How can I merge a semicircle with two parallel lines? I want to have the leftmost point of the semicircle to bind with the leftmost line in the illustration below, and I'd like the rightmost point of the semicircle to be bound to the rightmost line simultaneously:
I'm using Illustrator (16.0.3).
I want to see the alternatives of modal dialogs containing long forms so that the design don't break.
When creating a character, what red flags would show me that I'm creating an unbelievable or unsympathetic character? I know that to be believable and sympathetic a character must not lean too much to a single extreme or be a caricature. Besides paying careful attention to character traits when reading, how can I learn more about what constitutes a caricature? What signs might there be that I'm writing an unbelievable character or one no one will care a thing about?
Answer
Well, first and foremost - do you believe in the character? Do you think he/she is sympathetic? If so, you're already in a good position - because you have a believable, sympathetic character, you just haven't convinced your readers of that yet - meaning, if you get negative critiques on the point, you just need to figure out why you like the character, and focus on bringing those elements out more strongly.
But that's not what you asked - you asked about warning signs. Here are a few:
That's what I've got at the moment... Hope these are helpful :)
On my current project, we are debating the usage of replacing input fields (checkboxes, radio buttons, and select dropdowns) with styled choices via javascript. However, it breaks the support of navigating between form input fields via the tab key. I tried searching to see the usage rate of normal users (i.e. not developers) navigating forms via the keyboard, but couldn't find any studies done on it.
I don't like the idea of breaking basic, expected browser functionality, but I would love to see numbers and/or advice on the usage of keyboard navigation with forms.
I want to understand what happens when you increase or decrease the distance between the stationary point and the picture plane?
I tried drawing a border (approximately 9” x 12”) on a real window with duct tape to create a picture plane (using the area within as a transparent canvas).
My goal was to see what happens when I (stationary point) moved far away. The tree that fit nicely when I was at arms length suddenly got huge when I took a few steps back and eventually only the trunk was visible in the picture plane that I made.
My question is why did this happen and how can I relate it to drawing perspective?
I have read on a number of blogs that the seams that you see in Illustrator from applying a pattern to an object is due to anti-aliasing and that if you print from Illustrator that it will print fine.
My concern is that when I save my work to PDF the seam shows up there as well. I don't want a client to see the seam and think there is something wrong. I also don't want to tell them not to worry about it. I want it to look correct from the get go.
I am creating invitations for weddings and just started using the pattern tool/feature of Illustrator.
Any ideas or process I should follow?
Update
I am building a simple pattern diagonal line pattern like the one in this tutorial, http://www.bittbox.com/illustrator/how-to-create-a-seamless-diagonal-pattern-in-illustrator
Answer
There are a couple possible workarounds.
I find the second item works most of the time provided the pattern isn't a transparent pattern over other elements.
Related: Why does Illustrator add white lines to my pattern when exporting?
The tutorial you linked to is rather misleading and, well, less than efficient. There is never, ever a reason to create a diagonal line pattern in Illustrator. Create a vertical or horizontal line pattern, then simply rotate the pattern. You don't need to draw diagonals and line them up.
In any event, if you select the pattern fill and choose Object > Expand you are left with actual objects inside a clipping mask. You can then click the Crop button on the Pathfinder Panel to eliminate the clipping mask. At that point you can select individual objects in the pattern and use the Unite button on the Pathfinder Panel to combine the basic shapes.
I'm designing a list with an option to switch some records on and off. I'm wondering which pattern to choose: standard radio buttons solution, or something a little more sophisticated but not too uncommon—switchers.
I know there are some flaws regarding the use of switchers, e.g. problems with the state of the switcher, but maybe merging standard switcher with indicator of the state (active/inactive) would be the best solution.
I have attached an image with some ideas, such as those implemented in Apple and Google products. So is the switcher a better solution than radio buttons?
From a Design point-of-view, if a page is not ready yet, but the rest of the site is; would it be better to:
I'm interested in how each design decision will affect the site's performance (popularity). Will having the 'under construction' message affect the users' likelihood of enjoying the site?
When designing a site, which decision is more user-friendly etc.?
I'm weak at building characters.
What resources are there to create rich characters? I'm thinking beyond name generators: Quirks, biography, diseases like allergies, hobbies and jobs, wealth, omens, ...
I'm working with high frequency FX data. Because the FX market is a decentralized market, different traders often have slightly different prices at the same moment. I can see how this would potentially affect data quality, and I remember reading some work in which the author dismissed the use of ask quotes as being low quality data, so they only used bids. I'm afraid have forgotten who/where this was.
My question is: is it a common perception in literature that high frequency FX ask quotes are no good, and would you have any references for me that make this point?
EDIT: I've not yet accepted an answer, because I am looking for a reference that makes the point either way.
Answer
I think that is coming from the bond market where there in the past has been the idea of "marking to the bid". People would usually ask for a two-way-market and most of the time they would be expecting that the bid would be hit.
With FX data you are looking at actionable markets so they are all good.
I'm a front end developer that has never used Photoshop before and always designed my websites in browsers directly. I know that website development has changed a lot since responsive design came into play.
Is Photoshop still used to design websites? Should I invest in learning the tool?
There is a hierarchy of selectable items, let's say a parent and two children. All three items have checkboxes. When both children are checked, the parent's checkbox is also checked. When both children are unchecked, the parent's checkbox is also clear. When only one of the children is checked, the parent is half-checked (color fill or a diagonal inside the checkbox).
This relationship works both ways - the parent's checkbox works as a select/clear all for the children checkboxes.
What should happen when users click the half-checked parent - check or uncheck? Or rather, what factors might influence this decision?
Answer
what factors might influence this decision?
Are new children checked by default?
This of course depends on the application. Since you didn't specify: lets discuss "selecting folders for backup". The best solution I found are WinZip project files, which works like this:
I'd intuitively make the cycle mixed --> checked --> unchecked.
I'm using a CMS that supports multiple languages and the build-in SEO tools are decent.
The problem is that it doesn't support switching between languages while remaining on the same page, because it's the creators opinion that content can be different between languages so languages aren't interlinked.
From a user experience point of view I think this is bad but what are your opinions? Is a redirect to the homepage when switching languages ok?
Answer
I think the CMS designers are probably right. The problem is that it is perfectly possible that certain pages are not valid in other languages - the entire site structure MAY be different between languages, and so the current location is not necessarily valid in a new language.
Of course, your particular site may well be identical across languages, but if this cannot be guaranteed, the homepage is a good place to return to. You could, of course, include coding on your page to return to the same page in the new language, but I guess you are trying to avoid this sort of coding.
From a user perspective, I cannot see a good reason for wanting a specific page in another language, rather than the entire site. In other words, I think that the vast majority of users will navigate in the same language that they speak, so they will change language firstly - or very early - and progress from there. Changing language anywhere other than the home page is extremely rare ( I have seen, years ago, so evidence of this ).
So I think you are right to express concern and think about it, but in practical terms, I don't think it is a problem that will arise for many users.
Normal checkboxes are easy, they have a checked state, and an unchecked state. But how do you go about indicating a third state for a tri-state checkbox? Is it too difficult for the user to discover and comprehend this additional state?
(Taken from a comment on another question about tri-state checkboxes.)
Answer
Typically even a tri-state checkbox is still to be treated as a two-state check box in terms of the user's interaction. The user should not be able to switch it between all three states - only between checked and unchecked.
It is only if the information that is related is not in either state that the box is 'displayed' in the tri-state.
What does it even mean for the user to put it into an indeterminate state - it could mean anything in between checked and unchecked. For this reason, tri-states appear complicated because they combine both state and feedback about the current state.
The indeterminate state means the information has to found elsewhere - usually in a tree-like hierarchy below it.
The advantage is that it is compact, and fits in a tree like structure of nodes where all other nodes might have a checkbox. So it becomes visually not so neat to have a different control which fits in to the scheme, especially since (as above) in terms of the user interaction it needs to behave exactly like a two-state checkbox.
So in the right context, the tri-state does a pretty good job - but I would say generally they are commonly found in more technical situations anyway - installers for example - but does the average user install the sort of application that has these options - probably not. Thus for the average user, it's an uncommon control.
What would definitely be wrong, I think is to have a tri-state, where the user can in fact switch between all three states - to literally choose between three different states of something. That frankly would be too awkward and not to mention a bit weird.
The solution I feel would be to always use a three way radio button (which if iconic & connected, can still be very compact) or a simple dropdown that users will be totally familiar with.
Edit: I looked at What are some ways to get to know your characters? and while I noticed similarities, I think that question asks in broader terms about what tools can be used for developing characters. I tried to narrow this question down to specifically the Myers–Briggs method, it's usefulness and limitations.
For a while I've been fascinated with the different personality types, studying the letters, function stacks, and how they play.
I've done tests to find out what types my characters are and spent hours reading up on that particular type, how that type thinks, their work habits, relationships, how they react to stress, whatever is available to find online (for free mostly).
That said, I tend to come up with my characters first and then figure out what type they are. It seems the more I get familiar with my POV characters, the less they seem to fit any particular type. Is this realistic or a fault in developing my characters?
I'll use my soldier character as an example. I tested him and he fell in the "ENFJ" category. (Extraverted, intuitive, feeling, judging) The more I read up on the type, the more I realized this type "can't" be a soldier. I put "can't" in "" because I'm sure there must be real life exceptions, but internet research is pretty limited, so I can't go 100% sure one way or the other. Long term wise over the arc of the series this type does appear to be the closest fit for the character and his development. Though early in the story he has his "mask" so it may be hard to type him with that mask on.
But then I noticed my character also plays up an "alter ego" or "work personality" (aka his mask) as a way to shut out his feelings and keep focused on his surroundings, and help achieve his missions/ battle tactics as a soldier.
Is this a bit unrealistic?
I decided to test my character again (factoring his work personality, the mask he puts on, how he carries out his actions rather than how he feels inside about what he is doing) and came out with an ESTJ. An ESTJ would be a more fitting type for a soldier, but he still has contradictory traits that make him swing between that, an ENFJ or even a possible ENTJ. (he does want to believe in abstract stuff, thinks towards the future, but because of a rough upbringing with his first father figure and a falling out with his second father figure, he shuns such beliefs initially and favors the belief to show fear (or emotion in general) is a sign of weakness.)
I'm wondering how much can I/should I rely on the Myers–Briggs system? Are such contradictions natural and realistic? I see myself as a contradiction being unsure if I use T or F as my dominant, swaying between INFP and INTP. I tested my own "work personality", the mask I tend to put on at work and came up with INTJ. The description of an INTJ doesn't fit me quite, but I can see things I can relate to, even more so when I read up on an INFJ. I notice I have a stronger judging preference at work than I do at home. At work I can't stand clutter, inconsistency, like to complete tasks, but at home I'm the opposite.)
Considering my real life example vs my character, is it that unrealistic for my character(s) to not fit cleanly in the "box" or do I have major work ahead of me to sort out my characters? (and perhaps myself in the process?)
Or do you make up the characters and if there are contradictions, you just let it go and try not to worry about it too much? (and that being what I need to do with mine?)
Answer
I think these contradictions in personality is what makes it more interesting. Every person at some point in their life does something that does not match their personality. Or like Andre Berthiaume said "we all wear masks, but there will be a time that we cannot separate the mask without tearing the skin." Which means we grow into our characters. Of course some people grow more into their characters than others because of their personality or because of the traumas they have experienced.
It has been popular to create a variety of personalities. For example, the script of the TV series "Friends" was written so that each character had their distinct personality type. This works best when there are about 5 friends. This may help to get the audience to have there own favorite character, or a character they can relate too. It also creates a more stylized environment in which the audience has a certain prediction about the character due to there personality. This can create suspense when the character needs to do something that does not match his personality type. You might also want to check out the big five personality types which have some overlap with the Myers-Briggs indicators.
Beside developing your characters' personalities you should also think about what they value. What is important to the characters? This will create the tension in your story as the characters have to overcome their own dispositions.
How exactly would I go about investigating whether the S&P 500 stocks were currently over-valued compared with the price of the S&P 500 Index futures contract? Is it just a case of taking each S&P 500 stock price, ratio-ing it down using its S&P 500 constituent weighting and then summing them all up and comparing the number with the Index futures price?
Any small examples would be most welcome
I have two groups, one of which contains about 30 black "compound path" objects, and another of which contains about 150 white mixed shapes. I want to subtract the black objects from the white objects, so I've put the black on top. I selected both and chose "minus front" from the pathfinder window, but this yields "no results" according to adobe.
What would be the best way for me to go about subtracting this group of objects from the second group of objects? When I make the white objects a compound path it yields unwanted overlap, so I would prefer to not have to make my white objects their own compound path, and I also can't individually convert 150 objects to their own individual compound path.
What is my best solution here?
Answer
Pathfinder's "Minus Front" works on single objects, you simply can't use it on groups.
A few options:
Turn each group in to a compound path. The overlapping path issues is (I assume) just a path direction issue. You can simply hit one of the path direction buttons in the Attributes panel with you compound path selected to correct it.
Pathfinder "Unite" each group first. You can hold alt while hitting the Unite button to create a compound shape from the Pathfinder result instead of the normal destructive output—this essentially works exactly the same as creating a compound path but without the overlapping path issues.
A better option is probably to use Pathfinder's "Merge"—which should combine everything of a similar fill color and remove anything below. Simply hit "Merge" and delete the resulting black areas, leaving only the combined white shapes. This relies on each group being entirely a single color though.
I have a small (32x32) grey rectangle that I converted into bitmap:
I want to convert the black areas into vector polygons.
Is this possible somehow?
In Inkscape, when I stretch a line having an end marker (e.g., an arrowhead), the marker scales. I'm not sure why anyone would want this. Is there a way to keep the same marker, and only stretch the line? I think we could assume that's what the user always wants, since for example, having different sized arrowheads in a diagram is unconventional, not to mention that it looks like kindergarten art.
This is what happens when I try to fill the selection with black.
It's super janky! What I want is to turn off all feathering to have a perfect crisp edge, but I can't figure out how to do that. Sorry for German interface, I would set it to English if I could. The option bar at the top for the selection tool says "Weiche Kante: 0px", which means feathering I think. "Glätten" means "anti-aliasing" and it's grayed out.
The paint bucket tool also doesn't seem to have any helpful options.
I'm using CS6 btw.
Edit: I think I know what's going on. The selection is essentially an alpha mask and isn't binary. The outline is just trying to give me an idea what the mask really looks like. It would be nice if there were just a button to make the selection binary without jumping through hoops.
Recently, there has been an influx of data showing that sites improving the site performance saw a lift in conversion.
For example, an in-house Walmart.com study found that, for every one second of load time improvement, the site experienced up to a 2% increase in conversions. For every 100 milliseconds of improvement, incremental revenues grew by up to 1%. And in another study about the impact of page delay on ecommerce metrics, Radware, found that a mere one-second HTML delay resulted in the following penalties for an ecommerce client:
3.5% decrease in conversion rate, 2.1% drop in cart size, 9.4% fewer page views, and 8.3% increase in bounce rate.
Our e-commerce site is largely dependent on our product imagery and promotional content. Creative understands these metrics, but also is hesitant to over compress an image.
Have there been any studies on where the point of diminishing returns is on image compression? At what point does image compression stop having a positive impact on user experience, and become neutral or negative?
While reading the Wikipedia article about the Plus and minus signs I found the so called commercial minus sign (Unicode character U+2052 and HTML symbol ⁒). It looks similar to an Obelus (÷) or Percent sign (%) as you can see:
After some more research and googling for the German term "kaufmännisches Minuszeichen" I found that the commercial minus sign was and is widely used in bookkeeping to indicate a minus sign such as the following example shows. (It was also common to write ./. on typewriters instead.)
100€ "deducting" 20% equals 80€
The problem is that I can’t find any good information about this symbol and its history. As @El Otmani Ali pointed out in his post one theory is that this symbol is a "quicker / cursive based variant of the division sign in some old German books" (see his answer and this mailing list on unicode.org). On the other hand why should we use a different symbol, when we want to set a character italic?
So, do you know the origins of this rarely used and not really documented sign?
Note: The sans-serif typeface DejaVu Sans was used in the examples.
Answer
Based on an answer in this thread, this minus sign was used in bookkeeping, because the - was already in use.
After all the amounts were put in, they were checked twice. When the amount was correct, one would mark it by putting a little horizontal bar behind it. The bar meant the amount was correct.
Since the usual minus sign could be confusing and leading someone to believe an amount was checked when it wasn't, a different minus sign was used, the Commercial minus sign
Here is an example:
100,00 -
+ 100,00 -
./. 100,00 -
----------
100,00 -
I have a form with these elements:
It is an eCommerce site which uses points as currency. During checkout user has the following options: The checkbox allows user to pay the order with a credit card instead of the site points, and the dropdown allows user to select delivery method (Standard, Expedited, In Store Pickup, etc.) All the delivery methods are available if user pays with points, however when user check the option pay with credit card, some of the options are not available.
What should be the best from a UX perspective? Display the non available options but show them as disabled? Or simply do not show the options in the dropdown? Or is there a better solution?
We're building a mobile application that will initially support English and German, perhaps more languages in the future.
My question is what is the best way/most common practice to handle language change in a mobile application.
For example in many web applications there is usually a dropdown in one of the corners, could be top left or top right.
But I believe that would take a lot of space in a mobile app and it is better to have a settings page where the user can change the language. It is also something that won't happen more than 1-2 times, right?
Any thoughts/helpful tips/links?
Answer
When mobile apps have support for several languages, they typically don't allow the language to be changed in app. This is because the user has already made her choice of language by selecting the phone's operating language in system settings. The apps then use this same setting.
Our app works that way as well and we haven't heard any complaints. It seems that people who would want to have the app in English instead of their native language have their whole phone set to English as well.
It's being reported that Google is moving to a "card-centric" redesign in the upcoming Android-5 O/S.
Answer
I've found this article by Vedran Arnautovic very interesting and informative. According to the author's research these are the main reasons "why card based interaction patterns work and what makes them attractive to users":
- Cards support our limited working memory by allowing us to break up information through the process of chunking and focus on as much (or as little) as we can process at a time.
- Cards are tangible and humans prefer to work with tangible things.
- Cards feel ‘comfortable’ – they are the ‘right size’ to hold in our hands, and that’s why they work well on mobile devices, which we also happen to hold in our hands.
- By catering so well to mobile, which is the lowest common denominator when it comes to device size, cards implicitly cater for other, larger devices. You can simply move them around to take advantage of the extra space. You can see a good visualisation of that here.
- Cards are a nice compromise between skeuomorphic and flat design. You can make them as flat as you like, but they are still cards and with that come some inherent affordances. You can flick, flip, order and stack cards…and it all feels so natural and effortless. On the plus side (for those like me who like minimalist design) you do not need a lot of chrome to get the benefit of these affordances – a border and a minimal shadow will do.
It also contains a very interesting list of pros and cons, based on the author's experience:
Pros:
- Consistency and seamless experience across devices. “Consistency builds trust”. (Donald Norman, Luke Wroblewski, Robert Scoble)
- Pattern is suited to different screen sizes. (see diagram below)
- Can present action buttons for a single item (rather than lists with multiple buttons).
- Cards are more visually appealing (than current layout list layouts).
- Popular pattern. Ebay, Twitter, Spotify, Google, Rdio, Netflix, Slideshare, Etsy, Android, iOS, Windows 8 and more.
- Can reduce info on cards (as pattern is not in-and-out ), which in turn means user has to tap to learn more (behaviour data).
- Having a standardised card pattern enables aggregated feeds of differing content.
- Cards lend themselves to sharing and embedding via Twitter, Google etc
- Hypothesis (to be validated) that cards are easier to scan than current layout.
- Hypothesis that it matches user behaviours of having a group of items and one that you are currently paying attention to.
Cons:
- Cost of changing.
- Resistance to change (users).
- Some design challenges for a compelling desktop implementation (scroll bars etc).
- Cards are not as efficient for bulk updates/changes compared to a list of elements.
- Cards are not as efficient for bulk reviewing compared to a list of elements, the limited amount of information and depth of each card prevents scanning and comparison of multiple elements.
- More likely that sorting/filtering a list of cards based on a value that is not displayed, adding load by requiring users to view each element.
- High investment in research and testing needed for this change – are there enough pro’s to justify this investment as a genuine increase in user experience, or is it merely a trend that will soon pass?
- Speed of scanning is negatively impacted due to cognitive load (high volume of content) in 2 column card layout
- Inconsistency for a time until card layout is implemented across the board (we have a complex, multi-faceted product)
Other interesting reads are:
Stack Exchange's tag popup card/thingy has a star which you can toggle between "Favorite" (gold star), "Ignored" (red cross), and "Normal" (grey star).
Favorite:
Ignored:
Normal:
This is not intuitive at all, thanks to the grey star meaning "Normal." One would expect a 2-option toggle when clicking on it results in the star becoming gold.
What is a better way to present this?
For those who are interested for accessibility reasons, here's the HTML code:
★
5 followers
subscribe
| rss
(The anchor tag has a class that cycles through tm-favorite, tm-favorite-ignore, and tm-favorite-clear.)
Can Black-Scholes option values be derived via the Capital Asset Pricing Model, without resort to the use of a risk-free portfolio being created from the option and a Delta determined quantity of the underlying instrument?
Answer
From Frequently Asked Questions in Quantitative Finance (2009) by Paul Wilmott, p. 416:
This derivation, originally due to Cox & Rubinstein (1985) starts from the Capital Asset Pricing Model in continuous time. In particular it uses the result that there is a linear relationship between the expected return on a financial instrument and the covariance of the asset with the market. The latter term can be thought of as compensation for taking risk.
But the asset and its option are perfectly correlated, so the compensation in excess of the risk-free rate for taking unit amount of risk must be the same for each.
For the stock, the expected return (dividing by $dt$) is $\mu$. Its risk is $\sigma$.
From Ito we have $$dV = \frac{\partial V}{\partial t}dt + \frac{1}{2}\sigma^2S^2\frac{\partial ^2V}{\partial S^2}dt + \frac{\partial V}{\partial S}dS$$ Therefore the expected return on the option is $$\frac{1}{V}\left( \frac{\partial V}{\partial t} + \frac{1}{2}\sigma^2S^2\frac{\partial ^2V}{\partial S^2} + \mu S \frac{\partial V}{\partial S}\right)$$ and the risk is $$\frac{1}{V} \sigma S \frac{\partial V}{\partial S}$$ Since both the underlying and the option must have the same compensation, in excess of the risk-free rate, for unit risk $$\frac{\mu-r}{\sigma}= \frac{\frac{1}{V}\left( \frac{\partial V}{\partial t} + \frac{1}{2}\sigma^2S^2\frac{\partial ^2V}{\partial S^2} + \mu S \frac{\partial V}{\partial S}\right)}{\frac{1}{V} \sigma S \frac{\partial V}{\partial S}}$$ Now rearrange this. The $\mu$ drops out and we are left with the Black–Scholes equation.
Of course the issue here is dependence: can it be removed or accounted for (in independence tests too, which of course would be troublesome)? There's a lot of literature on regression in this setting, but little (and unconvincing) on VaR backtesting... We don't want to use near horizons for various (mostly obvious) reasons.
My clients seem to love coupon and promo codes, but I’ve recently become very skeptical of them. When I’m shopping there’re times I’ll see a promo code field and I’ll wander off to other sites to find them. If I can’t find any I feel like I’m not being treated fairly: it’s not fair that if I know some secret password I could save $10 bucks. There have also been times I’ve just completely forgotten that I started to checkout and I never completed the order because I got distracted. I asked a few friends about this and they all say the same thing happens to them.
I’m wondering if I should just apply the codes automatically or maybe just create special URLs the user can enter the site with that automatically apply the codes so others just don't see the field.
Anyone ever run any A/B testing on this? My clients don’t want to part with their promo codes but I’d love to cite some real world examples. I don’t think they realize that not everyone will have a promo code.
Answer
It's a balancing act... you want the option to add promo codes available to those who need it, but to not have it on the radar for those who don't.
Here are some hard statistics on the effect of coupon codes on cart abandonment: In one usability test, removing the coupon code field increased overall conversion from 3.8% to 5.1% (an increase of 34%). In another study by PayPal/comScore, 27% of users said that "wanting to look for a coupon" was a "very important reason" for abandoning their cart.
Get Elastic has, hands-down, the best list of suggestions for combatting this problem: "6 Ways to Tackle the Promo Code Problem". Their suggestions are as follows:
- Use targeted selling rules: Don't have promo codes at all; simply send custom "pre-discounted" links to targeted users (as you suggest).
- Issue private promo codes: Link promo codes to the specific user, so they can't be shared. My concern with this approach is it still suggests the availability of a coupon to someone who isn't you, and may still harm conversion (even as it protects your margins).
- Use the promo box to build your email list: Provide a tip near the promo code field prompting people to sign up for your newsletter (for instance).
- Link to your own offer page: Keep people on your site by giving them your own coupons (as Macys.com does)
- Bank on synonyms: Avoid the words "coupon" and "discount" when labeling the field. I don't care for this approach for most use cases, though, as users are trained to understand most of the suggested lesser-known synonyms at this point.
- Don’t make it a box: Normally, UX is about reducing the number of steps to complete a task, but in this case, you can improve the experience of your non-coupon-using customers by hiding the promo code box under a button or link that says "Have a coupon code?" This approach has worked well for me in the past.
Ultimately, the right approach is going to be case-specific for your products and customers. Good luck!
This is a problem I usually come across with my stories. I often worry about whether the plotlines I introduce are realistic or not, and it's usually something that can't be solved with a simple Google search.
Example:
One of the characters in my story, a young boy, is locked up in a cell and is on the verge of starvation before he's rescued. However, the rescuers are unable to get him to a hospital, but they are able to supply him with food. Unfortunately, the boy is at a point where he would need intense medical attention to recover. Giving him food only delays his death, hopefully until they can find help before he dies.
How can I know how long the boy could survive under such circumstances? How can I find out what would be realistic in such a situation?
This is a pretty simple example, but I've got a lot more, where I just can't simply look up the answer. I could just make something up, even if it doesn't make sense later, but I'd like for it to be in the realm of possibility.
I am trying to convert minute based volatility into annualized volatility in such a way that both are comparable. $Vol_{min} * \sqrt(t)$ does not seam to get them into the same scale if I annualize using daily data of minute data. What are the adjustments I can do to make volatility calculated using intra-day data more comparable to volatility calculated using daily data.
Answer
Let allow me to split your question in parts:
Assume $X_t$ is a multivariate Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process, i.e. $$dX_t=\sigma dB_t-AX_tdt$$ and the spot interest rate evolves by the following equation: $$r_t=a+b\cdot X_t.$$ After solving for $X_t$ using $e^{tA}X_t$ and Ito and looking at $\int_0^T{r_s\;ds}$, it turns out that $$\int_0^T{r_s\;ds} \sim \mathcal{N}(aT+b^{T}(I-e^{-TA})A^{-1}X_0,b^{T}V_Tb)$$ where $V_t$ is the covariance matrix of $\int_0^T(I-e^{-(T-u)A})A^{-1}\sigma dB_u$.
This gives us the yield curve $$y(t)=a+\frac{b^{T}(I-e^{-tA})A^{-1}X_0}{t}+\frac{b^{T}V_tb}{2t}$$ and by plugging in $A= \begin{pmatrix} \lambda & 1 \\ 0 & \lambda \\ \end{pmatrix}$ we finally arrive at $$y(t)=a+\frac{1-e^{-\lambda t}}{\lambda t}C_0+e^{-\lambda t}C_1+\frac{b^{T}V_tb}{2t}.$$ The formula above without $\frac{b^{T}V_tb}{2t}$ is known as the Nelson-Siegel yield curve model. Could somebody clarify why neglecting $\frac{b^{T}V_tb}{2t}$ leads to arbitrage opportunities?
So I am essentially asking the following question:
Why is the above model (with $\frac{b^{T}V_tb}{2t}$) arbitrage free?
My current WiP is a science-fiction piece which is less about characters coping with a particular problem, and more about the process they go through in reaction to the SF-nal catalyst. My story is not without conflict, but the main driving force is "where will this develop to next?" rather than "how will this situation be resolved?"
This has been giving me trouble, because "where will this develop?" is a less immediate, engaging question than "how will this be resolved?" My first draft feels loose and meandering; while early scenes and later scenes have clear causal links, the focus is so different (because characters are at different stages of the process, so their problems and occupations are different) that the scenes don't feel strongly related to each other.
I've seen many cases of stories which focus solely on describing a process. For example, in Joe Haldeman's Four Short Novels, he gives four flash-fiction pieces with the structure of "Society X had Technology Y, let's see what happens to them." In Peter Beagle's Mr. Moskowitz Becomes French, one strange occurence keeps sending out ripple after ripple of new changes and reactions, with no overt conflict or goal trying to be achieved.
What techniques and considerations should I use to write a story focusing on such a process? How do I make it clear that the focus is on the process; that there are going to be constant "ripples" and wrinkles; that we've got intriguing reactions to look forward to even though we don't know yet what they're going to be?
Answer
This exact problem is what makes "pure" science fiction so hard to write properly -- but also so satisfying to read when done well. I don't have a perfect answer, just some thoughts about some story models you can apply:
Notes on conflict
Note that stories are about conflict, but conflict is not necessarily person vs. person. There's also person vs environment (climbing that mountain; surviving that drought), person vs. machine (building that impossible car; surviving against grinding political oppression), and person vs. self (beating addiction; resisting that irresistible temptation)
Models:
Process for conflict
Much scientific research and technology invention is done to solve some sort of problem. In this model, that problem is your conflict. The characters have a problem, invent a tech to solve it, then set about solving it with that tech with lots of surprises along the way.
Process causes conflict
Here the tech is innocently developed, but directly causes a host of problems. Those problems are the conflict, and the characters spend the story trying to put the genie back in the bottle, and/or develop past the problems.
Process causes change in milieu
Here the tech doesn't necessarily cause problems itself, but it changes the rules of life/social order so dramatically that it throws society into turmoil. Think of the switch from agrarian to industrial society for example. The conflict is whatever you think those changes will spark and you can show snapshots in time with different characters the way you're describing.
Process as a character
This model is probably the one you want. In fact, this one can be used along with any of the other models. Here you treat that tech/process as a character itself. Not necessarily as a living, breathing, sleeping around kind of character (though that's possible), but rather that the process follows a development arc the way a person character would -- it undergoes some kind of transformation over the course of the story.
Two ways to effect this transformation: If the process is mutable, you can have the process change, that is develop, over time in response to the various character's attempts to deal with it. If it's immutable, you'll need to hide the entirety of the process at the beginning and reveal it to the reader in stages over time, via what the various characters discover or experience.
One key thing to make this work is that just like an interesting character, an interesting process needs its own unique "voice", or flavor, that remains consistently distinct throughout the story. What you want is the reader to be "watching" the process, riveted by what'll happen or be revealed next, rather than watching the characters.
Hope this helps.
I want to price a quanto option using a Stochastic Volatility model (like Heston model, 1993).
Normally, what we do is:
This process is given as an example in this book on page 284, where an European vanilla option is priced under a stochastic volatility model.
But what about for a quanto option? How can I draw a binomial tree to price this option? That is, a binomial tree that takes into consideration the correlation among the underlying asset and the exchange rate?
Is there some way to apply a stochastic volatility model to price a quanto option? Could you please help me with the detailed steps?
The quanto option pricing formula is given in this paper.
[EDIT - being more specific] Suppose I already have:
I want to know:
Answer
If you consider Heston as your working modelling assumption to price quantos (caveat: you also need additional considerations regarding the fx dynamics and equity-fx dependence), then you should use the usual numerical methods associated to Heston (well, not Fourier transform-based methods since there are no semi-closed form formulae for quanto vanillas under Heston - I think the Stein&Stein stochastic vol model leads to something more tractable though), so Finite Differences or Monte Carlo.
What changes compared to standard Heston is that the dynamics of the (foreign) risky asset since it now needs to be expressed in the (domestic) risk-neutral mesure to be able to price quanto options as discounted payoff expectations.
Contrary to what happens for quantos priced under correlated equity-fx GBMs (see this question), both the drift of the equity and that of its instantaneous variance get "quanto-adjusted" (consequence of Girsanov theorem with stochastic vol, assuming equity and vol driving Brownian motions are correlated).
All that needs to be done - and it is not as easy as it seems in practice due to the absence of a liquid market, hence "implied" parameters, see the question which I have referred to earlier - is to specify parameters for the dependence structure between the various driving Brownian motions if your model (equity, variance, fx).
You can get an idea of what awaits you by reading the following paper:
[Dimitroff G., Szimayer A., Wagner A.], Quanto Option Pricing in the Parsimonious Heston Model, Fraunhofer-Institut fur Techno- und Wirtschaftsmathematik, 2009
which is available here for download.
I have googled this and found a number of answers and videos which all say that this can be done by setting the brush size slider in the brushes panel or brush editor panel.
I'm either clicking on the wrong thing or doing something strange as I don't seem to have the same options available to me. At least setting all the sliders to their minimum value still leaves me with a 3 pixel wide square brush:
I'm using Gimp 2.8.4. I'm obviously making a basic error, can anyone help?
Answer
As of GIMP 2.8, the way to paint with a 1 pixel brush using the pencil tool is setting the brush size to "1" in the Pencil tool options, when painting, regardless of Brush's shape or native size.
In previous GIMP versions, the "pixel" Brush which was an image one pixel in size was available in the UI. It is currently hidden, and available only for scripts which happen to make use of it. The new way brush size works from the tool options make it obsolete.
My boss has insisted for a while that our login process be divided into two steps on separate pages: on the first page, ask the user's e-mail address. On the second page, either display "user found" and ask for password, or "user not found" and ask for e-mail again.
He insists it is much easier for our users who often forget their credentials or if they even have an account yet. I've long been against this approach because it forces every user to go through two steps every time they login. (I also wonder if it's a security concern, knowing that it will confirm when an email exists in our system.) I would prefer to have a more standard login page with e-mail (all of our usernames are e-mails) and password, and one very clear link for "forgot password?".
Neither of us have any hard data to support our theories, and we have more important things to do than A/B test something that he doesn't think is even a problem. I was just wondering if anyone here could provide some arguments or hard data for or against either approach. I enjoy considering UX design, but I am not an expert.
Is a paid-up-front illustrator entitled to royalties?
If I hire an illustrator for artwork, and I pay up front on a per-illustration basis, what copyright gotchas should I be aware of? Does the artist own the copyright on the illustrations - or do I, since it was a work-for-hire? Can I make unlimited copies of my book without owing the artist another cent? Even if we don't agree on royalties, can she sue for them later? Should I have her sign a contract, and if so, what kind of contract? Can you point me at an example contract?
Also... can I re-release my material in a different edition or format, and re-release the illustrations too, without having to sign a new contract with the artist? Let's say I print a book of poems with illustrations. Then, I produce a new anthology of poems, with selections from the first book. Could I re-use some of the artwork in my new book without running afoul of copyright restrictions, or even contacting the artist?
I'm exporting a document to raster image with Illustrator and get this result:
But I want to get this quality:
It lookes more pixel-perfect and thin then the Illustrator's render. How do I setup Illustrator to render text pixel-perfectly? Also, is it possible to enable subpixel AA in it?
Thank you!
I have a setting in one of my stories where a character has to describe a very long series of events, giving the history of an object so that others know more about it. This not only provides the reader with the background information they need, but also sets up other characters in the scene for something major that is yet to come. What can I do to break up this back story to keep it from becoming a long, rambling speech?
Answer
It sounds like you're describing an infodump (warning: TV Tropes), and that's a phenomenon best avoided.
The issue is this: by your own description, the explanation is not interesting enough to hold the reader's attention at length; its purpose and significance will only be clear to the reader later in the story; and in this particular instance, it's also long. You can see why this doesn't make for a great reader experience. It's as though you've got a brilliant, hilarious joke, that only makes sense if you read the first 3 pages of the phone book - and you can't tell your friends why they need to read the pages until they're already through them.
Here's the key: Avoid writing scenes which the reader has no immediate, compelling reason to want to read. So if you're determined to write up a history lesson, you'd damn well better make sure that, at that point, the reader is dying to hear that lecture. Your other main option is to avoid the lecture entirely by conveying the backstory in other, more compelling ways, usually intertwined with the story and the action. I'll touch on both these options.
The idea here is to give the reader a strong interest in the details you want to expose. Then they're perfectly happy to listen attentively - they know exactly why they should be interested.
In The Matrix, Morpheus explains to Neo what the Matrix is. This is straight-out exposition and backstory, but it's one of the coolest, most memorable scenes in the movie. Observe how well the movie establishes that this infodump will solve a question we want answered ("What is the Matrix?"), and that this question is crucially important and monumental (observe all the effort and intrigue and escapades that all sides expended to get Neo this information or to keep it from him). The scene itself is also beautifully presented - Morpheus doesn't just explain; he demonstrates, he brings in cool, colorful stuff, he makes the explanation fast-paced and action-like even when there's nothing actually going on.
One proviso is this: differentiate between the reader's interest in the exposition, and a character's interest. For example, you might have a pupil-mentor dynamic between two characters, with the pupil desperately eager to win the mentor's respect by learning well. The reader will be invested in the pupil's goal - but that goal is pleasing the mentor, not learning the material. That's the means; the details themselves don't interest the reader. If you want the reader invested in the details, then you've got to give him a reason to care about them.
The Turkey City Lexicon refers to this as "Heinleining." The idea is that you avoid the need for a long lecture, by having the details you want to expose show up as significant details in the plot without ever stopping the action. How do you do this? Well, if the details are really that significant, unique, and world-changing, then they probably affect the world in more ways than one. If the Goddess Fifthemia is locked in eternal conflict with the Thermal Demigod Extrynius, then that might well have resulted in the Mythaline Cult creating the Gem of Hypothermia, which is the focus of your story - but probably some other people have noticed and been affected by the issue too, hmmm? So you could portray Fifthemites being bigoted against Extryites, or one of the characters could be an atheist whose farm is declared as holy ground by both gods, and he needs to decide which priest to sell it to. And those are scenes which justify exposition immediately, as you go along - often, trickled in bit by bit, so the reader doesn't even notice he's being exposed to.
Bottom line: the best way to avoid boring the reader is to write scenes, not explanations. The good part of this is that, with a bit of planning and creativity, explanations can be made part of scenes - and twisted into something much more interesting and compelling than they could ever be on their own.
I have a PSD file with a 96 px × 96 px resolution. Now I want to save this as four PNG files with different resolutions such as 36 px × 36 px, 48 px × 48 px, 72 px × 72 px and 96 px × 96px. Instead of adjusting the image size manually four times and saving as option, can I automate this somehow?
I'm writing a thesis, and of course my university has some requirements regarding the typography, specifying in particular the measure (36 pc), the minimum font size (10 pt), and an acceptable range for the leading (1.5 to double spacing).
What is known in general about readability as a function of these parameters and the text font?
I am aware of research showing that lines ranging between 60 and 70 characters optimize ease of reading of single-column text, with longer lines making it harder to pick up the next line. But I don't know if that research only accounts for normal leading (aka single spacing). Increasing the leading will presumably make it easier to pick up the next line after reading a long line?
Because of the university requirements, any reasonable font I choose will produce more than 70 characters per line. So how much should the leading be increased to compensate?
I already know how to use design software but I don't know how to design.
Bottom Line:
Is there a specific sequence to follow for a proper education in the soft skills of design (theory, concepts, process, etc.)?
I'll start with a little background about me to show the motivation about the question, isn't really necessary to answer the question.
I'm 23 years old and finishing my degree on engineering informatics. When I was 14 years old, I learn HTML/CSS. I can use a lot of Adobe Suite software to make a lot of things (PS, AI, Pr, etc..). Then, as time passed by, I started learning some computer science oriented things. I can make a website really fast, etc.. But, my problem is, I'm not in some kind of "design thinking". I like design (if I weren't getting an engineering degree I probably would have gotten a design degree).
I like design a lot, and I would love to learn more of design. I would love to make "pretty things" by my own, as a designer does. But I can't study to get a design degree due to my priority list (I want to achieve other goals more in this moment of my life), but what I really want is to learn some design on my own.
Is there some way to emulate a design degree/program with books and others static resources? In my 6 years of study I have taken everything from books. My teachers made everything faster, but I don't think that passing through a computer science degree was really necessary: books + internet + practice told me almost 95% of what I learned there.
But there is a problem, as you can see in this question: The Definitive C++ Book Guide and List. There are good books and bad books. And frankly, a lot of bad books. I didn't find a reliable list of design books. There are a lot of blogs with "list of books to learn things", but most of them are really just a list taken from somewhere else...
For example, I could read this list 10 Graphic Design Books Every Designer Should Read, but I need to go in order, starting from the basics. So for that I could take graphic design courses, like this: RISD Graphic Design (or any other program, it's just an example) and try to learn from the topics that the program shows, but it is still unclear about what I should learn because there isn't, for example, a course in "color theory". They are more like "design I", "design II", "design III". I think I'm gonna need to search for the syllabus for a particular course.
I really want to improve my design skills, but I don't want to get a degree in it. I've been an autodidact all my life (see background) and at this point, I ask:
I have searched a bit about this, and here on StackExchange there are a lot of question that are close, but not getting to the heart of the issue.
What should I learn to become a web design expert? I am from engineering background [duplicate]: The answer is just a "look at those website's" (And okay, this could help a bit, but I don't think one will get to a degree level just looking on some websites, or it is?).
Tips and resources for beginning designers: 2 or 3 books to learn design, the same as above. This could help a bit, but won't get me to a degree-equivalent level (I'm looking for something more like computer science's courses which have their own book for the topic. Does something like this exist in graphic design?).
Suggestion on Introductory Books about Graphic Design: This could be the same question that I have, but the answer didn't satisfies me, I need a lot more detail (for example, more books or guides to follow).
Is Design School a Requirement for Graphic Design? does not answer this question. It's the first question to answer before getting to this one.
Answer
I don't agree with Bryan. I have a B. Des and in 4 years of school most of the courses weren't technical but at all.
It is hard to come up with a list, I think the best you can do is look at the syllabus of any good design school to know what to read about and in what order.
I can recommend a few subjects and an order but in the end the best way to learn is to practice and consult with a professional (I'll try to cover from vague to specific):
History of arts, History of design, Typography, Grid Systems, Colour theories, composition, typography, Design & visualisation theories (as Ryan mentioned Gestalt Theory and more) UX, Illustration techniques, Shapes and formats, Logo design, Packaging, Book editing, Binding, Web design, Design for alternative platforms (like tv apps, etc.), Visual communication, and much much more.
My employer has presented me with two books to read to help me write better technical papers and emails. Essentials of English Grammar and Handbook of English Grammar and Usage. I have read through roughly 30% of the first book and have to say it is a painful read. I have thumbed through the second book and I feel it's going to have the same effect. The best way I can describe reading these books is like reading a dictionary.
Is there a book out there that is more engaging to read and still help me hone my writing skills?
Edit
Thanks for all of the input. I just ordered The Elements of Style, Eats, Shoots, & Leaves, Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace, and Writing for Computer Science. I will update this again with my opinion on the books.
Answer
Strunk and White's Elements of Style gets a lot of love, although it's also been getting some criticism, lately. But it's more about style than pure grammar.
I enjoyed Eats, Shoots and Leaves, but it's not exactly a basic grammar book. It mostly focuses on punctuation.
I also like the Grammar Girl books, but again, by taking the time to make her lessons fun and interesting, she sacrifices some of the scope of her work, focusing in on fairly limited areas.
What are the weaknesses in your writing, as far as you can tell? If it's straight-up grammar, you may have to resign yourself to working through some fairly dry material.
I am creating a vector artwork and finalising it to print. I don't usually use illustrator and have discovered transparency flattening. I was wondering why its used? If its an old school preset no longer needed?
Thanks
Answer
You dont need transparency when printing (a print has no transparency) so quite many prints shops require you to flatten the transparency before you print as it ensures least amount of errors. (this is done automatically on PDF save though but its the same tool with same settings).
Second reason is export. Sometimes you take artwork and move it to less capable systems. Then you can use transparency flattener to retain your graphics. Such systems include Visio, Powerpoint, LaTeX etc.
Third reason is if you want to edit the compound color and other editing tricks that rely on the flatteners features. Sometimes you can use this for cleanup. Sometimes for complex selections.
Fourth reason is to retain art integrity when sharing to others. By flattening the artwork you make the artowrk harder to compromize. This reduces the editability of the file while retaining print fidelity.
Fifth reason to be backwards compatible in workflow and file formats.
etc.
Basically all the reasons that existed when it was first introduced. If it was obsolete to you then then its obsolete today. You might never need it for anything as its automagically applied for you but that does not mean its obsolete.
Let's assume we have a normal distribution $X\sim \mathcal{N}(\mu,\sigma^2)$. In a normal distribution the quantile can be calculated as follows:
\begin{equation} \Phi_X ^{-1}(p)=\mu +\sigma {\sqrt {2}}\operatorname {erf} ^{-1}(2p-1) \end{equation}
If we want to calculate the value in the future of a stock we map it as:
\begin{equation} Y=\exp(X) \end{equation} Which means: \begin{equation} \log(Y)\sim \mathcal{N}(\mu,\sigma^2) \end{equation}
I would like to know that if the function of the quantile can be calculated based directly on:
\begin{equation} \Phi_Y ^{-1}(p)=\exp(\mu -\sigma/2+\sigma {\sqrt {2}}\operatorname {erf} ^{-1}(2p-1)) \end{equation}
The part of the equation $-\sigma/2$ is extracted from îto calculus, however, I cannot find anywhere the correctness of this equation (I deduced it). I think the function $exp$ is monotonic, so, it should preserve the value for the quantiles, but I'm not certain. One of my certainties is that $\mu$ changed to $\mu-\sigma/2$, I have no idea if that modifies in some way the calculation of $\Phi_Y ^{-1}(p)$, or if $\sigma$ also changed.
Answer
Quantiles are preserved under monotonic transformations, hence the quantile for $Y$ is simply the exponential of the quantile of $X$, no need for corrections whatsoever (see here for instance).
Put otherwise, let $q$ denote the quantile $\alpha$ of $X$ i.e. $$\Bbb{P}(X \leq q) = \alpha$$ then \begin{align} \Bbb{P}( X \leq q ) &= \Bbb{P}( \underbrace{\exp(X)}_{Y} \leq \underbrace{\exp(q)}_{Q} ) = \alpha \end{align}
The general idea of cleansing a correlation matrix via random matrix theory is to compare its eigenvalues to that of a random one to see which parts of it are beyond normal randomness. These are then filtered out and one is left with the non-random parts.
A one-dimensional analog would be to compare the return density distribution of a stock to the normal distribution and filter its normal volatility out. One should be left with the non-random distribution of that stock.
I have two questions: Is my reasoning, i.e. the intuition behind using RMT and my analogy, correct and if yes, is something like the one-dimensional case done (or would it make sense to do it)?
Answer
This is correct: "The general idea of cleansing a correlation matrix via random matrix theory is to compare its eigenvalues to that of a random one to see which parts of it are beyond normal randomness."
This is not correct: "These are then filtered out and one is left with the non-random parts."
The term "filtering", although used extensively in the literature, is misleading because the eigenvectors from the original correlation (or covariance matrix) remain part of the matrix and the sum of the eigenvalues does not change.
In all RMT filtering procedures, the matrix is decomposed and re-built via the eigenvector decomposition theorem:
$$ correlation \;\; matrix = eigenvectors * diag( eigenvalues ) * t(eigenvectors) $$ Notation: t() is the transpose operator, * is matrix multiplication, and diag() is an operator that creates a diagonal matrix
In RMT we only perform operations on the diagonal matrix of eigenvalues resulting from the decomposed matrix. The eigenvectors are left untouched. Also, the sum of the eigenvalues is preserved pre-and post cleansing. Since the sum of the eigenvalues also equals the trace of the covariance matrix, this ensures that the variance of the system is preserved.
To recap, all RMT procedures follow this four-step process:
The first step is, as you point out, identifying the upper noise band of eigenvalues predicted by a de-meaned random matrix of the same sigma using the Marcenko-Pastur law. Matrices that are exponentially weighted use a Power-law.
The matrix is decomposed via the eigenvector decomposition theorem
The diagonal of eigenvalues is cleansed. For example, the method of Laloux (1999, 2000) is to assign the eigenvalues for all "noisy" eigenvalues beneath the upper-noise band to the average of all such noisy eigenvalues. There are several variations in what new eigenvalues you assign to the noisy eigenvalues (power-law method, Krzanowski, etc.). Regardless - in all RMT methods the sum of all the eigenvalues is preserved post-cleansing so you cannot set these to zero.
Now we re-build a "cleansed" or "filtered" covariance matrix using the same eigenvectors and the revised eigenvalue via the eigenvector decomposition theorem (in reverse this time with the same eigenvectors).
Digression: You could come up with your own techniques so long as the constraints above are respected. For example, since we know that the principal/top eigenvectors have significant non-normal structure or skew, you could "filter" those eigenvalues that correspond to eigenvectors that exhibit normal structure. Also, for what it's worth, in my experience filtering methods that have a successively increasing distance from one eigenvalue value to the next perform better (i.e. for example a recursive definition such as the value of the 2nd smallest eigenvalue is twice the value of the smallest eigenvalue, the value of the 3rd smallest eigenvalues is twice the value of the 2nd smallest eigenvalue, etc. up to the last noisy eigenvalue).
Also, one of the most accessible introductions to Random Matrix theory are the papers by V. Plerou et al.
The Capital Fund Management Team - Bouchaud, Pafka, Potters, et al has more frontier research on RMT.
With the surge of audiobooks popularity and the dramatization of fiction and non-fiction recitations, do authors plan for their books to publish their work as audiobooks too?
Additionally, if an author knows his book will be made into an audiobook, how does this knowledge alter the writing process? Does it affect the dialogue, narration POV, character casting, and the general format of the book? For instance, Sleeping Giants, by Sylvain Neuvel is a well-written story in an interview format conducted by the MC. I think this enabled the audiobook to feel a lot more like a radio show than a book.
Furthermore, do audiobooks imply more constraints on proofreaders, editors, and publishers?
Answer
Audiobooks impose certain restrictions on your writing. Here are some things you need to watch out for:
Homographs or homophone jokes or dramatic misunderstandings. If words are pronounced differently, the joke does not translate to audio. On the other hand, If your character confuses a word for its homophone and you keep using the "wrong" spelling to reflect the character's confusion and mislead the reader, the ruse won't hold for long in the audio version.
Backwards names (hard) and anagrams (impossible).
Proper nouns which sound like common nouns.
Unpronounceable things (e.g. a number sequence to simulate a computer glitch, an inscription in a foreign language).
Acronyms which are pronounced letter by letter.
Scientific or fictional sci-fi terms. The listener can't look up a word s/he can't spell, and it's harder to connect a made-up term to real terms by ear.
Sound effects. Suppose your protagonist is locked in a dungeon. The narration conveys her train of thought, interrupted at random intervals by drops of water. Cliche but effective in children's fiction. Now suppose it's an audiobook and the narrator vocalizes [drɪp].
Direct speech and thoughts. Suppose your character says one thing but immediately thinks the opposite - how'd that work? If you have several voice actors for characters and one for narration, who does the trains of thought?
Other formatting. Extremely short paragraphs as a means of expression. ALL CAPS, fonts, columns, tables, codes, forms, artistically placed page breaks, colored pages, blank pages, footnotes, references, typography art.
Pictures, obviously.
Ambiguous emphasis (artistic, or as a plot point). It's not ambiguous if you say it out loud.
The ability to easily go back and look up things is pretty much required for solving a mystery to be an achievement for both the audience and the protagonists, and losing it kills most if not all "fair" mysteries.
Should you anticipate an audiobook narration? This is up to you. Personally, I am thoroughly convinced an artwork that aspires to greatness should not tolerate a direct transfer to another medium by definition. Alan Moore's comics feature fake ad pages for in-universe products. Julian May's Pliocene Exile series uses wonderfully typeset vignettes to portray psychic powers. Peter Darvill-Evans' Spectral Stalkers uses page-turning as a special effect to convey its main idea.
When I write, I want Linux usernames to be in lowercase. I want cursive and vignettes and cthulhutext and line breaks. I want page numbers to suddenly start counting down to the pivotal event. I want section signs and cartouches and places of Sajdah. CMOS be damned, I want to end sentences with a dash. When I write, I want to make the best book. Adapting all the above to audio, or Braille, or Netflix series, or interpretive dance is simply not my job.
Possible Duplicate:
How to structure Android app navigation with many levels?
What is the best way to present navigation with around 3 levels of sub-categories for mobile? The problem is that the user should be able to quickly navigate through different sub-categories. Also, list of sub-categories and sub-sub-categories can range from 0-20.
How do you take a lengthy side nav and efficiently "squeeze" it into mobile?
Edit: The best I've come up with is splitting the navigation into 2 parts:
This works for now, but I do not believe that this is the best solution for very dynamic content. =(
I'm trying to get an intuition as to why the adjusted closing price includes a dividend adjustment:
\begin{equation} 1 - \frac{dividend}{close} \end{equation}
I understand why the adjusted closing price "undoes" the effect of a split on a stock. A stock split hasn't changed the economics of a company so the adjustment effectively removes the split so that the adjusted closing prices before and after the split can be compared.
A dividend does change the underlying economics however so why does the adjusted price account for it? Lastly, the formula also doesn't make sense.
During our daily jobs as quants, we tend to be willing to develop all the quantitative libraries ourselves. While I know that we need to develop specific algorithms which are the foundations of our strategies, I believe there are 2 major disadvantages in implementing quantitative libraries (including statistics such as performance, standard deviation, etc) in-house:
I have hence been considering using available libraries as a foundation to develop a new quantitative analysis platform. Although I know there are a few open-source libraries, I think most companies would be ready (and would prefer) to pay for the guarantee of continued support and maintenance. I also would like to have a library that I can use from .Net. So I started looking and I found:
Is there something wrong in my argument, and do you know any other commercial library I could consider?
I'm currently working on a new website for a university. The website is going to have up to 6000 pages with a depth of six or so levels.
Now the clients wants a visual sitemap, a graph representing the structure of the website, which can be used for finding a particular page. The only way I see this happening is using a dynamically created graph, showing maybe the next three levels.
Is there a good example of a sitemap this size anywhere?
(We do have a powerful search as well, and I guess people would use that instead anyways.)
Answer
I feel that creating a sitemap for a site of that scale may impede on the whole purpose for the sitemap which is to orient the user.
You can definitely bi-pass this with your search function by placing it in a primary location.
Here is an example applied to a knowledge-base. In this case, the designer has included some commonly used links as well.
If you need an example with scale, Wikipedia uses this method as well.
EDIT: After some thought, here is another idea with a case study. You may want to consider a Card Sorting exercise for the architecture. It can't all be under 1 site if the content can clearly be segregated.
Universities are notorious for having different web portals for each of its academic subjects, the same way they have separate buildings for them. You may want to consider splitting up the site itself into separate segregated sections each with its own image and unique messaging.
An example of this is the U of T website: http://www.utoronto.ca
University of Toronto is made up of a collection of Colleges each with its own web portal. There are also separate areas for Student Life, and Registrars information on top of each program.
Here are examples of their sub-sections with their own sites:
http://learn.utoronto.ca/courses-programs/languages-translation
http://www.artsci.utoronto.ca/newstudents/courses/programs/lifesci
Their meta data contains the quick links and search in google:
Other industries that do this include the government with subsection sites for Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, and Ministry of Transportation.
Personally, I just don't see Language students interested in being exposed to Math/Science related topics unnecessarily. My term for this is "Collateral Exposure".
