website design - Credit Card input format

Somewhere, in one of the Usability books I read ( probably Donald Norman ), there was a suggestion that the normal format for entering credit cards was wrong. The usual format is 16 characters in a long string. However, the way that we read then and they are printed on the card is 4 groups of 4. The argument is - and I completely agree with it - that entering the card in 4 lots of 4 would be much easier, both to enter and to verify for the user.

This only needs a little bit of coding to include the dashes in the entered data, and ignore them in the validation. Or to have 4 boxes with focus going to the next one. It is not a complex coding issue. So why does no-one seem to do it? Why is the standard box format so prevelant still?

This comes out of having just tried to use my credit card, and make a mistake, and then had to search through the whole lot to identify the mistakes - tedious, and something that would be much easier if it was properly divided.

Edit: To add some points from comments. I think the proper implementation would need to be worked out - 4 boxes of autoinserted dashes may not work, or may need to be tweaked. So it is not saying xxx is the right approach, but that the current approach does have its own set of problems.

Answer

Accept any and all formats typed into one box.

As stated by Don Norman:

"Compliance: How Microsoft Outlook Does Things Properly

Microsoft Office Outlook has done a brilliant job of handling telephone numbers, dates, times, and addresses. Surprise: this is a product that people usually target with complaints, but I intend to heap praise upon them. When Outlook's address book or contact forms ask for a telephone number, it accepts any format the person wishes to use, figures out what country it belongs to, and reformats it into a standard form. Start a phone number with +358 and it knows that you are typing a Finnish number, so it doesn't try to format it the same way it does for US numbers. If it is an American number, you can use almost any spacing character you wish, as long as the number has the usual 7, 10, or 11 digits. As a result, you can type in any of these American phone numbers:

5551212

555.1212

847 555-1212

(847) 555-1212

847.555.1212

8475551212

+18475551212

And they all get transformed into either 555-1212, (847) 555-1212, or in the last case, +1 (847) 555-1212.

Most systems are just as bad with dates as they are with phone numbers. We say dates in all sorts of ways: most systems scold us if we don't do it just the way they like, again, often not even telling us what they like.

Here are some of the ways people write the date January 20, 2009:

1/20/09

1/20/2009

20/1/2009

20 Jan 09

2009.01.20

20th January 09

Hurrah for Outlook! It shows huge compliance, huge tolerance for our variability. It takes all of these formats and transforms them into the target specification it prefers: Tue 1/20/2009. But even better, the target specification is set by the person using the computer and is stored within the Operating System, so all programs can use the same formats. "

color - Please help, how to do off registration in Illustrator CS6?

I am trying to do an assignment and I need to do off registration. I cannot figure out how to get into the channels so I can move the colors to be off register. I can only figure out how to get into the separations, but it is not helping me. How can I make something off register? Thank you so much in advance! There aren't a lot of clear answers on Google.

What software is good and complete useful for drawing anime?

I am a looking for a software that you can draw using a mouse example: many users are using Paint Tool Sai for drawing and sketching anime.

I am looking for that kind of software, full version and free with no payment.

I`ll show you what it looks like...

this is what paint tool sai looks like.. I am searching for a similar program like this one.. but more complete and useful. I got the same program and it said at the top of the bar 3 days trial, so I only downloaded the trial.

Can you guys help me and suggest a program?

How can I convert a path to a shape in Inkscape?

This is a follow-up to my earlier question, where I learned that one can trace the edge of a vector image by using a union if all the parts are shapes.

However, while I found instructions for converting a shape to a path, I did not find any instructions for the reverse operation.

How can I convert a path to a shape, so I can perform a union?

Edit: For clarification, this is the svg I am trying to trace the outside boundary of.

Update: I first ungrouped, and then did Object to Path. When I subsequently try to perform Path->Union, I get the error

One of the objects is not a path. Cannot perform boolean operation.

Update2: It turned out I had nested groups. After ungrouping the nested groups, I was able to do a Path -> Union. However, this operation had the effect of simply destroying my image and leaving nothing, which was not the intended effect.

tools - Is there a need for better software for writers?

Software developers don't ever work in text editors, instead they use IDEs (integrated development environments) full of code assistance tools, etc.

Why don't writers use similarly advanced writing environments full of writing assistance tools, text analysis, and functions for improving their productivity? Is that because there is no actual need for that or is it a product opportunity here?

Full disclosure:
I'm a software developer looking for opportunities across different fields and I also tried to write a book several times in the past. I always ended up realizing that I'm not good at writing, though it would be great if I could provide some value to good writers (unlike me) and help them be more productive.

Answer

IDE-like tools exist for writers. Scrivener is a powerful general-purpose tool (also with questions here). Madcap Flare, aimed at technical writers, has good support for updating links, defining "snippets" (xinclude blocks, essentially), variables, conditionalization, advanced build options, and more. Arbortext Epic is another tool in that vein. There are XML editors like Oxygen and Notepad++ that you are probably already familiar with as a programmer. That's just a sampling.

Many writers prefer to just write and find that too much tooling gets in the way. Some of them use tools for planning separate from writing. Maybe fiction doesn't need to be refactored as often as code (though it does need to be refactored sometimes, and doing that in an editor using search is a pain). There are a lot of different kinds of writing and writers, and generalizations like "writers don't (or do) X" don't always stand up to scrutiny. Some do, some don't, some would if they didn't cost so much, and some do sometimes, depending on the task at hand.

(Psst. Some software developers still use emacs or vim...)

How do you create custom scripts for automation in Photoshop?

I have been recording custom actions to perform various automations, though I am starting to require greater control which would be better implemented using some form of scripting (if this can indeed be done). I have seen "ExtendScript" has been mentioned in several places, though I cannot find that option in Photoshop.

It is important that I can easily share such scripts with other Photoshop users so that they can also benefit from them. For example, I would like to allow people to download the action scripts from my blog with relative ease.

I am creating my actions using Photoshop CS4 which allows users with newer versions to utilise them. The same would need to be so for my custom scripts.

Answer

Adobe products allow you to use AppleScript, JavaScript, or VBScript to create scripts. Functionally, ExtendScript is very similar to JavaScript - think of it as JavaScript plus some extra features.

Adobe provides a program to make scripts called ExtendScript Toolkit, which was most likely bundled with your install of Photoshop. On my computer it's in C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Utilities - CS5\ExtendScript Toolkit CS5. You can use that or a program as basic as Notepad to create scripts (I use Notepad++), which you then save into C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS5\Presets\Scripts or the equivalent Presets\Scripts folder on the Mac. In Photoshop, go to File > Scripts to find your script and run it.

Adobe's documentation is a good place to start. They have basic guides to get you started, from "Hello World" on up, and then they have more in-depth tutorial PDFs by language and version.

Sometimes, it's nice to interact with ExtendScript Toolkit's Object Model Viewer (Click Help up top, then Object Model Viewer to access it). You'll also find a link to the JavaScript Tools Guide in the Help menu...that gets you some more help with JS functions like the XML Object that are common to all CS products.

If you're looking for help online, the Adobe forums are the most populated. You can also try over on Stack Overflow, but the ExtendScript help tends to be spotty.

If you want help working with ScriptUI, Peter Kahrel's publication on it is really informative and helpful, more so than Adobe's documentation on the subject in my opinion.

If you've learned JavaScript or another language by lots of Internet searching, you'll find scripting Adobe to be a bit more challenging since it's not as common and sometimes you'll find yourself struggling to understand Adobe's documentation. But ExtendScript is really powerful and if you can get it, you'll be able to do a lot of neat things with it.

How to get for SVG with Illustrator CS4

I'm trying to get the data for an SVG file I'm creating with Illustrator CS4. It needs to look something like this, where I'm interested in retrieving the numbers inside the d attribute...

The problem is that no matter which settings I try, my SVG file output does not contain this element. It only contains an element looking something like this...

this one. It shows settings that output the  but at the end it jumps to an output containing the  just like I want. The problem is that it's not really showing anything about how to get to that point. No matter what I do, I only see . Thanks.


EDIT:
I'm getting closer. I finally realized that to get a  I needed to convert the raster image to vectors. I used the "Live Trace > Make" option. Now my output contains multiple  elements as well as the  element... how do I get just one ?

EDIT 2:
As per a request in comments, here is an example image already created by somebody else. It's an RSS icon represented by a single ...


    
        
    

Answer

You'll need to create a complex path from a Live Trace.

Since complex paths cannot contain multiple colors, you'll either need to use the "Black and White" setting with an appropriate threshold, or use the "Greyscale" option with the minimum amount of colors.

In both cases, make sure "Ignore White" is selected.

Expand the traced image using Object > Expand...

This should give you a group containing a single complex path. You can inspect the output further by using the Layers palette.

copyright - How exactly should I ask my employer for design use permission on paper?

I'm an employed graphic designer. I did illustrations, branding and prototyping for my employer. I'm aware that without a specific contract, whatever work is done by a salaried designer, is the company's property.

Hence, I want to ask my employer to permit me to use and publish the works I did for them in my portfolio since it was not covered in the contract. My employer is willing too to give permission if I draft the permission letter because they don't have any special way of their own to do it.

But my question is how do I ask, "see these particular works were done by me and I'm going to use them as such and with such wording. Give me permission." How do I mention those specific works in paper in the permission letter? And how do I say see I'm going to present them like this?

Email is a way, then I can attach the works. But any way to do this on paper?

Answer

I don't think it's overly complicated. You could easily write up something which states they give you permission. You don't need some huge contract or anything.

[Your name] has permission to display work created while under the employment of [Company name] for the purpose of a design portfolio.

At no time is work be resold, repurposed, or redistributed. Permission is given to merely display, in print and web form, completed projects which [your name] is responsible for overall visual design.

Permission is granted to display the following design projects:
- Client Z Branding
- Client Y Tri-fold [product] brochure
- Client X Illustration of [subject]
- Client W [application] User interface
- Client V Website Interface

Authorized Signature _____________________________ Date _____________

Traditionally, even in work-for-hire situations (employment) you do still have the right to use things in a portfolio as 'fair use" unless they've specifically made things "confidential" or you are under a non-disclosure agreement as well.

If you are under a confidentiality agreement or NDA, then you may need to list the exact projects they are giving permission to display - but I am not a lawyer and if such an agreement exists, without knowing what it states, I'm speculating based upon my own experience with NDAs.

You could ask over at http://law.stackexchange.com , but they won't give direct legal advice and this question really kind of comes close to that (i.e. an actual lawyer may not answer it).

adobe photoshop - New Smart Object via Copy inside a Layer Group

Is it possible to duplicate a layer group that contains multiple smart objects with relationships to each other, so the duplicate group is separated from the original?

I need the duplicate to be editable without changing the original. This can be achieved by the context menu when interacting with a single smart object, but not for a group containing multiple smart objects.

Any ideas?

Answer

Below is a script that should do what you want.

The script is pretty much identical to the native Duplicate function. The key difference is that Embedded Smart objects within the selection are unlinked from other Embedded Smart objects that sit outside the selection.

This means that if the selected layers are Embedded Smart objects that are direct duplicates of each other, those links won't break.

_{There is a slight difference in how the layers are named, but I didn't see that as any sort of issue, so I left it like that.}

---

While using a script might feel a bit cumbersome, remember that you can always set a shortcut keys to run scripts:

1. Put the script in the scripts folder.

2. Restart photoshop.

3. Edit > Keyboard shortcuts and menus.

4. In the scrollable area click File and scroll way down to find Scripts> and below that you should find the script name. All that is left is to add the shortcut to it.

The script ( Only tested in PS cc 2014 ):

// https://gist.github.com/joonaspaakko/898394cf2b46ae7b6ad7

#target photoshop

// If there are any documents open, run the code...
// =================================================
if ( app.documents.length > 0 ) {


    // Used later on when the layers are duplicated back to the original document.
    // ===========================================================================
    var docName = app.activeDocument.name;

    // Script listener code - Duplicate active group to a new document.
    // =================================================================
    var idMk = charIDToTypeID( "Mk  " );
        var desc14 = new ActionDescriptor();
        var idnull = charIDToTypeID( "null" );

            var ref10 = new ActionReference();
            var idDcmn = charIDToTypeID( "Dcmn" );
            ref10.putClass( idDcmn );
        desc14.putReference( idnull, ref10 );
        var idUsng = charIDToTypeID( "Usng" );
            var ref11 = new ActionReference();
            var idLyr = charIDToTypeID( "Lyr " );
            var idOrdn = charIDToTypeID( "Ordn" );
            var idTrgt = charIDToTypeID( "Trgt" );
            ref11.putEnumerated( idLyr, idOrdn, idTrgt );

        desc14.putReference( idUsng, ref11 );
        var idVrsn = charIDToTypeID( "Vrsn" );
        desc14.putInteger( idVrsn, 5 );
    executeAction( idMk, desc14, DialogModes.NO );


    // Script listener code - Duplicate active group to the prior document.
    // =====================================================================
    var idDplc = charIDToTypeID( "Dplc" );
        var desc16 = new ActionDescriptor();

        var idnull = charIDToTypeID( "null" );
            var ref13 = new ActionReference();
            var idLyr = charIDToTypeID( "Lyr " );
            var idOrdn = charIDToTypeID( "Ordn" );
            var idTrgt = charIDToTypeID( "Trgt" );
            ref13.putEnumerated( idLyr, idOrdn, idTrgt );
        desc16.putReference( idnull, ref13 );
        var idT = charIDToTypeID( "T   " );
            var ref14 = new ActionReference();
            var idDcmn = charIDToTypeID( "Dcmn" );

            ref14.putName( idDcmn, docName );
        desc16.putReference( idT, ref14 );
        var idVrsn = charIDToTypeID( "Vrsn" );
        desc16.putInteger( idVrsn, 5 );
    executeAction( idDplc, desc16, DialogModes.NO );

    // Closes the new document.
    // =======================================================
    app.activeDocument.close( SaveOptions.DONOTSAVECHANGES );


}

gimp - How do I define or deselect areas where the "Color to Alpha" effect should not be applied?

I have an image where the background is white and there are various important components that are also white. I want to just change the background to alpha, but "Colors to Alpha" - by default - changes all the white to alpha.

Please help and thank you!

Answer

If the image is in a single layer, select the areas you want to go transparent with the "Magic Wand" (Fuzzy Select) tool instead.

Them just Edit->Cut to get rid of the selected parts. (Make sure your background layer has an alpha channel Layer->Transparency->Add Alpha Channel).

If your background is in a different layer, then just delete/hide that layer.

A font for mathematical notation

i have to state that i have no idea about font design but i always wondered why there was never a font that fully supports mathematical notation especially multi part mathematical notation such as numbers rasied to a power or an integral with boundaries. and pretty much all the advanced things that LaTeX supports.

for example in arabic i can write ب and by adding another part to that char i can make it بُ or بَ and so on.

• my question is why dont't we have a font that support advanced mathematical notation?


• is it because how conventional text editors work or because its as painful as it gets to create such font?

some advanced examples:

Answer

It is bit of everything combined. Most users do not need a font that covers all the possible use cases. Typing text is much more common than doing mathematical notation, thus a widely useful font only requires a few hundreds glyphs to share.

So for the average western European it takes about 50 characterss for most tasks. By doing 200, you can cover 95% of about a billion people. To cover the mathematical symbols passably, one would need to do another 200-400 characters. I'm now talking of an audience of 100 million who need this 10% of time, and of those only about 1% care. That care number for general text is at 10%. So it's a terrible value proposition. You'd need to find a mathematically inclined designer to get it done.

resource recommendations - What is the single most influential book every designer should read?

What is the single most influential book every designer should read?

How to copyright my works in India?

I'm a poet and I write small poems. I know there is a lot to learn and update in the works I make, but how can I copyright my works? Is it one time for all the works or does every work need to be done individually?

I live in India.

vector - How can I connect two disjoint paths in Sketch App?

For example if I draw a oval and then want to paint part of it into different color, how can I connect edge points of my new path with oval?

Answer

What you need to do is this:

1. 
   

   Expand the small path, so that its bounds extend over the outline of the oval (you'll need to click 'Close Path' in the inspector to make it a close path):

   
   

   

   
   


2. 
   

   Duplicate the big oval:

   
   

   

   
   



3. 
   

   Select the newly duplicate oval and the small shape:

   
   

   

   
   


4. 
   

   Select Layer › Combine › Intersect:

   
   

   

   
   


5. 
   

   Select Layer › Paths › Flatten:

   
   
   

   

   
   


6. 
   

   Ta-da!:

   
   

   

   
   

Hope it helps :)

Is publishing to Amazon Kindle-alternative eBook markets worth the time and effort?

I have published a few collection Kindle eBooks, and am planning on publishing at least 3 more in the not-too-distant future. While my experience with the Kindle marketplace has been mostly positive, I have been wondering about the other options out there (such as Nook, Lulu, Google Books).

Has anyone published using multiple platforms and seen a decent amount of increase in their sales to warrant the (admittedly small) amount of effort it would take to publish to those other marketplaces?

Would an independent writer be better off locking in to only the Kindle marketplace, given the tools available to the writer through Amazon?

Answer

I think that there is definitely an advantage to publishing to other venues/formats. From a simplicity standpoint, I use Smashwords to distribute my e-books to other markets, such as B&N, Kobo, and Apple. They don't pay as frequently (once per quarter), but they do make it a lot easier to get into more markets. I also like having the ability to generate coupons so that I can offer certain titles for free to selected individuals. This comes in handy if you want to offer a copy to a reviewer, especially since they can go there and choose whatever format they prefer.

As to whether or not the sales warrant it, that answer depends on your book(s). Some titles may do well while others struggle to find an audience. It all depends on what you do to promote on that platform. I have several titles that I have published under a pen name, and I find that they do very well with B&N (Nook). To give you a point of comparison, I sold over 60 copies of one title last week on Kindle, and 36 copies of the same title at B&N.

interest rates - Shifted Log-Normal model

I am trying to understand how the shifted log-normal model works, in which we shift a log-normal model by a factor before the simulation so that interest rates don't turn negative during the simulation, and later adjust it back.

How can we be assured that this factor will make sure interest rates will never go negative during the simulation?

icon - How to make a circular zigzag in Photoshop?

For weeks, I have been trying to achieve how to make this.

I know how to do the gradients and the fonts and everything else EXCEPT for the zigzag circle. I only use Photoshop to design as I am really not good with Illustrator.

Can anyone please tell me how to do this?

color theory - Is there a good way to establish a Green-Yellow-Red colour scheme?

Basic colour theory tells us that a colour palette of Green, Yellow and Red is a laughably ugly, they are colours that clash. If we take Green as the prominent colour, the analogous colours that go with it are Red and Blue - there is no room for yellow in such a colour scheme.

So, is there any way that one can combine Green, Yellow and Red in a colour scheme without blinding the users?

As my example, I have a page on a website where these colours are used to measure the required level of a skill for a project against a given user's actual level of this skill. Green satisfies or exceeds this level, Yellow indicates a slight shortfall in expectation and Red means that they are either not good enough or totally lacking in a given skill.

Here is my example (ignore the orange and grey fields around the lettering, they are unrelated).

We can all surely agree that this looks pretty terrible, but it is this format I need to adhere to, the whole Green-Red-Yellow thing. :/

Being a programmer mainly, as opposed to a Graphic/Web designer, my understanding of colour theory and user experience is limited.

To put a point on it, my question is How can one establish a traditionally clashing colour scheme without detracting from the User Experience?

(If my question is unsuitable I will remove it, I was not sure where to ask this, it seemed the most appropriate)

background removal - How to remove a specific color in an image in Photoshop?

I am not an expert photoshop user but have been trying to use more of it in what I currently do.

I have a black and white image from which I am trying to remove all the white.

I cannot use the magic wand/delete because the white is in literally hundreds of places and in some cases very tiny.

Is there a method to strip the white off, leaving just the black?

Thanks in advance for your help.

user expectation - Arranging menu or buttons in Mobile apps

if we can figure out by which hand user is using his phone so that we could arrange the menu items or buttons to the convenient side.

I think if a user is using his phone by right hand then the convenient side could be middle and left side and vice versa in case using by left hand.

If the phone screens are receptive enough to understand user finger prints then we can figure out that way. What do you think?

Answer

Addition to @Noah's post:

The way in which users hold their phone is not a static state. Users change the way they’re holding their phone very often—sometimes every few seconds. And changing the content dynamically will be dangerous to your application.

Here are some key statistics from a study performed on this topic:

---

The 49% of users who use just one hand typically hold their phone in a variety of position

---

Cradling is my term for using two hands to hold a mobile phone, but using only one hand to touch the screen or buttons.

-----

We traditionally associate two-handed use with typing on the QWERTY thumbboards of devices like the classic Blackberry or on slide-out keyboards.

Monte Carlo (resampling) in m.v. portfolio optimization

The instability and high sensitivity of optimisation results can be augmented by adding another layer of quantitative methodology in the form of Monte Carlo Simulation. The name Monte Carlo alludes to the nature of the simulation procedure, which, in essence, involves drawing random numbers from a distribution, and then using the random numbers as inputs for a mathematical process, in this case portfolio optimisation. [Quantitative Portfolio Optimization, Asset allocation and Risk management - Mikkel Rassmussen - 2003]

I'm currently trying to apply Monte Carlo techniques in the context of mean variance portfolio optimization.

According to what I have learned until now the most basic and simple model is "Resampling" and it consists in the following steps:

1. For each asset fit the historical returns (daily, weekly or monthly data) with a distribution of the parametric family (normal, Student's t, etc.) and obtain the specific parameters (mean, variance).


2. For each asset generate a random expected returns from their specific probabilistic distribution.


3. Performing mean-variance optimization (tangency portfolio which implies Sharpe-Ratio maximization) using the generated expected returns and covariance matrix (this is computed once with the preferred method).


4. Repeat point 2. and 3. for n times.


5. Average the weights of all portfolios.

My questions are the following:

1. How one should compute correctly statistics (expected return, expected volatility) of the final averaged optimized portfolio?


2. Is not very clear to me if one should average the weights of all portfolios (point 5.) according to some techniques or just computing the simple mean. If the first, which are these techniques?



3. Are there ways to improve the "Resampling" other than trying different probability distributions (i.e. generate expected returns not directly from a probability distribution but applying i.e. Single Index Model - $R_{it}=\alpha_i+\beta_i \cdot R_{mt} + \epsilon_{it}$ - the random component in that case would be noise $\epsilon_{it}$?


4. Does makes sense generate random return with a multivariate probability distribution (mean is the mean of each asset and variance is the covariance matrix)? Doing so I noticed that all assets are always in the portfolio.

Answer

There might be some differences in how we define things, but there should be only one set of assumptions (i.e., for each asset, there should be only one expected return and expected volatility). Your simulations, which generate potential realizations of returns, should conform to these expected returns and volatilities.

It's also not necessary to run multiple simulations (although it's an option for sure). Instead, you could run one simulation and simply divide the simulated returns into multiple samples. So I'd modify the procedure as follows:

1. Set assumptions (return, vols & correlations) for the assets.


2. Fit distributions for each asset.


3. Generate random returns for the assets based on the assumptions and distributions. To simplify the discussion, let's assume there are two assets and you decide to simulate 100 years of monthly data, so now you have a 1200 x 2 matrix of returns.



4. Divide these into subsamples. Let's say you decide to use 10 subsamples, then each sample is a 120 x 2 matrix of returns.
   
   
   
   • For each sample, given the weights, you can easily compute the cumulative return and volatility. This allows you to use standard mean-variance techniques to compute the optimal weights. Of course, given the optimal weights, you have the return and volatility of the portfolio as well.
   
   
   
   


5. Average the weights/other statistics from the samples.

Regarding your questions:

1. How one should compute correctly statistics (expected return, expected volatility) of the final averaged optimized portfolio?

As you can see from the procedure outlined above, you can compute the relevant metrics (returns, vols, etc.) for each sample. You can then take the average/median.

2. Is not very clear to me if one should average the weights of all portfolios (point 5.) according to some techniques or just computing the simple mean. If the first, which are these techniques?

Usually a simple average/median is used. It's not clear to me that more sophisticated technique would add much value, but I'd be interested in hearing other perspectives.

3. Are there ways to improve the "Resampling" other than trying different probability distributions (i.e. generate expected returns not directly from a probability distribution but applying i.e. Single Index Model -
   
   
   
   • the random component in that case would be noise )?
   
   
   
   

There's a lot of room to incorporate more realistic return models. Typically you'd want to model the skewness of the returns, capture fat tails, etc. You could also account for time-varying correlations amongst assets. Indeed, you could also simulate some underlying factor returns and than map asset returns to these factors (I think this might be what you're alluding to). The possibilities are endless. It's a matter of what your institution prioritizes in the asset allocation process.

4. Does makes sense generate random return with a multivariate probability distribution (mean is the mean of each asset and variance is the covariance matrix)? Doing so I noticed that all assets are always in the portfolio.

Yes, a multivariate approach should be used, since the dependency amongst the assets is an important aspect of asset allocation. Hitting corner solutions is not unusual even for a resampling exercise. I recommend that you look at whether there's anything you can do in your assumptions.

I also recommend this report: Non-normality of market returns. It doesn't specifically address resampling, but has a lot of good ideas that are highly relevant.

design patterns - When should you use a modal dialog box?

There seems to be an increasing use of modal dialog boxes on the web, but when should you use them? Why would you choose to use them instead of inline controls or another page, and when should you completely avoid them?

Should my website's typography use the same font as my logo?

I am working with a logo that is using ChunkFive Roman. What's the standard web design practices regarding this? Is it good design to use the same font as my logo for primary headers?

gui design - Good alternatives for replacing multiple nested modal dialogs?

Having a mature and good-selling Windows desktop application, we are focusing on improving the user experience for the next release.

One thing that I try is to get rid of multiple nested modal dialog like e.g.:

The reason for having those multiple levels of dialogs is to show the user as few options as possible to make the application as easy as possible to use.

As a downside, for power users this is usually way too much "clicking" until they are able to achieve a result.

So my question is:

Is there a possible design alternative to those nested modal dialogs so that:

• Novice users still have an easy-to-use UI?


• Advanced users can perform tasks without clicking through serveral nested dialogs?

(The application is a .NET Windows Forms application developed with Visual Studio .NET 2010 and DevExpress, in case this matters)

Answer

One possible solution is to progressively show more details as users select items and sub-items. The benefit is that the initial ui is still clean, while getting rid of extra panels and buttons.

You can still keep your initial page with the "configure" button, even though i would try to eliminate it, if possible.

Initial View

User Selects an Item

User Selects a Sub-Item

I have successfully used the above strategy on a heavily utilized windows application.

Is CXA certification from HFI worthwhile if I already have CUA?

Is it worth obtaining the Certified User Experience Analyst (CXA) qualification from Human Factors International, if I am already a Certified Usability Analyst (CUA)?

Hi, I am a UX designer with 8 years of experience. I did CUA in Oct 2010 and it helped me get a good job, good pay and perform better.

Recently, I heard about the new CXA certification from HFI. It seems to be a very new launch in India and I would like to know if anybody has taken this certification or has any idea about how well it is recognised.

website design - Why do so many sites make the mega footer a dark color?

Such as www.braintreepayments.com. I see this type of design so frequently nowadays. It's so common that it looks like a template, yet all kinds of companies that you wouldn't think would be using web design templates are using it. Is it becoming some sort of a standard?

How to solicit feedback from customers

What can I do to get customers to contact me and give feedback on my application?

I sell a downloadable Windows desktop application, I also have a web application that is under development (so I'm primarily interested in solutions that are applicable to a desktop application but also want to know about web application solutions).

I want feedback from my users about my application, currently I get a tiny amount of feedback (and all feedback seems to come from the same small group of customers), what can I do to get more people to send me feedback?

What I already did:

• 
  

  I have a contact form on the web site, a link to that form is in the top navigation bar on every page on the site.

  
  


• 
  

  I have my e-mail address in the footer on the bottom of every page on the site.

  
  


• 
  

  I have a "Send Feedback" entry on the application's main menu that goes to the contact form.

  
  


• 
  
  

  I have a "Tell us what you think" button in the app's about box, my e-mail address is also on the about box.

  
  


• 
  

  I regularly post on my blog trying to encourage feedback (example: I'm finalizing the feature list for next version - if you have suggestions now would be a good time to send them to me)

  
  


• 
  

  I also have an uninstall survey when you uninstall the app

  
  

Would an "around" search token make any sense?

Have u seen Mac OS X's search tokens?

The Finder includes tokens—a smart way to filter your searches. When you select a suggestion, a token is created. Instantly your search is filtered, and you see only the files that meet those criteria. You can change the scope of the token by clicking the arrow. If you want to narrow your search even more, you can use multiple tokens together. Search for specific file types: For example, if you wanted to find all the JPEG (.jpg) images on your Mac, type .jpg in the search field, and you'll immediately see results pop into the window. Click This Mac in the header to find all JPEGs on your entire hard disk. Not only will Spotlight display thumbnails, small images, of your JPEG images, it'll also list other things that match your criteria, such as documents that contain the word ”.jpg” in them. You can then access the file right from that Finder window.

---

I was wondering whether having a search-token "Around" that would filter numeric based searches to a +/-10% (or any other %) would make sense to include in a search field.

The problem that I have is that the fields that I want to search might be very precise, let's say $55402.12, $35014.16, $50957.78, and instead of using a range search token (that I'd assume would be complex to implement) that searches between $50000 and $56000 I'd like to search values around $53000 with a +/-10% tolerance.

So, in a nutshell the question is if having an "Around" Search Token would be useful of having usual ">" "<" ">=" "<=" ranges.

Answer

I think this is an excellent idea. People tend to think in those terms, "It was about $50k" so this would match well. I'd be inclined to sort the results by proximity to the search value, and make the range quite generous, but there is some logic which might apply.

This isn't going to be easier to implement than a range though. Either you're going to convert into a range in some way, or you're going to have to check the difference between the search value and actual values, and sort on that difference.

To convert a number into a range, you could use the precision of the number they give to determine the range.

So if someone says around 50000, you assume they're specifying the number to the nearest 10000, so include anything between 45000 and 59999. The reason for the imbalance there is that someone is unlikely to remember 44000 as being 50000 - more likely they'd think 40000. But someone might remember 57486 as 50000 simply because of the first digit.

Alternatively, if someone searched for 53000 then you'd include from 52500 to 53999 using the same logic.

If you don't get any matches then you'd probably want to broaden the range and try again though. You might set a limit that you'd widen by one level of precision, so if someone puts in 53000 and you don't find anything, then try as though they'd entered 50000, but stop there.

This might seem unnecessarily complex, but the idea behind all this is that you're trying to take what someone remembers and think what that might plausibly match, assuming they're not wildly misremembering of course.

How can I make an outlined path thinner in illustrator?

I have been given some SVG icons which are all outlined paths. I need to make the strokes thinner to be consistent with the rest of a design I'm working on. Is there a way to do this without reconstructing the icons from scratch?

(What I am asking to do is the opposite of this question.)

Answer

CS6 screen shots.. but it's the same for newer versions as well.

Also by "outlined paths" I'm assuming you mean you have actual shapes with fills, not strokes with an "outline" effect applied to them.

Assume the black is your shape.... These are two separate shapes. You can do this with any number of objects at the same time....

Add a new stroke.

(Any different stroke color works, but an uncommon color to the rest of the piece will make things easier later).

Set the stroke to align "Inside" by clicking the button on the Stroke Panel. And configure the stroke to the weight you wish to remove from the shape(s).

Choose Object > Expand Appearance from the menu....

Click the Merge button on the Pathfinder Panel.

Use the Direct Selection Tool (White arrow) to click one of these new color areas.... and choose Select > Same > Fill & Stroke from the menu. The new color areas should all highlight.

(This is where using an uncommon color helps. If you used a common color, or a color which exists elsewhere in the artwork, you'll need to manually select all these new stroke shapes. You can't use "select same" if the color needs to remain elsewhere in the art.)

Hit the Delete key....

Original again for comparison...

Using Path > Offset can work. It just really is dependent upon the artwork itself. Using the Object Menu item, you would duplicate the shapes. Making the removal of originals necessary. Using the effect can cause path intersection issues with some artwork. You'd just have to try it and see.

I detailed the stroke, then remove method because it tends to circumvent both these problems.

icons - Do shapes connote differing degrees of hazard?

I'm working on designing an icon set and experimenting with a few different styles. One style would involve every icon being the same color. However, color is really good at differentiating things like a soft warning (yellow) and a more urgent warning (red).

I wanted to experiment with the idea of using shapes to convey different degrees of hazard. The audience for the project will likely stay in the States, so I don't think I need to anticipate Eastern vs. Western clashes or that sort of thing. Consider the following (really basic) example:

My perception of shapes is informed by road signs, so I personally feel like the diamond and triangle shapes feel more "alert"-like. The octagon obviously says stop, but it's not very distinct from the circle. The circle feels softer than the square, but that's about it.

Semiotics is not my field, so this link about general research didn't mean a whole lot to me. This question about traffic light shapes was an interesting find, but I don't know how universal it is (I'd never seen anything like that before).

So, do basic polygons carry hazardous connotations (or any other connotation, really)? If so, what's the basis...anything other than road signs?

Answer

With the little research I could find, there are primarily three polygons which are used in signs for hazards which are :

• Triangle : Usually used for caution


• Diamond : usually used to denote Warnings



• Octagon : Used to denote danger.

To quote from the article I am referencing :

SHAPES AND WHAT THEY MEAN:

Here is a example of it being used in real life as picked up from the British Columbia Pesticide site

That said this shapes themselves are not an indicator of a hazard or a dangerous condition but the symbol or sign put inside them is what defines the actual meaning. For example, you could put a smiley face inside the octagon and I doubt anyone is going to associate that with danger.

That said, I strongly recommend reading this excellent article about the symbolism of shapes and where they are generally used and their connotations with regards to culture

color - Background colour suitable for both black and white text

In my web page i have a black textured background and in foreground light blue, white, gray, yellow color texts are present. Colors that doesnt go with black color background are not visible. Can anyone suggest me a background color that goes with both black and white foreground text color?

Answer

Foreground light blue, white, gray, yellow color texts are present. Colors that don't go with black color background are not visible.

I'll withold judgement until I actually see an image or link to your design, but it sounds like you're already trying to mix oil and water. There probably isn't a background color to solve that problem, so let's address the more interesting question...

---

You ask for

a background color that goes with both black and white foreground text color.

The right orange (and many other hues) can pull that off. See this paletton, and imagine it with a heavier font:

The white and black text are acceptably readable (to me, at least). But that color as a full page background would be overwhelming. Here's the same palette desaturated a bit:

I think that looks ugly, but the black/white text is still fairly readable. Let's desaturate to almost gray:

Now it's more of a warm gray, and it doesn't look so bad. But we're starting to run up against the problem that ecc's answer mentioned. Let's fully desaturate to see what I mean:

Without the color saturation, the white and black text are too similar to the background, so they will be difficult and/or tiresome to read.

IMO, the second version (slightly desaturated) isn't overwhelming and the text contrast is acceptable. Too bad it looks like grasshopper vomit.

Finally, keep in mind that any of the above versions will look very close to the grayscale version under certain kinds of colorblindness (dyschromatopsia and achromatopsia). That's one of the reasons for this principle:

Background and text colors should have high value contrast, because hue and saturation contrast are too dependent upon individual perception and monitor/printer representation.

By using text that is white (value == 255) and black (value == 0), you are limited to a value contrast with the background of at most 127 (the middle of that range). For the sake of readability for most people on most devices, you should choose either bright text on a dark background, or dark text on a bright background. You can have bright text and dark text on the same page, just make sure they have different backgrounds:

volatility - Proof of approximation formulas for implied volatilities

I am trying to calibrate a local volatility model to observed implied volatility smiles (not surfaces!, just a smile given for fixed maturity).

I ran into the following approximation, and thought I could plug in my implied volatility formula, and solve for local volatility; $$\sigma_{i}^2(K,T) = \frac{\sigma^2(S(0), 0) + \sigma^2(K,T)}{2}.$$

$\sigma_i$ is implied volatility.

My question however is, where does this approximation come from?

I know Dupire's formula, you know the one that is a fraction of two integrals. I can't quite find it, but is it from that the approx is derived? If so, how?

mobile - Defining resolution or layout size for iphone/ipad devices

Basically the question is divided into three parts -

1. 
   

   What size should I start with on an iPad?

   
   


2. 
   

   At what size do the Graphic Assets need to be passed to the developer?

   
   


3. 
   

   What about the same items on an iPhone?

   
   

With the plethora of devices available --and particularly if I would have to design for an iPhone or iPad-- where should I start detailed design exactly? Should it be for lower res (say 1024 x 768 px for iPad) or should I do it on a higher resolution as for Ipad 2? In case I do it for a higher resolution, should the ppi be at 72 or higher (and how much higher)?

Can I work on 1024 x 768 layout and do the icons scaled up by increasing the ppi? Should I make the detail design at 1024 x 768, leaving the developer to scale it up 2x times through code for the newer iPad versions (which means I share lower version of icon artifacts to developer)? Is there any other means of defining the layout size?

And again, does the same also apply to iPhone layout?

workflow - Is there a gesture-like exercise for drawing faces?

Many people told me doing gestures is great as a learning tool, gives you the pencil mileage, feeling for shape, form and proportion, and so on.

I started doing them, basing my tries on this, this and this video among others.

I've actually found doing gesture drawings fun and helpful - I'm seeing improvement! I began wondering - are there any similar, established exercises for drawing faces?

terminology - What's the name for normal life user experience?

I'd like to know about how to call the design of experiences for real life.

For example, the design of experiences for pedestrians has many disciplines like signage, psychology, architecture and so on. But is there a name to encompass all these disciplines for this case? The same could be said for the design of holistic experiences for a restaurant, or event, or medical processes (not the medical part itself, but everything related to it that is not medical per se).

I'm more interested in architectural and interiors design, but anything related to improvement of life will work and is of the utmost interest for me.

Answer

The problem is that the terminology in our field is loosely defined. The answer to your question might just be 'design'.

The different design terminologies varies by the specific context and process that they're used for. There is a debate about the meaning of terms and not all academic authors and practitioners agree with each other on the definitions.

Often times you can use several design terminologies for describing the same design process, and they can all will be valid.

So here I will list the ones that I think are relevant to your question:

Ergonomics / Human Factors

ISO 26800:2011 abstract presents the general ergonomics approach and specifies basic ergonomics principles and concepts. These are applicable to the design and evaluation of tasks, jobs, products, tools, equipment, systems, organizations, services, facilities and environments, in order to make them compatible with the characteristics, the needs and values, and the abilities and limitations of people.

ISO 26800:2011. Scientific discipline concerned with the understanding of interactions among human and other elements of a system, and the profession that applies theory, principles, data and methods to design in order to optimize human well-being and overall system performance

User Experience design

User Experience (UX) is also called experience design. UX design has many definitions but Don Norman was the first one to coin the term:

“I invented the term because I thought human interface and usability were too narrow. I wanted to cover all aspects of the person’s experience with the system including industrial design, graphics, the interface, the physical interaction, and the manual. Since then the term has spread widely, so much so that it is starting to lose it’s meaning… user experience, human centered design, usability; all those things, even affordances. They just sort of entered the vocabulary and no longer have any special meaning. People use them often without having any idea why, what the word means, its origin, history, or what it’s about.”

Video of Don Norman explaining what is User Experience.

Dan Saffer has a book about interaction design and he classifies the disciplines like this:

Human-centered design

ISO 9241:210 Human-centred design is an approach to interactive systems development that aims to make systems usable and useful by focusing on the users, their needs and requirements, and by applying human factors/ergonomics, and usability knowledge and techniques. This approach enhances effectiveness and efficiency, improves human well-being, user satisfaction, accessibility and sustainability; and counteracts possible adverse effects of use on human health, safety and performance.

Remember that the term system may not only mean a computer system or some other technological meaning, but can represent a system of processes supporting certain activity. For example for pedestrians have a system. It should have signage, lights, sidewalks, etc. This can be said that it is pedestrian system, just like the road system.

Conclusion

Possible terminologies for 'real life' user experience design that are safe to use, in my opinion, are but not limited to:

• ergonomics,



• human-centered design,


• (user) experience design,


• interaction design.

hierarchy - Are there any useful tools / techniques for creating website content inventories?

This is probably wishful thinking but here goes...

Now obviously I don't expect some magical app to crawl a website, summarise each page and detail all the assets within each page (if only!) however is there a crawler of some sort that will trawl a given website and produce a full set of links and respective hierarchy would be invaluable. That would ensure that no pages get missed out as they invariably would through a purely manual inventory.

From there I would be able to see the existing site hierarchies and taxonomy decisions that have been made when building the site, and could use this as the basis for creating a detailed website content inventory.

Whether this be an online application, script or even a useful manual technique other than just manually sitting at the site and following links would be great.

Answer

Website Auditor is a tool that crawls your site and delivers a nested hierarchy, complete with meta info, broken link information, error codes, etc. We've found it VERY useful for the exact purposes that you list.

Alternatively, I've used Site Sucker for Mac (which is free) to download a local copy of an entire site, and used the log file as my content inventory. However, it's not as useful because it doesn't generate a nested view nor any of the niceties previously mentioned for Website Auditor, so it's definitely a "poor man's tool".

typography - How do I deal with line spacing when a single descender is getting in the way?

I'm making a sign for my kids' school, and am having trouble with one detail. The primary text is "Walking School Bus Stop". This, the school name, and a whimsical graphic all go into a 3:4 aspect ratio design. (This will be an actual metal sign placed on the street.)

The complication really all comes from the fact that "school bus" is properly two words. Because of this, it really reads better if the lines are broken like so:

Walking
School Bus
Stop

Because "Bus Stop" is also a familiar phrase, with a different break, it looks like we're talking about a "Walking School", when, really, it's the normal sort of elementary school that happens to have a program where we encourage kids and parents to walk instead of driving.

And, that, in turn, means that in the font I've chosen, the letter g drops down to get in the way of the B. Like this:

Which really irritates me visually. If I increase the line spacing, it seems too spaced (and I have to reduce the text size), which is not desirable.

What are good solutions here? It looks just fine if the text is all right-aligned — the g tucks down nicely over the u and s — but given the aspect ratio constraint it's hard to balance that and the other elements.

Font is Coolvetica. (Be glad it's not Comic Sans.) And it looks awful in all-caps, so that solution would really be "find another font", which isn't ideal.

What else could I do?

Answer

I think some manual kerning would help tremendously. Since "School Bus" is made up of many wider letters and "Walking" has a series of skinnier letters, it makes the spacing of the letters in "Walking" look even tighter by comparison. Increasing the kerning in "Walking" would make it look a lot better and a lot more legible, and it would land the "g" closer to the "u" so I think this would help with your leading problems. You could probably get away with increasing the leading between the first two lines just a bit - the short "op" in "Stop" make the space between the last two lines look wider, so you should try to visually balance the leading.

search - Pagination - a thing of the past?

This article on pagination left me with mixed feelings.

• 
  

  Is pagination always a usability issue?

  
  


• 
  

  Should more sites utilise the 'endless page'?

  
  


• 
  

  Who's got it right? Twitter? Bing images? Someone else?

  
  
  


• 
  

  Is pagination a thing of the past?

  
  

There's commentary on the blog post but I'm interested to know what you folk think.

Video and audio autoplay - evidence that it's bad practice

Does anyone have any evidence or could point me in the direction of a web page that explains why video and audio autoplay is bad practice. I know it is but i'm struggling to find anything to back this up.

mobile - Icon for "More", like more results

I need an intuitive icon which represents "more" ITEMS (or "more items like this") (or other "similar" items to this item). I have space constraints on the screen, so I can't exactly use a label.

design patterns - Do users understand this hybrid checkbox/radio control?

I'm wondering about the perennial problem that arises when presenting multiple options, where the user can select none, one, or several options.

Using checkboxes, it's not clear whether a user

• intentionally selected none of the options


• or just ignored the question.

Like so:

^{download bmml source – Wireframes created with Balsamiq Mockups}
See. I don't know whether you don't like any fruit, or whether you just don't want to tell me.

So if I need to know whether the user answered the question, then it makes sense to include a "none of the above" option at the end of the checkbox list. However, there's not a clearly good way to include a "select none" option in a list of checkboxes.

With a small number of options, radio buttons may be a suitable workaround....

^{download bmml source}

...but with a larger number of options, radio buttons quickly become untenable:

^{download bmml source}

So I was quite excited today to stumble across what might be a solution to the problem—a hybrid checkbox/radio control:

^{download bmml source}

When the radio button is selected, the checkboxes become deselected, and when the checkboxes are selected, the radio becomes deselected.

At first glance, this looks like a great solution...but before I start adopting it, I want to check if it may confuse people. Perhaps they view the separate shapes as corresponding with separate questions; or perhaps they don't understand why clicking on some things (but not just any thing) may cause others to become deselected; or perhaps they don't distinguish between checkboxes and radio buttons at all and they're slowed down by wondering why one of the buttons is a different shape from the others.

Has user testing found that this control is commonly understood? Are there particular demographics or psychographics that find this hybrid control problematic?