 1: headers,
Row 2: OR
Row 3: AND
Row 4: XOR
Column 1: Input 1
Column 2: Input 2
Column 3: Result
OR
{=SUM(IF(MID(A2,ROW(OFFSET($A$1,0,0,LEN(A2),1)),1)+MID(B2,ROW(OFFSET($A$1,0,0,LEN(B2),1)),1)>0,1,0)*10^(LEN(A2)-ROW(OFFSET($A$1,0,0,LEN(B2),1))))}
AND
{=SUM(IF(MID(A3,ROW(OFFSET($A$1,0,0,LEN(A3),1)),1)+MID(B3,ROW(OFFSET($A$1,0,0,LEN(B3),1)),1)=2,1,0)*10^(LEN(A3)-ROW(OFFSET($A$1,0,0,LEN(B3),1))))}
XOR
{=SUM(IF(MID(A4,ROW(OFFSET($A$1,0,0,LEN(A4),1)),1)+MID(B4,ROW(OFFSET($A$1,0,0,LEN(B4),1)),1)=1,1,0)*10^(LEN(A4)-ROW(OFFSET($A$1,0,0,LEN(B4),1))))}
@Anup
Please don't consider your solution silly
Firstly, You are the 3rd person to submit an answer
Secondly, The best formula/function is the one that you know and understand.
I think I have a very tedious solution, which people won't have the patience to do except in small numbers.
I used the same problem setup as "Anup Agarwal"
AND =IF(AND(MID(B2,1,1)="1",MID(C2,1,1)="1"),1,0)&IF(AND(MID(B2,2,1)="1",MID(C2,2,1)="1"),1,0)&IF(AND(MID(B2,3,1)="1",MID(C2,3,1)="1"),1,0)&IF(AND(MID(B2,4,1)="1",MID(C2,4,1)="1"),1,0)
OR =IF(OR(MID(B3,1,1)="1",MID(C3,1,1)="1"),1,0)&IF(OR(MID(B3,2,1)="1",MID(C3,2,1)="1"),1,0)&IF(OR(MID(B3,3,1)="1",MID(C3,3,1)="1"),1,0)&IF(OR(MID(B3,4,1)="1",MID(C3,4,1)="1"),1,0)
=IF(OR(AND(MID(B4,1,1)="1",MID(C4,1,1)="0"),AND(MID(B4,1,1)="0",MID(C4,1,1)="1")),1,0)&IF(OR(AND(MID(B4,2,1)="1",MID(C4,2,1)="0"),AND(MID(B4,2,1)="0",MID(C4,2,1)="1")),1,0)&IF(OR(AND(MID(B4,3,1)="1",MID(C4,3,1)="0"),AND(MID(B4,3,1)="0",MID(C4,3,1)="1")),1,0)&IF(OR(AND(MID(B4,4,1)="1",MID(C4,4,1)="0"),AND(MID(B4,4,1)="0",MID(C4,4,1)="1")),1,0)
Sorry my last post was totally messed up
AND
=IF(AND(MID(B2,1,1)="1",MID(C2,1,1)="1"),1,0)&IF(AND(MID(B2,2,1)="1",MID(C2,2,1)="1"),1,0)&IF(AND(MID(B2,3,1)="1",MID(C2,3,1)="1"),1,0)&IF(AND(MID(B2,4,1)="1",MID(C2,4,1)="1"),1,0)
OR
=IF(OR(MID(B3,1,1)="1",MID(C3,1,1)="1"),1,0)&IF(OR(MID(B3,2,1)="1",MID(C3,2,1)="1"),1,0)&IF(OR(MID(B3,3,1)="1",MID(C3,3,1)="1"),1,0)&IF(OR(MID(B3,4,1)="1",MID(C3,4,1)="1"),1,0)
XOR
=IF(OR(AND(MID(B4,1,1)="1",MID(C4,1,1)="0"),AND(MID(B4,1,1)="0",MID(C4,1,1)="1")),1,0)&IF(OR(AND(MID(B4,2,1)="1",MID(C4,2,1)="0"),AND(MID(B4,2,1)="0",MID(C4,2,1)="1")),1,0)&IF(OR(AND(MID(B4,3,1)="1",MID(C4,3,1)="0"),AND(MID(B4,3,1)="0",MID(C4,3,1)="1")),1,0)&IF(OR(AND(MID(B4,4,1)="1",MID(C4,4,1)="0"),AND(MID(B4,4,1)="0",MID(C4,4,1)="1")),1,0)
@stefan,
I just couldn't get your solutions to work.
01010101010 + 01010101110 = 02020210120
what am i doing wrong?
@anup
...I got yours to work!
@Stephen - I get the same, but Stef@an's second solution for AND does work (at least for the test cases I used)
@ Stephen / Rich
yes , you are right ! - only this works:
OR
=1*SUBSTITUTE (A1+A2;2;1)
XOR
=1*SUBSTITUTE (A1+A2;2;0)
AND
=1*SUBSTITUTE (SUBSTITUTE (A1+A2;1;0);2;1)
@Stef@n - You're answer is really smart, I never knew about the substitute function before. Great Work!
Thx Michael 🙂
yes - it is simply easy 😉
if you add 1 and 1 - excel calculate 2
and then you have to substitute the 2 - new = 0 respectively 1
Here is a good resource for people wanting to learn binary and hexadecimal.
http://justwebware.com/bitwise/bitwise.html
Three that weren't asked for:
NOT
=SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(A1+A2,0,3),1,0),3,1)
EQV
=SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(A1+A2,0,3),2,3),1,0),3,1)
IMP
=SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(A1+SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(A2,0,3),1,0),3,1),0,1),2,0)
(was using Daniel Ferry's bitwise file to verify against)
@ Kyle
Not only takes one parameter and inverts 0 -1 and 1-0
Took out the +A2
=SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(A1,0,3),1,0),3,1)
Great solutions!
I'll add two:
NAND =1*SUBSTITUTE (A1+A2,2,0)
NOR=1*SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE (SUBSTITUTE(A1+A2,0,2),1,0),2,1)
This will work for binary numbers of any size (although the text format mask will have to have as many zeroes as there are digits in the longest addend)
Assume binary #s are in C35 & C36, then add and format as text in C37:
=TEXT(C36+C35,"000000000000")
-sum- = 101112211112
AND - SUBSTITUTE 0s for 1s in -sum-, then sub 1s for 2s
=SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(C37,"1","0"),"2","1")
OR - sub 1s for 2s in -sum-
=SUBSTITUTE(C37,"2","1")
XOR - sub 0s for 2s in -sum-
=SUBSTITUTE(C37,"2","0")
Just wandered by:
AND:
=SUBSTITUTE(A1+A2,1,0)/2
Clever, Shane. I like that.
[…] post http://www.excelhero.com/blog/2010/01/5-and-3-is-1.html for examples using Sumproduct, and http://chandoo.org/wp/2011/07/29/bitwise-operations-in-excel/ for examples using Text […]
Hi Chandoo,
I am not (yet) really into bitwise calculation, but I am looking for a way to speed up my vba calculation with very big numbers. Would is ben convenient to use bitwise notation for this?
Best regards,
Ronald (the Netherlands)
p.s. love your country!
@Ronald
I'd suggest asking this in the Chandoo.org Forums
https://chandoo.org/forum/
Attach a sample file with an example of some data and describe what you want to achieve