software - Good ways to sort "rambly" notes?

I know there is a name for this kind of "writing", but I just can't think of it at the moment. Basically, most of my notes are endlessly long ramblings that can go from one place to another in a heartbeat, have almost zero punctuation and make use of a bunch of made up rules, which would make no sense to other people.

You can think of this like brainstorming, with me simply wanting to put everything "on paper" before I forget or lose my train of thought. Understandably, though, sorting such notes is a bit of a nightmare. Extracting the various tidbits of relevant information from each note, structuring them properly, cutting down on the note, putting various notes of the same type together... it's annoying, and my notes are all over the place.

Is there some workflow or program that could help me sort this out properly? One made specifically for these kinds of notes? My biggest problem I think is I want to be able to take a note, clean it up and then put it in its right place, without having to cut and paste texts everywhere. Think word, but you can move paragraphs up or down or drag them somewhere else.

Answer

Use Scrivener.

My answer here is heavily adapted from my answer to a different question, but I think it will be helpful to you:

Scrivener is a tremendously flexible writing program. You can create innumberable documents, nest them, link them, put them in folders, look at a split screen of two at once, save snapshots of your text.

So when you get your story idea, start a blank Scrivener page.

Start writing down everything that comes into your head. Follow your thoughts wherever they lead, but make each thought a new line. The "new line" part will be helpful in a second.

When you run out of steam, go back to the top, look at each thought, and see if it generates more stuff.

Keep doing that until you can't think of more stuff to add.

Now start grouping it.

• Group A: worldbuilding


• Group B: character 1


• Group C: character 2


• Group D: setting


• Group E: plot suggestions


• Group F: cool descriptions


• Group G: character 3



• Group H: ending

and so on. Just put the letter (A) in front of any statement to do with worldbuilding.

Make new pages for each of the Groups. Copy everything with an A to the A:worldbuilding page. Copy everything with a B to the B:Character 1 page.

Now you can take each page of loose notes and start imposing order on them. Or don't. Leave them as strings of notes. Put all your E: Plot Suggestions in one spot and drag them around until an arc assembles itself, or just continue pantsing.

(Other people will suggest mind-maps, but I find that kind of program really intimidating. Your Mileage, and process, May Vary.)

gui design - With infinite scrolling, do scrollbars still make sense?

I noticed this today on Google Plus:

Virtual Scrollbar in a Google+ Gallery

This is a virtual scrollbar, as opposed to native scrollbars everyone on Windows or pre-Lion OS X does know.

Now this happens to be a scrollbar in an infinite scroll context: that is, the actual document (the gallery) is much longer, containing about 3000 pictures.

Yet the scrollbar acts like a native scrollbar: its whole length represents how much was downloaded to the client, rather than how long the actual document is, and the scroll itself gets smaller as more parts of the document are downloaded, until it reaches a minimal size still comfortable to drag with a mouse pointer.

I guess I'm one of the last guys here who said "no thanks" to Lion and perhaps everyone else is used to these tricky scrollbars popping up everywhere, from smartphones to desktop interfaces, so perhaps I'm one of the last scrollbar user on the whole World.

Still, it brings me a question: are scrollbars useful still, esp. with infinite scroll / large data?

The original scrollbar concept was simple: you have a document, and you're viewing only a part of it:

With traditional scrollbars, the scroll tells the size of the viewed part compared to the whole as well as how far we've seeked from the beginning

But with the advent of infinite scrolling, we've got this:

In infinite scroll situations, the scrollbar has no direct relationship with the size of the document

So, we see the downloaded part of the document. While this might be a technical limitation of native scrollbars, we're talking about a virtual scrollbar here: this actually had to be programmed by hand, and most possibly UX-designed.

Historically, a word processor (like, excuse me, Word) didn't load the whole document: rather, it stored the geometrical size of all objects to be loaded, added them up, made a scrollbar, and loaded only the part which was viewed, or already viewed. (*)

So my main question is: is there a need for a scrollbar in 2012, if there is, how should it look like (including fallbacks) and if there is not, what should come instead? Why, why not?

Our context would be consumer community sites, so, photo galleries and newsfeeds (whatever we call the "Your friend XY did something on our site" pages) , target audience 30+-5, in possession of a smartphone but using a desktop computer for certain tasks.

(*) (For technical history on this, read Design Patterns from the Gang of Four: this is called the "Proxy" pattern

Update: to make it clear: I'd like to see explanations, patterns, wireframes. "It depends" is not an answer: of course it depends! It depends on what, and "for example if X", what do you recommend, "but if Y", what do you recommend, examples, ideas, mockups.

Infinite scrolling is abundant today, and scrollbars are here with us since about the 80s (perhaps it's a Xerox Star pattern). Yet I feel their current combination is meaningless, nonsense. Given that we have the computing power to implement our own scrollbars, how that virtual scrollbar should look like for infinite scrolling? Why?

(Even with 50 as bounty and 15 upvotes, noone has any alternatives?)

InDesign GREP everything between two consecutive returns and a digit(or)return

Say I have some text in the following format:

What I am trying to style, using GREP, is the beginning of every new paragraph (that comes after an empty line), until a digit or return is reached, so that it would look something like this:

I've been using regexr to try and find a solution, but it appears not be 100% compatible with InDesign's GREP utility.

Answer

Updated Answer:

The problem is that using a paragraph break for every new line means that every line is a paragraph and using GREP paragraph styles you can only target a single paragraph. Theres no way to tell if you are on the first line because every line is the first line. The only way to get around that would be to test if the paragraph before is empty.. which I don't think is possible.

If changing the paragraph breaks to soft breaks you can use this:

(?

If changing the breaks isn't an option I havn't got a workaround for the paragraphs without numbers but you can target just the ones with using this:

^.*?(?=\d)

---

Original Answer:

^.*?(?=\d|\n)

An explanation -

^ matches the beginning of the paragraph

. matches any character

*? matches 0 or 1 time (so we only match up to the first digit)

(?=) looks ahead (matches up to but not including what's in the parenthesis)

\d matches any digit

| OR

\n matches a line break

---

For reference, All of this can be found on the InDesign help.

accounts - Why do sites split 'password' and 'username' retrieval into two separate operations?

I find this way of doing it highly annoying when I come back to a site I haven't used in a while. First having to enter my email to get my username and then enter my username and email to reset my password.

Why do sites split it up like this? Is it believed to be better UX? Better security?

I mean, the weak point is my email in both cases, so if someone got a hold of that they would get both the username and the password anyways. So why not just combine it into one function where you only need to supply your email?

Answer

Well, this is some kind of old approach imo. A while ago username was usually used for two purposes: as identity (to log-on) and as something to display (when you post comments for instance). I believe it came from standalone apps and operation systems, where email is something secondary and username is something primary. Meanwhile it doesn't work in a web, where user email is usually a primary thing.

Modern sites have better UX by separating a way you log-on and a way you communicate with other users:

• When communicating with other users, they only see your name, doesn't know how you actually log-in (email, smart card etc..).


• When it come to your identity, email (or similar unique id) is used. So when you like to recover ability to log-in, you just enter your email address and password recovery process starts. Name is not involved.

So, finally answering your question, this wrong log-in approach causes also a wrong recovery process.

publishing - Should one invest in a professional editor before querying?

Let's say you have completed a novel. Since you're not totally naive, you have also complete a few drafts, where with "few" I mean at least more than two.

You are at a point that your book seems good; while it could certainly be better, you - the author - need some external input on how to fix the last, hopefully few, issues left. Let's imagine that doing another draft by yourself is not feasible at the moment just for the sake of the question.

Do you call in a professional editor or you start querying to publishers?

I understand that this might seem like a no-brainer. If you book isn't the best it could be, you should (ideally) query. Yet, in my limited understanding, major publishers are supposed to give you at least some kind of editing service.

Related: At what point does an author deal with an editor?

Edit: I've just noticed a very similar question from 8 years ago. I'm adding it as related. My question seems slightly different, but I may be wrong; please see if it's a duplicate.

Answer

I didn't pay for a professional edit before querying and it didn't stop me being offered rep. Agents will tolerate some mistakes, knowing it will need a professional edit.

However, that was my second book, it had been through several drafts, and I'm fortunate to have a writers' group comprised of published authors and a creative writing university lecturer. They provided structural feedback and line edits before I submitted, so I was very confident that the novel was the best it could be.

When I did get a professional developmental edit, very little was changed as my writers' group is very ... professional!

Yes, major publishers will assign an editor to do a developmental edit (that is a structural edit) and a copy edit (line by line analysis) and finally a proofread (usually by a different professional since that requires a fresh set of eyes). But they do expect your novel to be almost publication ready before this. If it needs a lot of work, they just won't take it on because they don't have the time/money to invest in overhauls. Particularly for new authors who are a risk to begin with.

If you are in ANY doubt that your MS isn't the best it could be, and especially if this is your first novel, I would recommend a professional developmental edit if you can afford it. I used The Literary Consultancy on my first novel and they were very good. If you can't afford it, I would recommend finding a writers' group comprised of professional writers. You cannot see the wood for the trees in your own work and you should always have it read by someone who understands the craft before submitting (not family and friends). If you can get that for free - excellent!

Remember, this is a one time opportunity. Agents don't usually read twice unless they were really intrigued the first time and are happy for you to redraft and send again. Also bear in mind that you will be up against serious competition. Agents get submissions in droves!

Good luck!

adobe photoshop - Where can I find small and limited projects in order to make my first steps toward working professionally as a designer/developer

I am in UI design, and currently looking for jobs, and realized that photoshop skills, and being able to create your designs yourself was a big plus for potential jobs.

I have some photoshop skills that I learned along the years, but:

• No actual degree in graphic design (far from it actually: psychology B.S. and Mechanical Engineering M.S.)


• No professional experience as graphical designer


• I am conscious that my skills are too low to be decently used in a professional context

So what I would like is a way to find short requests, of the kind "I want a banner for my website, with this, this and this", or "a loading screen for my mobile game", and so on. This would allow me to improve my skills, and also build a portfolio, which is something I am really lacking right now.

Alternatively, since people doing stuff for free could be harmful for actual professional people, would there be a place asking for small requests against small fees? Again, I am more trying to build experience than to build money.

Thanks!

Answer

I've never really understood these types of questions, but they seem to come up often enough in development and design. To me it's a very bad sign when a programmer can't think of programming projects for himself and when a designer isn't inspired to come up with projects of his own in his free time.

After all, graphic design is a field with lots of hobbyists. It's something that lots of people enjoy and are deeply passionate about. And most professionals are people who began doing art and graphic design for fun, found that they could actually make money from their hobby, and then eventually decided this was what they wanted to do for a living.

As such, it's a pretty competitive (and relatively saturated) industry. And if you don't enjoy design, you won't be inclined to practice as much, so you're gonna have a hard time competing against the legions of designers out there who live and breathe design.

It's good that you're focusing on improving rather than making money, but why do you need random strangers to make requests for you to practice with? Does a student painter or sketch artist need requests from strangers in order to practice their art? If you were learning math, would you look for strangers to give you math problems to perform?

Sure, you should be open to requests and accept the extra practice, but a random stranger's graphic design request won't help you develop your aesthetic eye or technical skills any more than personal projects you came up with yourself. If anything, your own personal projects will give you more freedom to express yourself, and designing when you're actually inspired will produce better results (largely because it's more enjoyable, which also motivates you to push yourself harder).

---

That said, there is value in taking an academic approach and getting professional guidance. Receiving design assignments from a design instructor does have value, as they're following a structured lesson plan that's deisgned to give you a comprehensive and balanced look at the field of design.

Similarly, there are workbooks and other resources out there with practice design briefs. These are excellent practice projects since they're either real-life briefs used by professional agencies or created by experienced designers to provide realistic requirements you might find in a professional setting.

But a stranger on a forum who wants a banner for his site or "loading screen for his mobile game" is not a good source of design projects. Besides their not being things you'd want in your portfolio, most of these people don't know the first thing about professional design (hence why they're asking random strangers on the web to design them things for free) so their requirements and specifications won't be realistic to professional design scenarios, and this sort of practice will not teach you professional workflows. If anything, they'll just teach you bad habits.

---

Now, if you're really having a hard time coming up with enough personal projects to occupy yourself in your free time, you could always:

• Take a design course at a local college.


• Get an internship at a design studio or a company's design department.


• Volunteer your services to open source projects, non-profits, and public organizations (schools, libraries, or government agencies).


• Provide free design services to indie artists/musicians and filmmakers.



• Collaborate with a developer and exchange services.


• Participate in design contests.

I personally have no problem with novice designers doing work for free. If you're not competent enough to provide professional-level work, then you shouldn't really be charging anyone for it. Likewise, if you can add a really high profile project/client to your portfolio, then it may very well be worth it to do the work for a discounted rate or even for free.

If you don't have a strong portfolio, volunteer work is often the best way to get your foot in the door and start building a professional portfolio. But don't waste time designing forum signatures or a gaming clan website for some high school student on IRC. Instead, focus on getting real projects that: a.) add weight to your portfolio, or b.) contributes something positive to society, e.g. saving a nonprofit, social enterprise, or your local school district money on web design.

fiction - Disclaimer when writing about governmental entities

I've read many novels involving characters working at the NASA, Vatican, Secret Police, high government officers (Dan Brown, Stieg Larsson for example) and doing stuff that I wouldn't like being made public if it was about me. (even though this is fiction)

Is writing "This is a work of fiction, all characters are fictitious...etc." enough although you're talking about them working in a real entity?

Does it depend on local laws and needs lawyer advice? (I haven't noticed any particular disclaimer in Dan Brown's and Stieg Larsson's works) Dan Brown also goes as far as saying that "All the organizations [...] in this novel exist".

Answer

Most big organisations like the CIA, NSA, if they were to sue anyone who wrote anything bad about them, would have to spend their entire yearly budget every month just suing people. Besides, in a democracy, they can't really silence you unless you are writing something that affects national security, and in many cases, not even then. As @One Monkey mentions, you are more at risk from being sued by individuals.

Just write what you want, don't worry about offending anyone. Unless you live in North Korea of course. Never, ever, insult the Fearless Leader Kim Jong II. :)

mobile - How can I test the responsiveness of my non-hosted website on my phone?

I wonder if there is a similar tool to Skala Preview (it is for live preview of photoshop work on your iPhone via Wifi) to test my web design (index.html and its assets folder) onto mobile phones (iPhone, Android and WinPhone). I need to check that viewport, mediaqueries and other design questions are working as expected...

I already use Resizer but it is not to test directly on mobile devices, I don't want an emulator. I have tried Dropbox and Drive, but that last one doesn't work on mobiles and both are so tricky of use. I am not a developer and I don't understand the most of those strange languages beyond HTML and CSS... But I can't believe there's no an easy way to do what I am asking for. It shouldn't be so difficult!

Thank you in advance :)

Answer

You could try GhostLab...it's awesome but also Premium. It allows you to test your designs live on every device with no need of Hosting, just with your local machine and internet connection.

How to replace overuse of "I" in a short story, fiction, written in the first person

I am trying to edit a short story, written in the first person. I have used "I" way too many times, it stands out too much at the beginning of a sentence, but I can't seen to change it without loosing the meaning/tone of the sentence. Please help. Thank you.

usability - How do you decide when a website or application is “usable enough”?

I did see the related question

How do you know when an interface is complete - Though the answers in this question are very interesting,they are more from a product management perspective of what to keep and what to ignore with regards to a finalized product.

But can we really determine when a product is finally usable ? Is there a defined parameter like "90 % of the users found this usable" or "All the associated heuristics which are applicable to this application are satisfied" or "All the potential use case scenarios were accounted for with the user using the optimal path as opposed to using the alternative route"

Answer

This is in fact your decision.

You must define the usability goals for the project in the usability specification. They are usually formulated just like you suggest: "n% of the users accomplished the task in less that n minutes". A couple of "standard measurement" have evolved during the last decades. Measures like time-on-task, success-rate, error-rate, efficiency and preference are pretty common. Take a look at "Measuring the User Experience" by Tullis and Albert. They cover the most essential issues in a very comprehensive and straightforward way.

The usability goals are set by looking at existing systems, competing systems or prototypes. In some circumstances you can set a goal that "sounds reasonable" (i.e. by following your gut feeling), but you should usually have some experience with similar systems and some basic performance- and preference measures as a basis for your new usability goals. Even if the goal is pretty obvious, it should still be explicitly stated in the usability specification.

interface - Sorting tables after multiple columns

I want to add a sorting functionality to a table. It should be able to be sorted after multiple columns.

A standard approach is something like this:

^{download bmml source – Wireframes created with Balsamiq Mockups}

But this brings one problem, no one knows, which is the first, second an third sorting key.

As an alternative I saw something like this:

^{download bmml source}

Here the position in the list implies, which is the first, second and third sort-key and the arrow show if it's asc/desc.

I think the second approach is more intuitive, but it also takes more space and I don't want the GUI to get cluttered.

Do you have some alternative ideas which would take less space?

web - How do I choose between disabled input fields and plain text for a read only view?

For displaying a readonly details views of a certain item on a website, is there a general rule to choose between disabled input fields or labels/plain text?

In this situation, first an overview of orders is shown, and users can click on a single order to see the details of that order. With an edit button they go to yet another screen on which they can edit the order.

Any advice on how to decide between these? Thanks!

Extra info: The details view is an aggregate of all the editable data. Via an edit button per "editable section", the user can navigate to a page where that section is editable with other input controls like autocompleters, treeviews, dropdownlist, ...

Answer

First, bear in mind that a label is not the same than plain text. A label "represents a caption for an item in a user interface", the item normally being a form input.

About if using disabled inputs or plain text, it depends on the workflow for editing the information:

• 
  

  If the edit form is one page away, have the information displayed as "plain text" in its own page.

  
  


• 
  
  

  If the edit form is in the same page, then disabled input fields would be better. The input fields would be activated by toggling an "edit" option.

  
  

In both cases, the way of displaying the information conveys the right message to the user: in the first, that "information can't be edited in this page", the second, that "the information can be edited, but you need to activate edition mode".

creative writing - Tips on engaging the audience in the first chapter?

What are some tips you would recommend to immediately attract a reader, or make the story interesting enough to continue reading?

I want to know if there are any specific techniques or ways that you can create interest in a multitude of different situations so it wouldn't matter if the world is shrouded in mystery and unexplained, or 'info-dumped', although the techniques can relate to these specifics if needed.

Answer

Let us break down "first chapter" a bit and look at how readers try to fathom a book, after the title and cover have made them pick it up and the blurb intrigued them to open it.

When readers face a purchase decision in a bookstore, they don't read the first chapter and then decide. Their decision comes in steps, and the book must pass each of these thresholds, or it will be returned to the shelf unread. Let us look at each of these in turn.

The outside of the book

Although you didn't ask for it, I want to briefly mention the outside of the book, too, so we better understand what you must provide on the inside.

The cover, title, author name (!), and blurb each must clearly and attractively communicate to the target audience that the book contains what that target audience seeks. The target audience seeks a genre (e.g. romance), certain character types (e.g. the broken male love interest), certain settings, and certain plot elements (e.g. the love triangle).

The hook starts on the outside of the book, and what you call the "first chapter" only deepens it. For you, as a writer, this means that you must develop an intriguing premise, for that is what the book's outside communicates (and what the cover illustrator and blurb writing marketing department need from you).

The first sentence (or two)

When a reader opens a book in a bookstore, the first thing they look at is the first sentence. In a well-crafted book, the first sentence contains the theme, that is, in what way the story is relevant to the life and person of the reader. Let us look at an example.

Ally Condie's novel Atlantia – which happens to be the top-most book on my pile of books to read – opens with this sentence:

My twin sister, Bay, and I pass underneath the brown-and-turquoise banners hanging from the ceiling of the temple.

From this first sentence we learn that the book is about sisters and how their relationship is affected by the traditions of their society. It is a fantasy novel, and its premise is how a teenage girl living in a colony of humans that has survived the apocalypse underwater uncovers "the mysterious history of her own family, and the Divide that created [the colony,] Atlantia", but the theme of the book is sisterhood. It ends with: "We are sisters, and we did not drown."

The first page

When readers are hooked by the first sentence, they read (or skim) the first page. The first page establishes the setting and the character of the protagonist.

The first few pages

If the reader finds the first page interesting, they read (or skim) the next few pages to get a general idea of the obstacles the protagonist has to face or what task he is given or what else drives the plot.

The rest of the book

Yes, the rest of the book may be part of "the first chapter", too.

If the outside and the first few pages appeal to the reader, the reader will either buy the book, read on, or check other places in the book. What I do, for example, is find examples of dialog. Many good books are ruined, for me, by unnatural dialog. I always make sure the writer can write good spoken language, before I buy a book. Others will look for other things. As a teenager I wanted a sex scene, so I looked for that and whether it was well done (by my standards).

As for

there is no general answer to that. Different audiences want different things, and what engages one person repels another. I cannot for the life of me read Terry Pratchett, his writing makes my face sag with unfunniness, while others find him addictively hilarious. A high stakes novel needs the stakes (death!) in the first sentence, a romance needs a spark of sexual attraction, a hard science fiction novel needs an intriguing idea, and so on.

If you use the guide I have created and look at how novels in the genre you are writing fill these places – the first sentence, the first page, the first few pages –, you will, I am sure, understand how they hook their target audience (you!) and from that understanding be able to emulate their approach.

There is a lot of great advice on the web on how to create a killer opening line for your novel, but what has really helped me the most was the idea that the first sentence contains the theme of the novel and that the theme must be what my target audience is struggling with or desires or fears – that is, most intensely feels about – in their lives. Finding this theme in your own writing helps you greatly with identifying who you are writing for and building a strong thematic backbone for your plot.

icons - How do we represent that a search feature has "intelligent" capabilities?

My software company is beginning to implement "intelligent" query capabilities to the usual search boxes for our customers and I think that this necessitates the need to evolve from the old standard magnifying glass icon to something else.

For example, consider the search box right here on Stack Exchange:

This makes sense to have the traditional magnifying glass icon because it is a traditional search. However, the same "search" box in some of the applications we currently have in development are "intelligent" or "bot-enabled" which means that it almost becomes more conversational instead of a one-way simple command.

For example, instead of simply typing in "AA Batteries" to see a list of search results, the user could type in "Add AA batteries to my cart, 36 pack" or "Buy 36 pack of AA batteries" and their request is carried out by the smart algorithms.

We are seeing many new requests for this type of thing and the underlying technology is common now and works well (you have probably used a personal assistant today already).

To take this even one step further, we are also seeing requests to enable microphones (speech inputs) to these boxes in addition to text (keyboard). I am not sure if this should be a second icon or if there is some sort of "omni" icon that can serve as a single call to action (in other words, the user recognizes that once they click it they can begin talking OR typing).

In Windows 10, both the mic and the magnifying glass icon are shown when the textbox has focus, but I can't help but feel like there is a better, more unified way to convey the combined capabilities:

It looks like Google is just using a mic and, as Anthony Hobday pointed out below, people seem to know that the Google search capability does much more than just search:

As far as iconography goes, the best I can come up with is either an ear abstraction or a soundwave abstraction to indicate that the system will listen to you:

• 
  

  

  
  


• 
  
  

  

  
  

Problem is, this doesn't necessarily indicate that the system is "intelligent".

Answer

Use a small stylised graphic of a persons face / head and shoulders next to the search box - rather than the magnifying glass.

With increasing penetration of the Siris and the Alexia's into the market place people will get used to being able to interact with 'digital assistants' and the line between whether you are actually dealing with a human or a machine will get increasingly blurred.

You might want to add a microphone icon which appears - in the text box - when someone clicks into it to signify that the assistant is now actively listening.

fiction - How to write a manipulative protagonist that the audience can connect with

I've created a manipulative sort of protagonist, one who enjoys mind games, blackmail, systematically destroying people who've wronged her, that sort of thing.

I personally find her very interesting, but I'm not sure how I should write her such that an audience would connect with her - how to make a character who acts in this manner be sympathetic rather than abhorrent to the reader, and not in a fake "pet the dog" kind of manner either. How could I go about doing that?

What is the best way to represent the difficulty level in a children's game?

I am building a game for children.

The game contains questions.

Age range: 5-18.

Context: learning.

Before the questions I have a screen where the children select a difficulty level:

I want to replace the text "Level.." with somthing else which is not textual language.

I thought about colors or symbols. What is the best user experience for kids?

Answer

You could use several cues to reinforce each other: Background getting slightly darker at more difficulty. Use a star - which is a positive symbol, whatever the difficulty. Use more of the stars for more difficult levels Use colours for the stars.

For example:

Is there anything that can read, import or convert CMYK SVG?

Short question: I have SVG files with CMYK colours, specified as according to the SVG specs. I want to get this into a design program - any design program - to finalise the design and prepare it to print. However, I can't find anything that actually pays attention to the CMYK colours in the SVG (not Illustrator or Inkscape, anyway).

The colours are complicated and not easy to just convert: imagine hundreds of shades dynamically generated, as tints and blends of brand-guidelines-specified CMYK that has to be just right.

---

Background: Something that's becoming more common is designing data-driven graphics that are generated from data using javascript and SVG, then, publishing one variant for the web using javascript and SVG, for example via D3 (or via Raphael / D34Raphael for IE support), then using the same code to produce a variant for print, which is finished in Illustrator (or Inkscape) and sent to the printers or layout people as a PDF.

Here's an example from the New York Times graphics blog talking through this workflow. The below graphic was coded for the web, then the SVG was copied from the browser into Illustrator then finalised as a print graphic (for them, the colours are simple so they don't have my problem, they can just convert from the RGB):

SVG can specify CMYK colours (for any SVG coders out there, the syntax looks like this: ). But most design software ignores this. I've seen talk in the Inkscape community of thinking about supporting CMYK SVG, and something complicated involving Scribus ("the open-source InDesign"), but I've not managed to get either to work (I might have misunderstood the Scribus one - edit: this article suggests that Scribus can import CMYK SVG if it defines it as an ICC colour profile... not quite mades sense of it yet but it looks promising).

---

So, I can create code that generates RGB SVG visualisations in 'web mode' and CMYK SVG in 'print mode', dynamically generating colours that are just right. The problem is, I can't do anything with these CMYK SVG files - Illustrator and Inkscape just treat them as black.

Is there any graphics program, plugin or method that can take an SVG image with CMYK shapes and convert it to any vector format (ai,pdf,eps...) where design software will listen to the CMYK colours?

---

Here's a simple SVG file with some text with colours specified in CMYK. Just copy and paste and save as an .svg file.

     xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" x="0px" y="0px" width="176.18px"
     height="111.59px" viewBox="0 0 176.18 111.59" enable-background="new 0 0 176.18 111.59" xml:space="preserve">

    

        TEST FILE...
        This should be red
        This should be blue
    

Answer

This seems to work:

• Install the open source indesign alternative Scribus, Mac and Windows (there's also an official portable version for Windows on sourceforge that doesn't require installation). WARNING: its interface is very confusing... But, it's free and does this particular job, there's only one simple thing we need to use it for.



• Open it up, go to File > Document Setup then Colour Management and set everything CMYK related to Generic CMYK profile - should be three places: colours, solid shapes and print.


• 
  

  Make sure the SVG files specify their CMYK colours like this: fill="#ffffff icc-color(Generic-CMYK-profile, 1.00, 0.50, 0.00, 0.25)" (where 1.00 = 100%)

  
  
  
  
  • If the SVG is generated in a browser, browsers don't like setting style data like this. Try first setting the fill attribute directly, and if that doesn't work, try using a custom SVG attribute like data-fill="#223fa3 icc-color..." then find-replace it away in the text file.
  
  
  • Don't worry if everything shows up as black in the browser, that's a sign the fill data is there but the browser doesn't understand it - normal. Check with inspect element to be sure.
  
  
  • If the SVG is generated by Raphael, set it like element.node.setAttribute( 'fill', '#223fa3 icc-color...' ); - Raphael's .attr('fill','') doesn't seem to apply to the actual element. Also update .attr('fill') if code needs to read that later. Same goes for stroke. Will only work in SVG mode, naturally...
  
  
  
  


• Import the SVG file into Scribus using File > Import > Get vector



• Export as a PDF (exporting as EPS didn't work for me, it bodged all the colours). Make sure that in the export options it's set to 'CMYK' or 'For printing' or however they phrase it at the moment under the colour management tab - the default seems to be RGB ("For web/screens").


• Open that PDF in Illustrator - it should open as a CMYK document with the same CMYK colours as specified in the original SVG.

Result: CMYK graphics in Illustrator, matching the SVG, with CMYK colours as specified in the SVG.

---

Warning: Scribus's SVG support is very ropey. In particular:

• There's basically no SVG text support, and they got no further towards supporting SVG text than an argument about whose fault this is. Expect it to outline all text too far up in the wrong font with awful kerning.


• It seems to get confused by gradients and transparency - though sometimes it displays things properly, despite complaining along the way.


• Everything in the PDF will be wrapped in a heap of clipping masks.



• Scribus's own interface is really confusing (as of summer 2013) - I recommend doing the absolute minimum tinkering in Scribus itself.

Sometimes you might need to mix elements from the original SVG (e.g. text) with the Scribus-borked version. If anyone knows a better way than Scribus, please share!

---

If you need specific colour profiles, you can install more colour profiles in Scribus and specify them in your SVG, but I'm not sure of the details. This previously-linked article might be a good place to start.

deletion - How to guide in removing something non critical

When a user wants to remove something we tend to protect them by:

• asking for a confirmation, yes | no


• giving them an option to undo

This holds up for content that actually gets deleted. An email you delete, or trashing a photo. But what about less critical actions? Like removing a tag from an article, or un-friending someone? In such cases no content gets deleted, it is just a relation which is not there anymore. But adding it again is trivial.

One approach is to not guide at all. Just a red cross, and clicking it removed the tag from the article. Are there any ways to guide users in this? (Except for making it easy to re-create it.)

Answer

How about providing a brief message that's displayed right after the action, giving you a chance to reconsider? "You un-friended Jack. You will no longer receive updates from him. Undo?" If the message doesn't open a dialog but appears on the page itself, and it disappears automatically a second later, then it can be very subtle and non-interfering. This is a bit different from "making it easy to recreate it", because it's closer to "having never un-friended Jack in the first place" than to "re-friending Jack". It may even cause different behaviors - like not really un-friending Jack until the immediate undo option had disappeared.

Alternatively, you can prove this info on hover/tooltip on the button, before the action is performed.

sort - Filtering vs. Sorting?

I'm creating a e-commerce site that will have different experiences for consumers and business owners. We're designing the business interface to allow them to quickly research existing and future trends. We're currently thinking a table would be familiar to the user, and would allow them to print and export to Excel. There's 9 criteria that could be filtered or sorted.

Are there any best practices or rules of thumb when deciding what to filter and what to sort? Or to allow both?

Answer

When your values are on a nominal scale (names without an inherent order except alphabetical - e.g. "phones; appliances; laptops"), it makes more sense to filter, because sorting is basically meaningless - they have no real order. The exception to this is when you have a very large number of different values, which aren't repetitive, e.g. Names. In that case filtering is just not helpful, since in order to choose a value to filter you need to go through the same long list of values as you'd have if you wanted to locate that value in the table itself.

Numerical values with a meaningful order can be both sorted and filtered, it depends on the data. For example, an "exact price" column should be sorted, not filtered - because if you're interested in items that cost $200, then you're probably equally interested in those costing $190-$210, the 200 is just an anchor, and you wouldn't want to hide those similar products. Another good example is a "file size" column. But a column like "price range" could be both sorted and filtered - if you're interested in items costing $200-$300, then you may or may not want to see items in the $100-$200 and $300-$400 categories.

Columns where the user is likely to look for the minimum or maximum value are sorted, because then you get your answer with one or two clicks, and filtering would take as much work as locating the answer manually.

Columns containing a few broad categories (movie ratings on 1-5 scale on a large set) make more sense filtered, because if you have a hundred movies for each rating, then most of the time you'll be looking within category in any case, and only in the beginning or the end of the category will you see its neighbors on one side. So sorting doesn't help you, and it just makes it harder to locate the category you're looking for.

In short, the more different values you have, the more sense it makes to sort.

option pricing - Risk Neutral Probability

I read that an option prices is the expected value of the payout under the risk neutral probability. Intuitively why is the expectation taken with respect to risk neutral as opposed to the actual probabilty.

Intuitively why would risk neutral probability differ from actual probability?

Answer

The following is a standard exercise that will help you answer your own question.

Consider a one-period binomial lattice for a stock with a constant risk-free rate.

Determine the initial cost of a portfolio that perfectly hedges a contingent claim with payoff $uX$ in the upstate and $dX$ in the downstate (you can do this so long as the up and down price are different in your lattice).

Assuming there exists no portfolio that yields a profit without downside risk (assume no arbitrage) and that your economy is frictionless and competitive, show that any other price for the contingent claim, other than the initial cost of the replicating portfolio you found, would lead to the existence of a portfolio that yields a profit without downside risk. Pause and reflect on the fact that you have determined the price of any contingent claim without any mention of probability. However, don't forget what you assumed! What did you actually need to do what you just did?

Now that you know that the price of the initial portfolio is the "arbitrage free" price of the contingent claim, find the number $q$ such that you can express that price of the contingent claim as the discounted payoff in the up state times a number $q$ plus the discounted payoff in the downstate times the number $1-q$. Solve for the number $q$. Interpret the number $q$ as a probability and compute the expected value of the discounted stock with this probability. This should be the same as the initial price of the stock. Pause and reflect on the fact that you have determined the unique number $q$ between $0$ and $1$ such that the expected value (using $q$) of the discounted stock is the initial price and that you can compute the price of any contingent claim by computing its expected (using $q$) discounted payoff.

It is clear from what you have just done that if you chose any other number $p$ between $0$ and $1$ other than the $q$ and computed the expected (using $p$) discount payoff, then you would not recover the arbitrage free price (remember you have shown that any other price than the one you found leads to an arbitrage portfolio). This means that if you had a real world probability $p$ for your initial lattice, it is not the correct probability to use when computing the price.

How was the old VIX calculated?

Today VIX is computed based on near- and next- term options series which fall into the time period of [23, 37] days. That is what it is now, when they use SPX weekly, so they have options expiring every week.

The question is, how was VIX calculated before 2014, when they used traditional SPX options only, expiring every month on the 3rd Friday? Could there be a situation when VIX was computed based on options with maturities of 1 and 31 days, for example?

And why end-of-month series are ignored?

Answer

There were two changes to the VIX; the first change in 2003 that switched from S&P 100 options to S&P 500, and from implied volatility to variance swap method. The second change was in 2014 when calculation included weekly options.

Before 2014 the first series used had to have at least one week to expiration. Then the next series was used without any limit on time to expiration.

Month-end options were certainly considered, but are not used probably because historically they have been less liquid than regular 3rd Friday options. It is hard to say why CBOE did not include them when they included weeklys - I have not calculated statistics, but I just checked quotes, and bid-ask spreads, volumes, and open interest on month-end options appear comparable to nearest weekly options.

Source: pre-2014 VIX white paper http://www.dormantrading.com/uploaded/docs/directory/vixwhite.pdf

Alternative (reliable) link to white paper: https://web.archive.org/web/20091231021416/https://www.cboe.com/micro/vix/vixwhite.pdf

adobe photoshop - How can I stop Outlook from screwing up images inserted into an HTML email?

(using: Windows 8.1 [running at 125% DPI], Outlook 2013, Exchange 2007 )

Hi

I have a problem getting my graphic designs which I am creating on Outlook emails to come out correctly if I have changed the Window DPI setting to 125% (i.e. 120 DPI).

What happens is the moment that I insert an image into the body of an email in Outlook the image is resized (physically made larger by 25%, by blurring in my case). In some instances this resizing only happens the moment you press Send.

Either way what the recipient sees is an enlarged, blurred image. Nightmare.

At present the ONLY answer seems to be to change the Windows DPI to 96DPI. However one is forced to log out of Windows for this to take effect. However the Windows text on any moderately high res screen is painfully small and I am then soon forced by hurting eyes to change it back again which involves logging out and in again.

I have tried creating images of 120 DPI (difficult but possible) however this does not seem to work.

Gmail is out of the question for several reasons.

I have tried Thunderbird but it too enlarger images when displayed and also the only way to get it to work with Exchange is to install a plugin. I have use ExQillia but that will blow up in 60 days and thereafter it costs $10 which is not acceptable.

If any one knows a way to stop Outlook 2013 from re-sizing please let me know.

Thanks

website design - Is it ethical to copy the work of other designers?

I am neither a graphic designer nor do I consider myself one. I have little grasp of colour theory, and basic knowledge of design principles. I do possess a sense of what looks good, though, and I am good at recreating designs.

I chose a beautiful website and set about creating my own design using it as a template. I asked the site owner for permission to use his backgrounds, and he agreed upon the condition that I show him the finished product.

Having finished I am not comfortable doing so. The designs do look similar. I am using the same font, the same backgrounds, and the same heading style. The layout is different, amongst other things, but there are many similarities.

Is it ethical to copy the work of other designers? Where is the tipping point from being inspired by (ethical) to copying (unethical) something?

What is some general advice for demoing wireframes to clients?

I've been working on a web app, and have gotten the wireframes pretty far along, based on initial in-house research & discussion. The biz guys are eager to set up some demos of the wireframes to potential clients, and I'm eager to use those as an opportunity for more research. Any general advice about what questions to ask, things to avoid, approach, etc.?

TIA

What's the pattern name for: optional action menu after input

Looking for a pattern name for an action menu that can be opened after input. Visual Studio has this when you for example change a name and you get visual indicator that you can press Ctrl + . to open a small action menu (see below). We are thinking of using this pattern in our web application so the user has the option to do like "Apply to all." once input is valid.

=>

Answer

I believe the pattern name you are looking for is a Context Menu. Tradionally they are accessed via right click or ctrl click but in this case the trigger appears to be a hover or key down.

http://tworivers.com/blog/archives/489

Color loss during colorspace conversions

Why are conversions from a smaller colorspace to a "larger" one often lossy? How can a smaller gamut have colors that cannot be represented in a larger (overlapping) gamut?

Answer

Color values are quantized by the bit depth of the format used to store the data. For example, in most standard formats and modern displays there are eight bits per color, per pixel, sometimes referred to as 24-bit True Color. There are 2^8 = 256 levels, which is why RGB colors are typically represented by three values in the range 0 to 255. Unless the conversion of a particular color results in exactly an integer value in the target space, it has to be rounded to the nearest accurate value. (Incidentally, dithering is used to make this rounding less deterministic, thereby reducing banding.)

To illustrate, let us define some fictional color spaces in one dimension.

Let Profile1 cover the entire range from "true black" to "true white," represented arbitrarily as the black and white values of our displays. Let it be a 4-bit space, with 2^4 = 16 levels possible. A gradient in this space would look something like this:

Let Profile2 cover only half the range of Profile1, such that the darkest value it can represent is a dark gray, and the lightest is a light gray. It is also 4-bit. A gradient in this space would look something like:

If we wish to convert the gradient image in the smaller Profile2 to the larger Profile1 we have to "map" each of the values from Profile2 to a new value in Profile1. If we did not, and simply changed the profile while preserving the color numbers, the colors would shift: in this case the contrast would increase. Let us see what happens when we map each of the colors in Profile2 gradient to its nearest color in Profile1:

Even though Profile1 is a larger color space this is certainly not a lossless conversion.
In fact because Profile1 is larger, and yet has only the same 16 levels in which to represent colors, the gaps between each available color are larger. Even if the profile spaces were the same size but covered a different range the colors that each level represented would be different, and you would still have to fit a color to its nearest match rather than being accurate. It is this inaccuracy that dithering helps: specifically, it trades one kind for another, introducing noise to fake impossible colors. Here is the same conversion from Profile2 to Profile1, this time using dithering:

The grayscale space simplifies the illustration and the limited bit-depth exaggerates the effect. Nevertheless, the exact same process affects conversions between all color spaces. The higher the bit-depth the more precision is available, and the closer to "lossless" the conversion may be. (You must still of course contend with color gamut, and the tradeoffs that are made to fit one gamut to another.)

fiction - Is the ambiguity in my story the salt which makes it tasty or just plain frustrating?

Because this story is quite ambiguous in relation to the setting and also the main character's gender, I have been wondering whether this is frustrating for the reader or whether it provides a good effect for the story.

It’s been twenty-eight years since it began. Their government is hell-bent on destruction, willed on by – them. Those men who walk around in their suits, full of self-importance. On their fourteen thousand pound a year, have decided we must conform to their standards. We must speak their language. Adhere to their customs. They invaded my people’s land just over one-hundred years ago. Tried to destroy my race and overtook the country. Today my people will send a message to ‘them’.

I live in a community where they are few and far between. They aren’t as brutal as the ones in the bigger cities, probably due to the fact that we outnumber them at a rate of almost one-hundred to one. Although it has been over one hundred years since they stole my people’s land, they have only just taken the last step towards overtaking my peoples country. A bloody twenty-eight year battle has been fought. That is why today, my people are protesting the introduction of their language at my school.

I was five hundred metres away when I rounded the corner and caught my first glimpse of the crowd that had amassed for the rally. At first it looked like there was about ten thousand people, later I realised this was far from correct. Not one of them was around. All I could see was black. It was inspirational seeing all of my people here, slowly rolling towards me, rumbling just like a summer storm. As I got to within two hundred metres of them I heard it. A sound so terrifying, I break down every time I hear it, the POP! of a semi-automatic weapon. The crowd rushed in every direction, avoiding the bullets being hurled at them. Police suddenly swarmed, almost as if they had been teleported in. They must’ve brought them in from the city. ‘POP! POP! POP!’ Within five seconds police, were everywhere. I was now within one-hundred metres. The only safe-haven on the right side of the street, an old white, crumbling mud-brick shanty, roof tiles scattered across the road, was now almost pitch, covered with trembling. I ran quickly to the left side of the road where I found a tree and climbed it. Branches gouged my face cutting it open in several places. I couldn’t feel anything due to the fear of being shot.

I sat watching from my vantage point in the tree. Three students were thrown, lifeless, into a pile. Two of them were standing next to the small mound. ‘POP! POP! POP!’. Due to the shock at the situation unfolding, my vision slowly blurred. After about fifteen minutes the shock had dissipated and the scene started to become clear again. Guns trained on them, the dead students’ mothers and siblings screamed in what sounded like a mix of anger and grief.

After seven hours, the fighting died down. I decided to make a break. It was the longest minute of my life. With the searchlights trained on me I weaved my way down the road, bullets whizzing past my torso. I was ten metres away from the refuge of a building. My leg gave way. I’d been shot. When I hit the ground I heard footsteps, heavy ones. The next thing I knew I was sitting up against a house, covered by the all-consuming darkness. The voice of a young man pierced the cold night air. It sounded, different, foreign almost. It was then I realised that this man was one of them. ‘Bloody bastards!’ he exclaimed. ‘Why are you helping me?’ I asked, bamboozled. Was this a dream? ‘I’m one of you.’ ‘You can’t be, you’re not like us, you neither speak nor look like us.’

The man stood, silent. Then, displaying knowledge well beyond his years explained, ‘I may not look or speak like you, but I believe in your cause’. He continued ‘that makes me one of you.’ ‘POP! POP! POP!’ That dreadful sound continued to wreak havoc in the hearts and minds of my people. The ‘POP!’ had been followed by the ‘THWUMP!’ of flesh hitting the ground. I took a peek, the pile had grown. It was now about five-feet high.

As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I could see the young man holding something that resembled a soft-drink can and a gun. I soon realised it wasn’t soft drink, it was a silencer. Placing the silencer on the gun he instructed me to stay where I was. The young man’s heroics lasted but thirty seconds. He, who had risked his life to save me, in an act of defiance against his people, was gunned down. With rage rising like the sun, I did it, I ran out into the open, snatched the gun off the ground and peppered them with six bullets. I hit three. ‘SHIT!’ No bullets left. With only one of them left standing, I ran for it. Using cars as shields, I sprinted down the road. As I got to the last car, ten metres away from the sole survivor, I heard it. It was the most beautiful sound in the world. About one hundred of my people, of all ages, all screaming. They ducked out from behind the crumbling, mud-brick shanty. The last police officer, with only three bullets left and one-hundred people surging towards him, fired his gun in desperation. All three shots drifted away into the night. He was gone in under three minutes.

That was the day our country united.

vector - Making transparent but still hiding any objects below in Illustrator

Hello I am new to Illustrator (I was working with photoshop a few years). How can I fix this problem?

Answer

Either:

1. 
   

   Manually cut the paths, probably using the Scissors Tool (C).

   
   


2. 
   
   

   Use pathfinder operations (Window → Pathfinder).

   
   

or

3. Define a transparency knockout group.

color - How accurate is pantone conversion in Illustrator and how should I send "Pantone References" asked by the printer?

I've been hired to do a big campaign that requires all sorts of permutations of an Illustrator design.

Most recently, I was asked to make a banner. The printer wants my Illustrator file (no pdf) in CMYK, but requires Pantone references. But I have no Pantone Book (and I'm basically too poor to buy one right now).

So I just converted the nine main colors in my artwork from CMYK to Pantone through Illustrators color books. How accurate will this be as a reference for the printer? And is it enough to just use my nine most used colors (there are about 100 colors in my illustration)?

And this might seem like a silly question: but how do I send them this? Do I just add a Pantone Swatches Folder within my file for them? Or do I send this in a seperate file?

I've never encountered these sort of printer requirements and I'm at a loss.

Thanks in advance.

information architecture - How to prove a design opposed by the product stakeholders?

We've been working on/off on an account/bar header for a large corporate site for nearly a year now.

We've got so many stakeholders that nobody can ever agree what should go there!

What tools/ways/arguments do UX pros have for sorting this stuff out!

We have quantitave stats on header links useage, but many of those could be false positives (ie, if you put a link in the header, then people are going to click on it!).

BTW - I'm doing some usability testing on the Beta site on Thursday - can I use this to somewhat get some clarity on the situation!

Answer

I think its more about politics and people than about statics and testings. Nevertheless those give substance to your arguments.

In mettings at presenting your design:

• Keep in mind what history and interests your colleagues stand for. Be prepared for it and have arguments for that.



• Identify who is against your arguments and why. Sometimes its best to have a single meeting and presentation with them before. so you can go more into detail. Take their concerns serious, this can work as a dooropener.


• Invite stakeholders to your UX-Testings, so they can see how people struggle with the actual design.


• Invite stakeholders to Design Session and get a Buy-In. Nobody would argue against own ideas - (actually you can spin ideas in right direction during the Session).


• Try to get buddies. Make favours for some and get favours back.

More tactical:

• Step back on some minor points and get your big point win.


• Present minor designs first, so people can get their heads dive into them. Later or last present your most important design - people havent much energy now, got some winning fights and are more likely to wave your design through.


• If nessesary make a special meeting for a very debated/unclear point. So the meeting is going on and not disturbed by just a single tpoic.

Your arguments/points can be supported by:

• UX Testing Outcome


• Interview quotes


• Analytics


• KPI improvements (if numbers matter)


• ROI on new design (if numbers matter)


• Sketches


• Prototypes

And here is a good article about how to manage and prepare this kind of decision-making meetings at Uxmag.com.

Selling UX at UXmatters

Communicating the UX Value Proposition at UXmag

Where's the Value? Return on User Experience (ROUX).

How much software experience do I need to be a well-rounded graphic designer?

How many different software applications should a designer be familiar with? I've been asked to work on Illustrator, and also .paint [Paint.NET? -Ed]. I'm confused about how many applications I need to practice. If I don't learn .paint, will I still be able to survive in the industry? I can't settle for only knowing Photoshop.

My questions is: What software applications are most important for graphic designers to know?

I list Photoshop as major and Illustrator as minor in my portfolio, but I've also been asked about Inkscape, PaintShop, GIMP, and others. I don't feel like my portfolio is complete with just PS and AI.

We all know this field is very vast, but I don't have time to master every application. I want to learn, but I need to decide which software to focus on.

Answer

As many of the other answers point out, software is just a tool to bring your concepts and ideas to life. So, most importantly, make sure that you are very well versed in creating unique concepts. Always start with sketches, as they help you to explore ideas quickly and possibly come up with things "by accident," which can often lead to some of your best ideas.

That being said...

Photoshop - great all around tool, the MacGyver of design tools

Illustrator - great for vector work and illustrations

InDesign - great for print layouts and multi-page projects. The standard in the print industry

Dreamweaver - helpful for wysiwyg web design, although not necessary. Depending on your coding background/experience, many people just do the coding by hand.

After Effects - great for motion graphics. If you are into video and motion graphics this application is EXCELLENT and is very powerful

Flash - great for web application design (some people will refute this) and animation. Great in small doses but is often overused, esp in web design.

Fireworks - helpful for web graphics and slicing, but not essential

PowerPoint 2010 - Although PowerPoint has gotten a very bad rap over the years for its misuse and terrible presentations(the users fault), the new version of PowerPoint is capable of making some graphically stunning presentations, and is fairly easy to use. Check out this great example of what is possible.

Expression Web - helpful for web design. Very similar to Dreamweaver, but offers some more optimization tools.

Autodesk Maya - Amazing 3D rendering software. Most places don't specialize in 3D, but this can really help to give you an edge against another applicant. It can also help a design firm to have an extra asset on their team. Be forewarned, there is a bit of a steep learning curve

Again, the bottom line is to have a strong background in graphic design. The ideas far outweigh the means of expressing them, and any piece of software can be learned over time.

If going for a job in print: Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign are a must. The entire Adobe suite recommended.

If going for a job in web: Photoshop, Illustrator and Dreamweaver/Expression Web are a strong recommendation.

Hope all this helps.

Universal or standard pattern of keyboard layout design

One of the arguments for having different keyboard layout designs is that they are tailored for different devices and their usage. So for example, a physical keyboard layout is often similar on a smartphone with a physical keypad but can vary when it is on a smartphone with a soft keypad. Sometimes UX designers will also create variations of the keyboard layout for devices of different display resolutions, such as the split-keyboard layout for tablets, or number keypads when only numerical entry is required (e.g. pin number).

Another interesting factor is the very slow and gradual uptake of alternate keyboard layouts like Dvorak and Colemak that introduces more efficiency and less strain on the hands, which has prompted the increase of virtual keyboards that map these alternate layout onto the physical keyboards.

With the trend towards same user interface across devices (cloud or browser based applications leading this trend), I was wondering if there is a standard being established for keyboard layout that is intended for all devices, or whether there will continue to be a divergence of layouts as long as the current separation of mainstream devices continue (i.e. desktop, tablet, mobile).

My question: is there a standard keyboard layout designed to work across different devices and work environments? Or is this too hard to do because of all the variations of devices and use cases that needs to be catered for?

Perhaps it won't even be necessary if conversational interfaces become more popular, or if the prices of virtual keyboards come down (e.g. those that use visual and tactile sensors to process input).

dashboard - Is there a difference between a blank state as a new user and an existing user with no active content?

I'm working on a dashboard where there may be a delay in populating content (charts) when an account is first set up. With this scenario, I have created blank states as well as a message that informs new users that data is in the process of being collected and will populate once done.

The second scenario is that the account has been active for a while, but there is no activity in their data collection. While I cannot reveal what the project is, a similar example would be using Fitbit for the first time, and then you stop using it for a while. When you go back to check your dashboard, the charts would display no activity just as it was when you logged in for the first time.

My question is, while the context of these scenarios are different should the visualization also be different? Or is it just a matter of changing the message but not the charts? Hope this all makes sense.

What are the reasons against using a Splash Screen for a website?

I have a client who insists on having a splash screen on their website and I'm trying to persuade him against it. I'd like a listing of reasons against the use of a flash/silverlight-based splash screen as the main entry point to the website.

One reason per answer, please.

Answer

Ask them what business objectives having a splash screen fulfills or how it enhances the main purpose of the website. A website should be subordinate to its business objectives (I'm using business objectives as a general term here, meaning overall objectives for the site). If you can get your client thinking in those terms, it'll make your client relationship a lot easier.

fiction - Has this dialogue enough suspense to engage the reader?

I still have to make some grammar and writing corrections but I would like to know if this dialogue Has this has enough suspense to engage the reader (so that he or she wants to read more)?

“Excuse me, have you seen a girl that looks like this coming here?” he said while showing the picture of the girl.

“Sorry,” the bartender said apologetic, “I’m new, I don’t know many people here,” the bartender replied. “As you can see, there are not many people around,” he continues, “You are the first person I’ve seen for a while.”

He continued cleaning some glasses for some minutes. “Is this person lost?,” he finally asked.

“Not sure, but...Well, I can’t find her.” he replied.

“Maybe you should report to police.” the bartender said.

“No, she is just someone I...someone that I used to be with,” he continues, “We lost contact for a long time. We used to come to this place frequently. We used to drink vodka and eat Mexican chicken here, then we walked in that bridge over there,” he said pointing to a big window.

“Reconciliation with a past lover, uh?” the bartender said.

“Well, actually, I already have a girlfriend,” the young man added.

“Cheating, uh?” the bartender joked.

The young man seemed to ignore the comment.

After an uncomfortable silence, the bartender finally added, “Why don’t you just call her?”

The young man thought for a while,“I did many times, but...each time I call, she doesn’t pick up the phone”, he said while taking another shot, then he continued.

“Well few days ago, she called, she said that she would meet me in that bridge...but she never showed up.”

After finishing that sentence the young looked out of the window, while the bartender kept quite. Suddenly, the silence was broken by the ring of the phone.

Would you suggest any improvements?

Answer

1. too much dialogue.


2. too much information about what you want the reader to guess (that is, the suspenseful bit).


3. not enough information about the characters to care.

The point of suspense is to leave the reader wondering what else is going on? what's going to happen next? This is talky without making us interested. We should get enough information to wonder, but not enough information to figure it out.

It should read more like:

---

The man came in, looking worried and a bit windblown. He glanced around the bar, wiping the palm of one hand repeatedly on his jacket.

After a long moment, he approached the bartender.

"What can I get you?"

"Nothing, thanks. Listen — you haven't seen this girl, have you?" The man pulled a tattered photograph out of his pocket. She was young, dark-haired, pretty. Wide expressive eyes and a broad, inviting smile. From the clothes and hair, it might have been ten years ago.

"No, sorry. I'm actually kind of new here," the bartender apologized.

"But you haven't seen her? You're sure?" the man persisted.

The bartender gestured to the room. There was one guy at the far end of the bar watching a hockey game on the TV, and two men at a table in the corner having lunch. Other than that, the room was empty. "We don't get a lot of people here. I'd've seen her if she came in."

The man fidgeted. The bartender picked up a glass and began to polish it.

"Is she lost?" the bartender finally asked.

"I don't know," the man admitted. "She won't answer my calls."

"Sounds like she wants you to get lost, buddy," the bartender said, not unkindly.

The man shook his head. "We were supposed to meet here a few days ago and she didn't show. She doesn't answer her door either."

The bartender pointed to the shiny black phone on the bar next to the register. "So call the police."

"I can't."

"Why not?"

The man didn't answer. The bartender went back to polishing glasses while the man stared out the window.

Abruptly the phone rang, shatteringly loud in the quiet bar.

---

"Worried and a bit windblown": why is he worried? was he running? running from someone?

"wiping his palm": wiping off sweat? nervous?

"tattered photograph, ten years old": He's held on to this for a LONG time. It's a last memento, it's the only link he has to this woman.

"pretty, inviting": she's inviting us from the photograph.

"persisted": the guy REALLY wants to find her.

"fidgeted": nervous. maybe hiding something.

"finally": the bartender has to draw him out. He has to pull the information out of the man. that heightens tension.

"admitted": He didn't want to have to say that he didn't know. he's hoping she's okay, but she might not be.

"she doesn't answer her door": a hint that in fact there IS something bad going on. most people would be willing to let a call go to voicemail, but people rarely flat-out refuse to answer the door if they're home.

"I can't call the police": Now that's very interesting. Why not?

"shatteringly": to emphasize how tense the man is.

risk management - Kelly criterion for normally distributed returns

If the returns of my strategy are distributed like 𝒩[μ,σ], what is the optimal fraction of capital to invest in each single trade, as a function μ and σ? Help!

PS. I know that normally distributed returns are an abstraction. But I'd like to grasp the concept in an ideal world, before exploring the implications of fat tails on the formula...

Answer

This problem can be expressed as the original Merton's portfolio problem.

Consider wealth process defined by SDE

$$ d X _ { t } = \frac { X _ { t } \alpha _ { t } } { S _ { t } } d S _ { t } + \frac { X _ { t } \left( 1 - \alpha _ { t } \right) } { S _ { t } ^ { 0 } } d S _ { t } ^ { 0 } $$

where $\alpha_t$ is proportion of the investment in the risky asset $S_t$, and $S_t^0$ is the risk-free asset.

Optimality criterion may depend on the risk aversion of the investor, and the problem is to maximize expected utility of the investor for appropriate utility function $U$:

$$ E \left[ U \left( X _ { T } \right) \right] \rightarrow \max $$

Classical choice of the utility function is CRRA:

$$ u ( x ) = \frac { x ^ { 1 - \gamma } } { 1 - \gamma } $$

where $\gamma$ is constant and corresponds to the risk-aversion of the investor.

If the asset $S_t$ follows Black-Scholes dynamics (in conformance with your assumption of log-normal returns)

$$ \begin{aligned} d S _ { t } ^ { 0 } & = r S _ { t } ^ { 0 } d t \\ d S _ { t } & = \mu S _ { t } d t + \sigma S _ { t } d W _ { t } \end{aligned} $$

remarkably there is a closed-form solution which it is to invest a constant proportion of wealth in the risky asset

$$ \alpha_t = \frac { \mu - r } { \gamma \sigma ^ { 2 } } $$

Notice that the solution can be interpreted as the mean-variance trade-off.

login - Banned user tries to log in − show a “Banned” message or a generic “Cannot log you in”?

From a Ux standpoint, what is the best practice around messaging when a banned user/customer/member attempts to log in? I'm asking for a forum project I am working on, but also looking for guidance which would apply to any scenario where a user can register/sign-up, etc, then be banned/locked, etc.

I am still working out all of the use cases and flow, but what we know is that there can be a banned user, and there exists some login functionality and a reset password functionality. The need is to "handle" cases where a banned user attempts to use any of those functionalities. I guess that is the broader question - what is the best way to handle this from a UX perspective.

Specifically looking at messaging for (a) when the banned user tries to log in, and (b) when the banned user tries to reset their password.

Seems there are three options, going from more specific down to more generic:

1. Message is shown stating the user is banned and can not be logged in


2. Message is shown stating the user can not be logged in, and not state why


3. No message shown.

The "community building" aspect of the question is here: https://communitybuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/1377/banned-user-tries-to-log-in-show-a-banned-message-or-a-generic-cant-log-you

Tangency portfolio and CML - Why does it have the highest sharpe ratio?

In the book that I am studying, the tangent portfolio was defined as the regular efficient portfolio in the case with $n$ risky assets and 1 riskfree asset with the extra requirement that the portfolio invests fully in the risky assets. So the tangent portfolio can be derived using the solutions to the mean/variance analysis problem: $$w = \frac{\mu_P}{\mu^T \Sigma^{-1} \mu}\Sigma^{-1} \mu$$$$ \sigma_P^2 = \frac{\mu_P^2}{\mu^T \Sigma^{-1} \mu}$$ where one can apply the restrictions on $w$ to obtain weights, mean excess return, and variance of the portfolio.

Yet I know that in other books, this portfolio is actually defined as the one with the highest sharpe ratio. I don't see the connection. How is this proven, if we used the derivation described above? I can calculate the sharpe ratio (it turns out to be the square root of the denominator in the second equation above), but how do I know it's bigger than the ones corresponding to all other investments in risky assets?

adobe photoshop - Why use Fireworks for website design?

I've used Photoshop to design (more or less) every website I've made in the past 9 or 10 years. I hear people going on about Fireworks saying that it's excellent for web design and prototyping.

When Adobe took over Macromedia, I was surprised that Fireworks survived so there must be something great about it to keep it going alongside, for what I can see, a very similar program.

Can anybody give me a good outline of the pros and cons of using Fireworks over Photoshop and the differences I'll need to know about before trying it out?

-- edit --

I'll be more interested to hear the little things that people do with it that makes it so useful over having massive articles pasted at me.

print design - How to create a very big photo (like for a billboard)

So I'm designing a CD cover for my friends band. And I will have to use a photo of them for that cover. How am I supposed to create it so that it won't pixelize if they want to use that for a big advertisement (like a billboard or something simmilar). Sorry for my english, it's not my native lanugage :)

pacing - How to show a character being bored for multiple chapters without boring the reader

When my protagonist is learning to use their magical skill, they must remain in hiding. Because they have not yet mastered their magical skill.

My protagonist is bored from being holed up for so long. There's very little to do beyond read boring books and practice boring magic spells.

How do I keep the reader from being bored too? Maybe I just shorten it all?

Edit: Just an update that these two chapters, after following Erin's excellent advice, are now two of my favorite chapters. :-) Thanks all.

Answer

Use film and other literature to inspire you--in particular this song Do you Want to Build a Snow Man. The character is bored. There's empty hallways, but time passes and that's communicated in a number of different ways.

In literature Harry Potter is a really good example--boredom is handled well throughout his novels, you can look to any description of the History of Magic class for that. I believe that's Professor Binns...

Also, even though there's a unique framing device at work, The Princess Bride novel just has all sorts of fun describing boring stuff...

Here's a little Douglas Adams for you:

In the end, it was the Sunday afternoons he couldn't cope with, and that terrible listlessness which starts to set in at about 2:55, when you know that you've had all the baths you can usefully have that day, that however hard you stare at any given paragraph in the papers you will never actually read it, or use the revolutionary new pruning technique it describes, and that as you stare at the clock the hands will move relentlessly on to four o'clock, and you will enter the long dark teatime of the soul.

I think Raymond Chandler has a lot of bored detectives on stakeout, if I recall...

How a character HANDLES boredom is a golden opportunity to show who they are.

Device one: character cleans, straightens, alphabetizes and rearranges everything. Give a start time. Give an end time. The end time will be 5 minutes later. (For humor)

Device two: Practice Spells Repeatedly whatever the spells are, however "boring" the character thinks they are, they aren't. For instance, the cantrip firefinger (stealing from D&D) would be the equivalent of flicking a lighter on over and over again, something that someone might do if they are bored. I have no idea what these spells are that you are having them have access to but--you can show that, or show evidence of them having practiced them excessively to stave off the boredom. Someone can walk in and see that evidence. So like there's a spell that levitates feathers or objects, and the student is seeing how many of them they can keep going at the same time--dropping all of them when someone finally comes in and distracts them. If it's an impressive amount, it's a great way to show they are good at magic. Or it could be the magical equivalent of walking in to find hundreds of pencils buried in the foam ceiling when you come to pick up a kid out of detention....You can probably do this with ANY spell. Or a number of them.

Device three: Add flashback to the boredom.

Device four: Have them be creatively bored. A bored genius is not the same as the rest of us... YOU see a room full of boring books (maybe all the same book of the same size) but he might see something else entirely... A way to create a maze, Rube Goldberg machine, as a way to prove the grand unification theory of magic, and so on and so forth.

Device Five: Screw up the spells. If they aren't good, or careful, or their mind just wandered, let there be physical evidence of a spell got a little out of their control. They can be concerned with hiding evidence of their failure (placing books over a scorch mark or something like).

Device Six: They begin focusing in on small details, knots in wood, scratches on something, typeface lettering...this can be a goldmine again, because it can lead them to discover something relevant to the plot later on.

Device Seven: Show time crawling on, but be brief about it. The reader will get the point. See the Douglas Adams quote above for an example of that.

Device Eight: The Cutback Movies use this. Basically, a whole bunch of other exciting things are happening, meanwhile cut back to the bored person, and they are making paperclip chains stuck in a room. Exciting thing, cut back to bored character seeing how tall they can stack books, exciting battle, cut back to bored character who has now arranged chairs so that they can be upside down while they try to score goals with paper wads in the trash can...and so on. You said several chapters--honestly can't say that boredom covered in several chapters without interceding action happening at the same time would be entertaining.

You don't even have to describe what the character did, just have evidence of their boredom everywhere in the room.

In the Douglas Adams example, you'll notice, that boredom is very neatly conveyed in a very short description. The passage of hours and time is interwoven in the description. You should be able to describe the boredom in short. You don't need pages to do it, or even half a page, just a scant paragraph will do.