We've been developing custom web apps for years but we're getting more requests for calculators. These aren't maths calculators but more small apps which allow a user to add a few variables for a certain problem and the calculator will show the result. These are often for a very specific problem such as:

• Costs or benefits linked to doing something
• Return on Investment (ROI) of purchasing something
• Time required to do something

We've recently built calculators to show:

• Costs associated with having a certain medical device at home
• How animal feed and its various ingredients benefits animals
• How well (or not) you would have done based on horse racing betting
• How an EV can save you money based on your current ICE car

Why calculators?

Its much easier to show a visitor how they would benefit from a service or product if you can them the benefits personalised to them. For example, I recently looked into buying an EV car and the first thing I would normally do is to put a spreadsheet together with my calculations so I could see what benefit it would give me.

The idea of the calculator is to put a front end on this spreadsheet and its calculations. For example, with the example of the EV the parameters would be:

• Mileage per year
• Fuel cost (per litre)
• MPG
• Daily commute (miles)
• Etc

From that the calculator can work out the monthly running costs of your current vehicle.

Now we need the EV side of things, such as:

• Efficiency
• Range
• Fuel cost (electricity rate)
• Percentage of city driving vs motorway driving
• Etc

There are a few more parameters then this but that gives the calculator ways to work out:

• If the EV car has the range needed for a daily commute
• How much of a charge will be left after a daily commute
• How much the car needs to be charged daily
• How much the daily charging cost would be

All of this shown on-screen will be much simpler and easier to understand than generic "savings" which "could" be achieved.

Benefits of calculators

One of the biggest benefits is that as the visitor is being shown actual information relevant to them, they are more likely to take a positive action based on this information rather than generic information shown to everyone.

So based on the example of an EV car, the visitor is far more likely to see the benefits and make a positive action such as book a demo or place an order.

Conclusion

If you want a visitor to take an action show them in a personalised manner what the advantages would be and the negatives if they don't.