Peter Zelchenko

Portfolio > Screen and Interface > QuoteTracker

QuoteTracker. Various interface amenities. It appears I probably conceived of sparklines around the same time as Edward Tufte, and independent of him. (I believe I have the earliest documented implementation of the controversial design that Microsoft is attempting to patent.) In early 1998, Mike Medved of 2GK (Two Guys and a Keyboard) was living in my back bedroom with his ferrets, developing QuoteTracker. We were also working on book-on-demand printing together. In exchange for his help on my projects, I provided design input on his application. He was looking for a way to represent the historical chart efficiently, and I suggested he put it inside the spreadsheet. We thought it was a clever idea, but we didn't think it was that big a deal. (I still don't know what all the fuss is about.) In about 30 minutes, Mike had it working. As to the rest of the design, please don't blame it on me! I warned against the bloat. In fact, I've shown this to students to demonstrate how not to design for the screen. The Medveds later sold to TD Ameritrade, and QuoteTracker quickly became the company's signature web-based trading product. Mike traded ferrets for a wife and is now living happily in Baltimore. A few years before this, I also consulted for Peter Krause and Jon Najarian on their interface for a CBOE trading training simulator.