Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/56539
Technology TOOLS OF THE TRADE New Program for Financial Analysis FRAANK analyzes thousands of financial reports for publicly traded U.S. companies. What Color Is Your Web Site? A recent study from the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls was designed to discover the colors that Web surfers find most pleasing. The research was conducted by Carl Blue, UNI assistant professor of industrial technology, and UNI seniors Chris- topher McGee and Ty Welu. Blue, McGee, and Welu used an online survey that gathered more than 200 data points from partici- pants, including age, gender, level of education, and profession or area of study. They then recorded par- ticipants' preferences for Web page backgrounds, text, and links. They found that one-third of participants preferred a white back- ground with black text, and a major- ity preferred a page layout with high color contrast and blue hyperlinks. Women cared more about a Web site's aesthetics, while men cared more about the details of its content. In addition, older people preferred Web sites that mimicked the look of the printed page, while younger people were more likely to accept a variety of colors. These findings may indicate a pref- erence for conventional, conservative Web design, says Blue. However, it 60 BizEd MARCH/APRIL 2009 A new software tool for the financial curriculum is now available. The pro- gram, which allows users to access and analyze the financial reports for publicly traded companies, was developed by Rajendra Srivastava, business professor and director of the Ernst & Young Center for Audit- ing Research and Advanced Tech- nology at the University of Kansas School of Business in Lawrence; and Miklos Vasarhelyi and Alex Kogan, professors of accounting in business ethics and information systems at Rutgers Business School in Newark, New Jersey. The Financial Reporting and Auditing Agent with Net Knowledge (FRAANK) accesses annual financial reports that companies must file with the Securities and Exchange Com- mission. The information—including profit, annual cash flow, inventory, and balance sheets—is stored at the SEC in its EDGAR database. may also offer Web designers use- ful information on the relationship between Web design and usability. "The results reinforced the opinion that most Internet users prefer clean, clear visuals." The study is available at www.edsf. org/pdfs/Color_Preferences_In_ Web_Design.pdf. The Power of 'Tweeting' Just how powerful can an application like Twitter be to a student recruitment strategy? Very, says Scott Minto, The development of a business reporting language known as XBRL made it easier to develop FRAANK, says Srivastava. Before XBRL, which stands for "extensible business reporting language," there was no uniform language for companies to use in their financial reports. The SEC required publicly traded com- panies to file their reports in XBRL starting in December 2008. With FRAANK, students and facul- ty can pull up years of financial and nonfinancial information, or find one specific category and time frame. The program can search reports in general or by tagged information, such as headings, footnotes, line items, statements, or other options. It also can translate that information into Excel or Access formats. For more information about FRAANK, visit www.eycarat.ku.edu or e-mail Professor Srivastava at rsrivastava@ku.edu. director of the Sports Business MBA program at San Diego State Univer- sity's College of Business Adminis- tration in California. Since Septem- ber, Minto has been using Twitter to reach out to prospective students. He already had created a Facebook group for the sports program, and Twitter seemed like a natural exten- sion of that marketing strategy. Twitter is a social networking service that allows someone to send out short messages—of no more than 140 characters in length—to users who sign up to receive them. JUSTIN HUTCHINSON/GETTY IMAGES