Patent ID: 8010427

Claim:
A method for, in a computer system connected to an electronic-commerce server, supporting an input of a numeric value required for performance of an electronic-commerce transaction, the method comprising: a processor of the computer system displaying, on a display unit of the computer system, a user input screen comprising areas for user input to be entered for describing said electronic-commerce transaction consisting of a transaction of a stock to be traded, wherein the stock is associated with a business; said processor receiving said user input entered on the user input screen, wherein said entered user input comprises parameters of the transaction, wherein the parameters of the transaction specify a transaction type selected from the group consisting of a buy order and a sell order, a stock code identifying the stock to be traded, and a quantity of shares of the stock to be traded expressed as a first numeric value of the number of shares of the stock to be traded; in response to said receiving the user input, said processor displaying, on the display unit, a window that displays a representation of the transaction in terms of the received user input, wherein the displayed representation of the transaction comprises: a buy/sell icon consisting of a pictorial representation of the specified transaction type; a stock code icon consisting of a logo denoting the specified stock code; one or more share quantity icons, wherein each share quantity icon of the one or more share quantity icons has a size and shape that represents a unique quantity of shares, and wherein the one or more share quantity icons collectively represent the first numeric value expressed in terms of the unique quantity of shares represented by each share quantity icon of the one or more share quantity icons; and wherein the one or more share quantity icons consists of I share quantity icons, and wherein the method further comprises: expressing the first numeric value as a sum of N terms denoted as S 0 , S 1 , . . . , S N-1 , wherein N is at least 2, wherein S n =K n ×10 n for n=0, 1, . . . , N−I wherein K n is zero or a positive integer for n=0, 1, . . . , N−1, wherein I terms of the N terms have a non-zero value, wherein I is at least 2, and wherein the at least one share quantity icon in the displayed representation of the transaction consists of I share quantity icons respectively corresponding to the I terms.