Facebook's news feed employs a 1-column layout, whereas Google+ employs multi-columns, depending on the width of the browser. (It appears it's between 1-3 columns). Pinterest have many.
Are there any studies or guidelines that suggest strengths / weaknesses of this difference, and when one should favour one approach over another?
i.e., do users get confused or overwhelmed by the multiple columns?
Where I work, we have a system that has a screen with several fields. There are approximately 50 fields and all are important and should appear.
//edited in gimp :D
Any suggestions on how to arrange the fields so that it does not look so ugly and complicated?
Answer
For the question's sake, let's assume all the fields are necessary. But it could be a problem of Information Architecture. Adressing it first could reduce the ammount of fields in the form and make it easier. Here is a good article on IA and web forms.
The most obvious "problem" with the form is the lack of rhythm and balance, in fact it is breaking most of the known design principles.
Notice how there are too many vertical lines. This could be fixed by using a grid, and even composing to a vertical rhythm, it would give order to the form.
Last but not least, you could make it into a multiple step form, so not all the fields are displayed at once. Here a Q&A explaining when to use each and here on how to indicate progress.
As a reader, I have found that when I disagree with an author's views or actions, this has influenced me not to buy their books.
As an author, I therefore wonder whether readers generally view the work as completely independent from the author's personal views? And what if the book is semi-autobiographical? Do readers see the author as part-and-parcel with the book as it tells much about its creator?
Answer
Joanne Rowling has famously hidden her gender behind male-seeming initials to meet reader expectations. We don't know how Harry Potter would have sold if it would have been published under Joanne's real name instead of "J. K.", but I have stopped reading books by a few authors, because I disagree with their political views or find their online behaviour obnoxious. I have also picked up books in bookstores because the names of the authors attracted me.
All of that is merely anecdotal, but studies find that many readers react in a similar way to the "persona" of the author. For example, Michelle Goldsmith (2016) has conducted a survey of 396 readers and writers of speculative fiction, in which she found that "factors such as an author's persona, online behaviour, political or social views, and role in prominent genre controversies can have significant impacts on readers’ reception of their work, both explicitly and implicitly".
The author's "persona" can be thought of as a reader's (or potential buyer's) idea or mental image of what kind of person the author is. Readers buy fiction to satisfy needs, and if the author "looks" as if he or she can satisfy that need, the impulse to buy their book is that much greater. Aspects that have been shown to influence buying behaviour are physical attractiveness (pretty women sell more books than unattractive women), expertise (think of the attorney Grisham writing legal thrillers, but expertise is most important in non-fiction), generosity, and friendliness, among others.
Self-financing is an important concept in financial product replicating, normally used in pricing.
I read about several ways to derive Black-Scholes-Merton (BSM) formula. Seems some approaches actually rely on replicating, implying the self-financing prerequisite. But it turns out that such approaches missed to check the condition!
Is my understanding correct? Details as below.
Reference:
[German] Helyette Geman, Nicole El Karoui, Jean-Charles Rochet "Changes of Numeraire, Changes of Probability Measure and Option Pricing" Journal of Applied Probability, Vol. 32, No. 2 (Jun., 1995) , pp. 443-458.
[Shreve] Steven E. Shreve "Stochastic calculus for finance II", 2004.
[Hull] John Hull, "Options, Futures, and Other Derivatives", 2009.
Self-financing
According to [German], a portfolio $$\begin{equation*} V(t)=\sum_{k=1}^n w_k(t) S_k(t) \tag{G-1} \end{equation*}$$
is defined as self-financing if $$\begin{equation*} dV(t)=\sum_{k=1}^n w_k(t) \,d S_k(t) \tag{G-2} \end{equation*}$$
holds.
A simple example of non-self-financing product would be an American option. Hence, if a deriving of the BSM formula/equation does not exclude
American options, it probably neglected the self-financing prerequisite.
BSM Equation and Formula
As [Shreve] Chapter 4.5.3 put, BSM equation is: $$\begin{equation*} c_t(t,x)+rxc_x(t,x)+\frac{1}{2}\sigma^2x^2c_{xx}(t,x)=rc(t,x) \tag{S-4.5.14} \end{equation*}$$
for all $t\in[0,T)$ and $x\ge 0$, where $c(t,x)$ is the call option price at time $t$ for underlying asset $x$, and $c_t$, $c_x$ are partial differentials.
The solution of BSM Equation (Shreve 4.5.14) is BSM Formula, as [Shreve] provided in Ch 4.5.4 : $$\begin{equation*} c(t,x)=xN(d_+(T-t,x))-Ke^{-r(T-t)}N(d_-(T-t,x)) \tag{S-4.5.19} \end{equation*}$$
BSM Formula Derivation #1: from BSM Equation
[Shreve] provides (S-4.5.19) without touching the detailed steps solving the backward parabolic equation; it only use Exercise 4.9 to show that it fulfills (S-4.5.14). This is alright. The problem is how [Shreve] establish (S-4.5.14), as excerpted below.
Stock price modeled by the geometric Brownian motion is
$$\begin{equation*} \,\text{d}S(t) = \alpha S(t) \,\text{d}t + \sigma S(t) \,\text{d}W(t) \tag{S-4.5.1} \end{equation*}$$
Set up the replicating portfolio as $$\begin{equation*} X(t)=\Delta(t)S(t)+\Gamma(t)M(t) \tag{S-4.10.16} \end{equation*}$$
This means at each time t, the investor holds $\Delta(t)$ shares of stock. The position $\Delta(t)$ can be random but must be adapted to the filtration associated with the Brownian motion $W(t), t > 0$. The remainder of the portfolio value, $X(t) — \Delta(t)S(t)$, is invested in the money market account.
Assuming constant rate of interest as $r$, one has $$\begin{align} \,\text{d}X(t) &= \Delta\,\text{d}S + r(X - \Delta\,S )\,\text{d}t\\ &= \Delta (\alpha S \,\text{d}t + \sigma S \,\text{d}W) + r(X - \Delta S )\,\text{d}t\\ &= rX\,\text{d}t + \Delta\,(\alpha - r) S \,\text{d}t + \Delta\,\sigma S\,\text{d}W \tag{S-4.5.2} \\ \,\text{d}(e^{-rt}S(t)) &= -re^{-rt}S\,\text{d}t+e^{-rt}\,\text{d}S \\ &= (\alpha-r)e^{-rt}S\,\text{d}t + \sigma e^{-rt} S\,\text{d}W \tag{S-4.5.4} \\ \,\text{d}(e^{-rt}X(t)) &= -re^{-rt}X \,\text{d}t+e^{-rt}\,\text{d}X \\ &= \Delta\,(\alpha-r)e^{-rt}S\,\text{d}t + \Delta\,\sigma e^{-rt} S\,\text{d}W \\ &= \Delta\,\text{d}(e^{-rt}S(t)) \tag{S-4.5.5} \\ \end{align}$$
Let $c(t,x)$ denote the value of the call option at time $t$ if the stock price at that time is $S(t) = x$. [Shreve] says since " Black, Scholes, and Merton argued that the value of this call at any time should depend on the time (more precisely, on the time to expiration) and on the value of the stock price at that time", there is nothing random about the function $c(t,x)$ -- I understand this implies the option price is a Markov process.
Calculating $\,\text{d}c(t,S(t))$, one has $$\begin{align} \,\text{d}c(t,S(t)) &= \left[c_t+\alpha Sc_x+\frac{1}{2}\sigma^2S^2c_{xx}\right]dt + \sigma Sc_x dW(t) \tag{S-4.5.6} \\ \,\text{d}(e^{-rt}c(t,S(t)) &= -re^{-rt}c(t,S(t))\,\text{d}t + e^{-rt}\,\text{d}c(t,S(t)) \\ &= e^{-rt}[-rc+c_t+\alpha Sc_x+\frac{1}{2}\sigma^2 S^2 c_{xx}]\,\text{d}t \\ & + e^{-rt} \sigma Sc_x\,\text{d}W \tag{S-4.5.7} \\ \end{align}$$
Here the trick comes -- [Shreve] says, "a (short option) hedging portfolio starts with some initial capital $X(0)$ and invests in the stock and money market account so that the portfolio value $X(t)$ at each time $t\in[0, T]$ agrees with $c(t, S(t))$", this happens if and only if $X(0)=c(0,S(0))$ and
$$\begin{equation*} d(e^{-rt}X(t))=d(e^{-rt}c(t,S(t)),\forall t\in [0,T) \tag{S-4.5.8} \end{equation*}$$
Comparing (S-4.5.5) and (S-4.5.7), (S-4.5.8) leads to, $\forall t \in [0, T)$, $$\begin{align} \Delta(t) &= c_x(t,S(t)) \tag{S-4.5.11} \\ (\alpha-r)Sc_x &= -rc+c_t+\alpha Sc_x + \frac{1}{2}\sigma^2S^2c_{xx} \tag{S-4.5.12} \\ \end{align} $$
Finally (S-4.5.12) means (S-4.5.14), the BSM equation.
Now, there is a loophole - the self-financing of the replicating portfolio $X(t)$. Actually the first step of (S-4.5.2), or explicitly, $$\begin{equation*} \,\text{d}X(t) = \Delta\,\text{d}S + r(X - \Delta\,S )\,\text{d}t \tag{S-4.10.9} \end{equation*}$$ implies the self-financing condition (G-2).
[Shreve] Exercise 4.9.10 touches the self-financing topic but does not prove that $X(t)$ is self-financing. Instead, Exercise 4.9.10 only says that the self-financing condition, or (S-4.10.9), is equivalent to $$\begin{equation*} S(t)\,\text{d}\Delta(t)+\,\text{d}S(t)\,\text{d}\Delta(t)+M(t)\,\text{d}\Gamma(t)+\,\text{d}M(t)\,\text{d}\Gamma(t)=0 \tag{S-4.10.15} \end{equation*}$$
and with such condition the Black-Scholes formula (S-4.5.14) stands.
But, finding two alternative loopholes, doesn't solve either on of them!
To prove a call option fulfills either (S-4.5.9) or (S-4.5.15) need analyze the property of the call option. This was not done in [Shreve]; it only states call option price $c(t,S(t))$ is a Markov process.
In other words, [Shreve] presents method #1 in but doesn't exclude BSM equation (S-4.10.14) and consequently BSM Formula (S-4.5.19) to be applied to American options.
BSM Formula Derivation #2: as an expectation under the risk neutral measure
In [Shreve] Chapter 5.2.4 & 5.3.2 it explains how to derive it as an expectation under the risk neutral measure.
Define Discount Process as
$$\begin{equation*} D(t):=exp\left\{-\int_0^tR(s)\,\text{d}s\right\} \tag{S-5.2.17} \end{equation*}$$ , where $R(t)$ is the adapted interest rate process. Then one has
$$\begin{equation*} \,\text{d}D(t) = -R(t)D(t)\,\text{d}t \tag{S-5.2.18} \end{equation*}$$
Let $V(T)$ is the pay-off of a derivatives at time $T$. The target is to set up the replicating process $$\begin{equation*} X(t)=\Delta(t)S(t)+\Gamma(t)M(t) \tag{S-4.10.16} \end{equation*}$$ such that $$\begin{equation*} X(T) = V(T), a. s. \tag{S-5.2.28} \end{equation*}$$
Assuming (S-5.2.28) is possible, similar to (S-4.5.2), one has $$\begin{align} \,\text{d}X(t) &= \Delta(t)\,\text{d}S(t) + R(t)(X(t)-\Delta(t)S(t))\,\text{d}t \\ &= RX \,\text{d}t + \Delta (\alpha(t)-R(t))S \,\text{d}t+\Delta \sigma S \,\text{d}W \\ &= RX \,\text{d}t + \Delta \sigma S [\Theta(t)\,\text{d}t + \,\text{d}W(t)]\tag{S-5.2.25} \\ \end{align}$$ , where $$\begin{equation*} \Theta(t)=\frac{\alpha(t)-R(t)}{\sigma(t)} \tag{S-5.2.21} \end{equation*}$$ is the market price of risk.
Also, similarly, comparable to (S-4.5.5) $$\begin{align} \,\text{d} (D(t)X(t)) &= \Delta(t) \sigma(t) D(t) S(t) [\Theta(t)S(t)\,\text{d}t + \,\text{d}W(t)] \\ &= \Delta(t) \,\text{d} (D(t)S(t)) \tag{S-5.2.26} \\ \end{align}$$
By Girsanov Theorem, one define measure $\tilde {\mathbb{P}}$ by the Radon-Nikodym derivative process $$\begin{equation*} Z(t) = exp \left\{ -\int_0^t \Theta(u) \,\text{d}W(u) - \frac{1}{2}\int_0^t \Theta^2(u) du \right\} \tag{S-5.2.11} \end{equation*}$$
, under which $\,\text{d}\tilde{W}$ defined as
$$\begin{align} \tilde{W} (t) &= W(t) + \int_0^t \Theta(u) du \tag{S-5.2.12}\\ d\tilde{W}(t) &= dW(t) + \Theta(t) dt \\ \end{align}$$
is a Brownian Motion.
Then (S-5.2.26) becomes $$\begin{equation*} d(D(t)X(t)) = \Delta(t)\sigma(t)D(t)S(t)d\tilde{W}(t) \tag{S-5.2.27} \end{equation*}$$ , which means under measure $\tilde{\mathbb{P}}$, $D(t)X(t)$ is a martingale.
So due to Martingale Representation Theorem, (S-5.2.28) is achievable; at the same time,
$$\begin{equation*} D(t)X(t) = \tilde{\mathbb{E}}[D(T)X(T)\mid \mathscr{F}(t)] = \tilde{\mathbb{E}}[D(T)V(T)\mid \mathscr{F}(t)] \tag{S-5.2.29} \end{equation*}$$
, so one can from (S-5.2.29) to define $V(t)$ as $$\begin{equation*} D(t)V(t) = \tilde{\mathbb{E}}[D(T)V(T) \mid \mathscr{F}(t)], 0\le t\le T \tag{S-5.2.30} \end{equation*}$$ or $$\begin{equation*} V(t) = \tilde{\mathbb{E}}\left[ exp\left\{-\int_t^TR(u)du\right\}V(T) \mid \mathscr{F}(t)\right], 0\le t\le T \tag{S-5.2.31} \end{equation*}$$
Applying (S-5.2.31) to call option, notice in this product $V(T) = (S(T)-K)^+$, one has $$\begin{equation*} c(t, S(t)) = \tilde{\mathbb{E}}[e^{-r(T-t)} (S(T)-K)^+ \mid \mathscr{F}(t)] \tag{S-5.2.32} \end{equation*}$$
Furthermore, stock price geometric Brownian motion assumption $$\begin{equation*} \,\text{d}S(t) = \alpha S(t) \,\text{d}t + \sigma S(t) \,\text{d}W(t) \tag{S-4.5.1} \end{equation*}$$ leads to $$S(t)=S(0)e^{\sigma \tilde{W}(t) + (r-\frac{1}{2}\sigma^2)}$$ Then after applying such result of $S(t)$ and make use of the normal distribution properties, BSM formula is derived.
The problem of Deriving BSM Formula method #2 is similar to the problem in Deriving BSM Formula method #1 -- that from $X(t) = \Delta(t)S(t)+\Gamma(t)M(t)$ one cannot directly get the first step of (S-5.2.25): $$dX(t) = \Delta(t)dS(t) + R(t)(X(t)-\Delta(t)S(t))dt $$
Here actually implies the self-financing condition, which is not checked.
Naturally, the whole deriving does not exclude American options to arrive (S-5.2.32) and consequently BSM Formula (S-4.5.19) to be applied.
BSM Formula Derivation #3: by Feynman-Kac Theorem
[Shreve] introduced this option in Ch 6.4.
First, Discounted Feynman-Kac Theorem is introduced.
Theorem 6.4.3 Consider the stochastic differential equation $$\begin{equation*} dX(u) = \beta(u, X(u)) du + \gamma(u, X(u)) dW(u). \tag{S-6.2.1} \end{equation*}$$ Let $h(y)$ be a Borel-measurable function and let $r$ be constant. Fix $T > 0$, and let $t \in [0,T]$ be given. Define the function $$\begin{equation*} f(t, x) = \mathbb{E}^{t,x} [e^{-r(T-t)}h(X(T))]. \tag{S-6.4.3} \end{equation*}$$ (We assume that $\mathbb{E}^{t,x} \mid h(X(T)) \mid < \infty$ for all $t$ and $x$.) Then $f(t,x)$ satisfies the partial differential equation $$\begin{equation*} f_t(t, x) + \beta(t, x)f_x(t, x) + \frac{1}{2}\gamma^2(t, x)f_{xx}(t, x) = rf(t, x) \tag{S-6.4.4} \end{equation*}$$ and the terminal condition $$\begin{equation*} f(T, x) = h(x), \forall x \tag{S-6.4.5} \end{equation*}$$
With Discounted Feynman-Kac Theorem ready, it's easy to go ahead. For $V(T) $ defined, and $V(t)=\tilde{\mathbb{E}}[e^{-r(T-t)}h(S(T)) \mid \mathscr{F}(t)]$, naturally there's a $v(t,x)$ so that $V(t)=v(t,S(t))$ and $v(t,x)$ fulfills BSM equation $$\begin{equation*} v_t+rxv_x+\frac{1}{2}\sigma^2x^2v_{xx}=rv \tag{S-6.4.9} \end{equation*}$$
Now if one applies $V(T) = (S(T)-K)^+$ , the call option boundary constraint, it's easy to see the rest is like BSM Formula Derivation #1 -- to solve a backward parabolic equation.
The problem in BSM Formula Derivation #3 is, we can define such a $v(t,x)$, however, we still need self-financing condition to say that $c(t,x) = v(t,x)$.
Summary
So, it seems, all 3 approaches in [Shreve] deriving BSM formula actaully implies prerequisite of self-financing condition, and neglected it.
I've also checked John Hull's book [Hull], it's even worse.
So, Is my understanding correct that [Shreve]'s BSM formula missed the self-financing prerequisite? If so, is there any book on pricing covered this part?
Added after reading the replies below
Thank you all, especially Brian B. and emcor's long post.
Thanks but I've to say you guys missed my point.
Let me explain why self-financing is pre-required during Shreve's arguments.
In short, Shreve methods 1 assumes self-financing implicitly, and derives BSM Equation (BSM PDE), based on whicch BSM Formula is derived, or: Self-financing => BSM PDE => BSM Formula.
My original post was asking: how to prove call option is self-financing? without this first step we can't reach BSM PDE nor BSM Formula.
That's why I can't accept @emcor's post as basically actually says "self-financing is fulfilled under the assumed Black-Scholes PDE" , or BSM PDE => Self-financing. Now this makes up a circular argument: BSM PDE => Self-financing (emcore) and Self-financing => BSM PDE => BSM Formula (Shreve).
Let's examine a bit details in Shreve's step of portfolio replication.
Basically Shreve is saying the a portfolio is set up as
$$X(t) = \Delta(t) S(t) + \Gamma(t) M(t)$$
, and this replicates the call option, so
$$X(t) = c(t)$$
. Then from here after use ito's lemma and argue there's no $dt$ item BSM PDE is set up.
For $M(t)$, we always has $$dM(t) = r M(t) dt$$
Now let's check time $t_1$ and the time $t_2$ shortly after $t_1$.
In order to replicate $c(t)$, it's required
$$ \begin{cases} X(t_1) = \Delta(t_1) S(t_1) + \Gamma (t_1) M(t_1)\\ X(t_2) = \Delta(t_2) S(t_2) + \Gamma (t_2) M(t_2) \end{cases} $$
In otherwords,
$$dX(t_1) = X(t_2) - X(t_1) = d(\Delta(t_1)S(t_1)) + d(\Gamma(t_1)M(t_1)) \\ =S(t_1)d(\Delta(t_1)) + \Delta(t_1)d(S(t_1) +d(S(t_1))\cdot d(\Delta(t_1)) \\ + \Gamma(t_1)d(M(t_1)) + M(t_1)d(\Gamma(t_1)) + d(M(t_1)) \cdot d(\Gamma(t_1)) $$
On the other hand, after the portfolio is adjusted to $X(t_1) = \Delta(t_1) S(t_1) + \Gamma (t_1) M(t_1)$, during the short period from $t_1$ to $t_2$, the portfolio becomes
$$X'(t_2) = \Delta(t_1) S(t_2) + \Gamma(t_1) M(t_2)$$
, or $$dX'(t_1) = X'(t_2) - X(t_1) = \Delta(t_1) dS(t_1) + \Gamma(t_1) d M(t_1) $$
To make such replicating portfolio $X(t)$ makes sense, it must be able to "rebalance" at time $t_2$ from $X'(t_2)$ to $X(t_2)$, in otherwords, $X(t_2)$ shall be equals to $X'(t_2)$, or $$dX'(t_1) = dX(t_1)$$
This leads to
$$S(t_1)d(\Delta(t_1)) + \Delta(t_1)d(S(t_1) +d(S(t_1))\cdot d(\Delta(t_1)) \\ + \Gamma(t_1)d(M(t_1)) + M(t_1)d(\Gamma(t_1)) + d(M(t_1)) \cdot d(\Gamma(t_1)) = \Delta(t_1) dS(t_1) + \Gamma(t_1) d M(t_1) $$
so,
$$S(t_1)d(\Delta(t_1)) +d(S(t_1))\cdot d(\Delta(t_1)) + M(t_1)d(\Gamma(t_1)) + d(M(t_1)) \cdot d(\Gamma(t_1)) = 0 $$
Replacing $t_1$ to $t$ one gets
$$S(t)d(\Delta(t)) +d(S(t)) d(\Delta(t)) + M(t)d(\Gamma(t)) + d(M(t)) d(\Gamma(t)) = 0 $$ This is exactly (S-4.10.15).
If (S-4.10.15) holds, we can say that $X(t) = X'(t), \forall t$, or all along the way from time $0$ to $T$, the replicating portfolio can rebalance.
Only under such condition, we can say $$dX(t) = dX'(t) = \Delta(t) dS(t) + \Gamma(t) dM(t) = \Delta(t) dS(t) + \Gamma(t) r M(t) dt \\ = \Delta(t) dS(t) + r (X(t) - \Delta(t) S(t)) dt$$
The last one is exactly (S-4.10.9).
So, what is self-financing? It means the car does not have leaking tyres; it means the portfolio is well enclosed, the pay-off are up to the market movements, but no one is going to "steal" money from the portfolio or have to add in more money to the portfolio -- it just evolves. The rebalance is only continuously change the composition of the portfolio, not its expected value.
To summarize, (S-4.10.9) and (S-4.10.15) are equivalent, they means self-financing. And self-financing is the prerequisite for deriving BSM Equation.
Answer
OK, I think now I got the point, after comparing to Shreve's "Stochastic calculus for finance I, The binomial asset pricing model", the simpler case.
The pricing theory in continuous time is:
Shreve04b is slightly different from Shreve04a as in binomial tree part it's easy to define $V_i$ during backward replicating.
Shreve04b $\S 4$ deriving BSM formula omitted some points, that's true; but $\S 5$ covered all that up.
So Shreve's book is correct (how smart it could be to find that out? :p)
Sorry but i'm new in quantitative finance. According to BS derivation the risk-free interest rate is the rate to wich the rate of a particular investment tends when the risk tends to zero. Suppose i want to buy on option with fixed strike price and maturity, which rate i have to put into the equation? And why?
As provided in this excellent answer by @what, there is a certain 'creative time,' for writing, when you can write the best. I've been aware of this for awhile, though I never really saw it for what it was until recently.
Unfortunately (and I doubt that I'm alone), my creative time is taken up with a job. I have an hour or two at the end of the day, but by then I am tired and merely want to relax. On the few occasions I've tried writing at this time, what I've turned out has been in general weak. The only real time I have to write is on the weekends, and even then I usually feel more like relaxing from the week than writing.
Is there a way I can move my creative time to a more convenient time of day? Switching jobs isn't really an option in my particular case.
Answer
Unfortunately, having a full-time job usually means that being able to write during the time period that is most effective or productive for you simply may not be possible. Because of that, you will need to determine what time you have available and then decide on where you can slice out a period of time that you can make available just for writing.
Many years ago when I started writing my first book, I was working 10-12 hours a day, and then coming home to a family with three pre-teen kids who were involved in a variety of activities. Needless to say, my free time was very limited and my ability to write when I really wanted to write was non-existent.
What I did was look at my daily schedule and try to find a way to squeeze in at least one or two hours of time where I could write with limited distractions and still feel productive. I tried getting up an hour or two earlier each day, but found that it took me too long to get started. I then tried to set aside an hour or two after the kids went to bed as my writing time. My wife at the time went to bed about the same time, so I had an hour or two each evening that was basically free of distractions, so that became my writing time. It took a couple of weeks to get accustomed to this new schedule, but once I did I found that I was getting a lot of writing done.
More recently, I started setting aside an hour each afternoon at work for my lunch break. I would bring my lunch and eat a quick meal, and then I would spend the rest of the time writing on my tablet. I used Dropbox to store a copy of my WIP so that I had easy access to it at work or at home and didn't have to worry about keeping things synchronized.
The important thing is to just find a time that works for you. It may not be your most productive time at first, but if you stick to it and make it a part of your daily routine, you will soon find that you are writing a lot more than ever imagined possible. I told myself that I was never going to HAVE the time, so it was up to me to MAKE the time!
I work for a branding agency in Southern California and was recently promoted to Lead Designer. While there was a solid system already laid out, I have been trying to address some issues that seem to arise and just polish up on some things. Here is how we currently work in regards to sending logo designs to clients:
We attach an .ai and .jpg file in an email when sending out logo designs. The .jpg is attached as the preview file and the .ai is attached as a way to archive the draft because when we send the email, we "send+archive." Every time we create a new design or make revisions we overwrite the actual .ai file as each draft is archived in the email thread. So we ultimately have only two files per client until the logo is finalized. And if we have to go back to a specific draft we simply grab it from the email thread.
My concern is for the clients that are savvy enough to realize that they could be saving each .ai draft and end up with a number of different designs rather than one final design as we provide "unlimited revisions." Another concern is that other branding agencies could outsource their work to us (I suspect this has already happened and may be happening with some repeat clients) and could again to coming away with a number of designs at the end of the project instead of one final design which is what they paid for.
So my question is do you see any way that I polish up this system? Should I add a password to each .ai file so that it protects us from being used to create unlimited final designs..? Please note that space and storage is an issue as we work with hundreds of clients a month so simply saving each draft in the clients folder wouldn't be a sufficient solution.
Any suggestions welcomed... Thanks in advance!
I have a document set up with slices in Photoshop. If I want to export the whole PSD as one large JPG and no other files, can I do it? I don't see any option to select combine all the slices into one just while exporting.
If I hide the slices with the View menu, it doesn't seem to make a difference once I get into 'Save or Web & Devices'. I know I could do this with 'Save As', but I like the ability to resize the exported image right there.
Answer
I would cheat. Clear slices, save for web, undo until you have your slices back, and then save that state of the file.
What I usually do is duplicate the final file and make a "slice" version, and save slices out of that. My original PSD is never sliced to begin with.
How can I invent names for fictional characters in a future-setting Sci-Fi story so they won't be connected to any existing culture?
I considered the following options:
Invent some random names. This has a disadvantage in that such names are often difficult to pronounce and sound unpleasant and unlikely to be used by people.
Use names from some obscure languages. This makes a connection to Earth's history and is difficult to explain, given that these cultures have already vanished now, not to say in the future.
Use names from some Classical languages such as Latin, Greek, Proto-Indo-European or similarly-sounding ones. This does not make sense if we are speaking about non-human cultures. Take for example "Stroggos" and "Makron". How on Earth can an alien nave have the Greek ending -on?
What are the advantages and disadvantages to these techniques? Are there other options and techniques that could help me?
Thanks to the internet, graphic design and programming are becoming increasingly overlapping fields.
As a programmer, I constantly find myself needing basic knowledge of Graphic Design, but have trouble locating thorough yet concise graphic design learning resources, and instead usually find bits and pieces of knowledge applicable to the task at hand.
Can you guys offer some tips or recommend some good books, tutorials, blogs, and websites which provide a beginner level overview of web design that have been, in your experience, effective and high quality learning materials. I'm not looking for tips on how to use image editing tools, but assuming a basic grasp of those, which resources and advice will best help a new designer create professional looking designs?
Answer
As for resources, you check out any of the following websites:
Do any significant number of users Ctrl + f windows or ⌘ + f macOS to activate browsers' text search?
I'm trying to find some usage numbers, but I can't find anything.
Background
I'm working on a page that has "hijacked" scroll events, which interferes with all native browser features that rely on scroll. This includes keyboard navigation, scrolling to anchors and page text search (and thus needs to be re-implemented, else have support dropped).
Note: As some astute commenters guessed, I am not advocating this technique. I merely encountered it, felt it a poor risk/reward (for the same reasons mentioned below) and was seeking to help quantify the downsides.
Answer
Found an article sourcing a study conducted by Google in 2011 in the US. Apparently, 90% of the participants didn't know about it.
"90 percent of the US Internet population does not know that. This is on a sample size of thousands," Russell said. "I do these field studies and I can't tell you how many hours I've sat in somebody's house as they've read through a long document trying to find the result they're looking for. At the end I'll say to them, 'Let me show one little trick here,' and very often people will say, 'I can't believe I've been wasting my life!'"
I ran a Johansen cointegration test on 3 instruments, A B and C.
The results that I got are:
R<=x | Test Stat 90% 95% 99%
r=0 --> 36.7 18.9 21.1 25.8
r=1 --> 8.4 12.29 14.26 18.52
r=2 --> 0.21 2.7 3.8 6.6
EigenValues EigenMatrix
0.03 --> 0.25 | 0.512 |-0.79
0.007 --> -0.96 | -0.618 | 0.14
0.00017 --> 0.05 | 0.59 | 0.59
My question is how I interpret these results? How do I know there is a cointegration for the these instruments.
How to build a portfolio using the eigen vector? Which eigen vector should I choose to build my portfolio?
Answer
From remote memory,
The first question is Yes/No question. Is there any stationary, i.e. I(0), time series for different levels of combination r? This question is answered by your first table.
For example, if [r=2]'s test stat is say 7 while the critical value of 99% confidence is 6.6 like your example, then I have over 99% confidence to say that all instruments A, B, and C are stationary by themselves. You don't even need to build a co-integrated portfolio/combination. They are ready for mean-reversion strategy already.
Obviously, in your example, your [r=2] stat is way much lower than even 90% confidence critical value. Thus, you can't form a stationary time series without sort of combination. Your [r=1] is not close to acceptable threshold, too. Thus, no easy combination like A + Beta*B is stationary.
Now, your [r=0] stat looks interesting, test stat 36.7 > 25.8. I have over 99% confidence to say that there is a stationary combination like A + Beta1*B + Beta2*C.
The next question is how to build your portfolio if one of the above hypothesis is positive. In your case is [r=0]. Simply read your corresponding eigenvector that comes with your largest eigenvalue: (0.25 | 0.512 | -0.79), i.e. 0.25*A + 0.512*B -0.79*C is the stationary portfolio you are looking for. You can draw portfolio time series to convince yourself.
Btw, I will be very grateful if someone can refresh me about how to interpret eigenvalues? like what is its unit? I can only remember big eigenvalue is better for the stationarity test above.
EDIT: FYI, I remember the test stat and critical values can be approximated by chi-squared? With this information, you can build a helper function to better interpret these statistic. Here is a quick example in R.
# zero-root function, used for solve df (degree of freedom) of chi-square for given cvals (critical values)
fn_zero_root <- function (df, prob, cval) pchisq(cval, df) - prob
# solve for df
# In [r=1] example: use prob = 90%, cval = 12.29 as the training point
r1.df <- uniroot(fn_zero_root, c(0, 12.29), tol = 0.001, prob = 90/100, cval= 12.29)$root
# Use the above df to calculate confidence for your test stats = 8.4
100*pchisq(8.4, r1.df)
[1] 68.23303
# Validation
pchisq(12.29, r1.df)
[1] 89.99978
pchisq(14.26, r1.df)
[1] 94.82474
pchisq(18.52, r1.df)
[1] 98.88713
Since my current project has a lot of text/paragraph content, I consider about the readability of the website.
I've seen and try to inspect any of sites that I feel have a good readability such as medium.com, Quora.com, and so on.
Their width of the paragraph always between 500-700px.
My question is, what is the best number of paragraph width for readability?especially on desktop view.
Answer
According to studies, the line length should not exceed 70 characters. So keep your paragraph width between 50 and 70 characters.
So actually you should not care about the width in pixels, but rather the width in ems (The width relative to the font-size). So go for 30-50em.
Also wikipedia says:
Some studies have shown that 100 cpl can be read faster than lines with 25 characters, but the level of comprehension remains the same. In order for on-screen text to have both the best speed and comprehension possible about 55 cpl should be used. Like with printed text if lines are too long or too short it will result in slower reading. If lines are too long it is difficult for the reader to quickly return to the start of the next line (saccade) whereas if lines are too short more scrolling or paging will be required. Research suggests that longer lines are better for quick scanning, but shorter lines are better for accuracy. Longer lines should be used when the information will likely be scanned, while shorter lines should be used when the information is meant to be read thoroughly. Web design is often intended to be read in full rather than skimmed, so shorter lines should be used when possible.
I'm looking for a way to use one color in multiple different layers, and then be able to change that color in all the layers in one single place.
Lets say that I have four layers using #ffffff. Now I want to know what my design looks like with #ffff00 instead. How can I do this without manually changing all four layers?
I can add that adjustment layer on hue/saturation is not really what I'm looking for. What I need is something like "change all #ffffff to #ffff00."
Answer
Lets say that I have four layers using #ffffff. Now I want to know what my design looks like with #ffff00 instead. How can I do this without manually changing all four layers?
There's a few good ways to tag, filter and apply changes across your entire document. It's not the same as global colour swatches or CSS-like styles, but it's still very workable and fast.
Tag your layers in a way that will allow you to filter them later. I've done this with layer colours below, but you could easily add tags to layer names or use some other method. It doesn't really matter how you do it, as long as you do things in a way that are filter-able at a later time.
Now you can filter your entire document to only show layers with a certain tag. If you've changed one of the shape layers to the new colour, you'll now be able to right click and Copy Shape Attributes, then select the other layers and Paste Shape Attributes.
If your layers are bitmap layers, or you'd like to apply your colours and gradients, you can do so using layer styles (layer styles can be copied and pasted as well).
Please note that layer filtering is a Photoshop CS6 feature, and not available in earlier versions of Photoshop.
I know that it is common behavior to have the logo of a web page be a link to the home page, but should I also have a 'home' link in the navigation bar for it as well?
Answer
I don't know how many times (many) I've been asked "How do I get back to the home page?" when I've skipped the home link in the main navigation.
I've started doing 1 of 2 things recently:
Move the home link to the last or second last item on the main menu. I've wondered if this is a good idea because personally I often look for "Contact Us" in that position, but it seems to help users. But sometimes I will put it second last so at least it's there, but I could see this getting lost in the middle then.
Add a home image (small house shaped icon) somewhere in the upper portion of the page, usually on the right. The removes the need for an extra menu item.
I haven't had any complaints after doing either of these (that they can't get back to the home page).
I also think the general reason why people want to go back to the home page is because they get lost on a website, so I think reducing the cause is a better solution that encouraging people to "start over" to figure things out. This is unless your home page is like Facebook or SO where it contains the most recent information.
I do also like DisgruntledGoat's idea of doing something similar to Facebook's logo/home link with a roll over to show that it's the home page link.
Similar question and answers here: https://webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/1649/
I was trying to find the relationship between nature of Rho and moneyness of the option.
After finding certain values I found that Rho Value keep increases as the option gets further in the money. But I can't think of a reason to justify this behaviour.
Can you please explain this behaviour of Rho?
Thanks in advance.
While travelling abroad, I often get pages on websites that are normally in English for me (e.g. images.google.com) served instead in whatever the local language is. The problem is that I can't read a word of them. There may then be settings to change it back to English, but seeing as I can't read the language, I am not able to. Google image search is an example.
One obvious way to deal with this is to show a list of languages written how they would be in that language (e.g. English and not Engels), which is what Wikipedia does. But this takes up a lot of screen real estate, so is not really an option on many sites.
What is a more generally usable method for language selection on a website (think of mobile) where there are space constraints, and how can I clearly indicate this?
Answer
I think it should be dealt with like this:
Plus: Always allow the user to select another language, with some languages displayed on top.
First of all, language preference is something that is strictly related to the user. It is the user who does or does not speak the particular language.
Having this in mind, multilingual systems should determine the language based on the settings stored in user the account in the first place.
Secondly, the user should stay with the same language in which he used the site previously, so that it does not change all the time when travelling abroad. Thus, a cookie should be the second level of language selection.
Should it not be possible to use the above (no user accounts, no previously stored cookies, etc.), the language still needs to be automatically determined somehow. Most probably, the language of the system/browser of the user is the one he/she understands. Hence, this should be the third one.
And finally, if there is no possibility to check the language of the system, the IP address can be used. Most users who access a site from an area speak the language commonly used in this area.
But there should still be access to select other languages, and I think that some should be preferred, and thus displayed at the top of the list — especially English, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, and the one determined by system and IP address.
Regarding language selector, there is a nice redesigned version of country selector, described at Smashing Magazine. It’s quite old now, but I like it as it allows the designer to save space. However, it is harder to manifest it is a language selector, as users got used to lists, methinks. At the same time, maybe there should be just a list of some of the most common languages, and then this little treasure.
Here is a nice article about selecting language with some alternatives to the list. I think the map is a nice option as well, although there are countries with more than one language, aren’t there? In these cases I think the user should choose it from a shortlist for these countries.
I want to create a vector curve that is symmetric in the top and the bottom. For example, in this baseball icon (How to draw a baseball in Pixelmator?), if I try to write the vector as suggested by the accepted answer, I end up in writing the vector curve by hand - which means the curve can never be symmetrical between the top and the bottom.
So I want to create the vector curve programmatically, such as specifying the starting and ending point of the vector and then specifying the middle point of the vector and also specifying the degree of the curve, in order to create a tidy curve. I don't like to create the curve by hand, since no matter what I did, it looked pretty awful.
So is it possible to create the tidy curve by specifying some numbers? I don't mind what apps I have to use among Affinity Designer, Pixelmator, Sketch 3, or Illustrator CC, as long as it can be done programmatically (the linked post is designed by Pixelmator, FYI).
Answer
This question contains two separate issues,
For all intents and purposes these are unrelated. Seems to me that the only reason you ask the first question is because you are not aware of how to precisely position items within the GUI, but I may be wrong. I will be demonstrating Adobe Illustrator because that's what i have at hand.
The first way to precisely position things is to use a grid, and grid snap. This is a GUI equivalent concept to using only x digits of precision while typing values. When you reduce where you can position points its more likely that you can replicate positioning elsewhere. Symmetrical handle positioning lead to symmetrical results.
Image 1: Snapping to grid makes positioning predictable.
Another way would be to draw exactly half of your shape and use the mirror tool to produce the symmetrical half. Yet another way to do this is to use a small curve as a protractor and then snap to its points. So you see there are many options to do this without bothering to go to the script layer.
Adobe provides a platform agnostic javaScript implementation called ExtendScript. A script to mimic what was done by hand would look as follows:
#target illustrator
var doc = app.activeDocument;
var pathItem = doc.pathItems.add();
pts = [[0,0], [5,0], [5,5], [0,5]]
// match units of drawn document
// convert points to 2 * mm
for(var i=0; i< pts.length; i++) {
for(var j=0; j< pts[i].length; j++) {
pts[i][j] *= 2 * 2.83464567;
}
}
var point1 = pathItem.pathPoints.add();
point1.anchor = pts[0];
point1.leftDirection = point1.anchor;
point1.rightDirection = pts[1];
var point2 = pathItem.pathPoints.add();
point2.anchor = pts[3];
point2.leftDirection = pts[2];
point2.rightDirection = point2.anchor;
pathItem.stroke = true;
pathItem.fill = false;
Just paste this into extendscript toolkit to test, or put in a .jsx file
Sometimes you want to use a arbitrary program to generate vector drawings. The sane choices for output formats that can do this are:
Of these formats EPS and DXF are least convolved. SVG is also a good choice but a bit overly verbose, and still as cryptic as PDF drawing layers. PDF is also possible to generate but unless you have a drawing API it is extra work (Like QT or Cairo, but its by no means hard just a bit convoluted). I use EPS because i need to write EPS sometimes by hand so its familiar to me.
Drawing the above shape in a EPS file would look as follows:
%!PS-Adobe-3.0 EPSF-3.0
%%BoundingBox: 0 0 40 40
%%Title: Graph Drawing
%%Creator: Janne Ojala
%%CreationDate: 2013-03-23
%%EndComments
% optional stuff to get
% same scale as my settings
/mm {2.83464567 mul} def
2 mm dup scale % 1 unit = 2 mm
1 2 mm div setlinewidth
1 1 translate % offset
% end optional
newpath
0 0 moveto
5 0 5 5 0 5 curveto
stroke
%%EOF
Where the first sections first line is obligatory as well as the last %%EOF. The meat of the drawing is done with moveto and curve to where the number pairs are the 4 control points. Just put this in a text file with a .eps extension and use normally.
Comparing solutions you can see that the javaScript approach is a quite cumbersome compared to the alternatives.
Image 2: Comparasion between the hand drawn (in red), javaScript (in green) and EPS curve (black)
Yes, you can programmatically make a curve. Precision however does not require this. This post contains 2 approaches for programmable acess, and one discussion on how to do the same thing in the GUI.
My writings tend to be a blend of multiple genre's. I know some can work well together, like sci-fi and fantasy, but are there genre's that should not be blended? Also, is it confusing to reader's when there is not a clear genre?
Answer
Putting elements of one genre into a work that is another genre is not going to confuse your readers. The real genre is what constitutes the internal conflict faced by the protagonist.
For instance, if the chief problem faced by the protagonist is that he/she is powerless in the face of evil, you have a horror story. The dressing can consist of elements of science fiction (the Alien franchise), ordinary hum-drum life (Mommie Dearest), or have supernatural elements (typical horror).
Likewise, if the whole point is that there are men who prefer honor to life, you have a western, whether it's set in outer space (Firefly) or the Old West (just about any classic western).
Fantasy and science fiction both have their own unique internal struggles (personal good and evil for fantasy, and social good and evil for science fiction). Both tales are usually dressed up with characteristic elements, but in the case of Star Wars, the tale is about the impact of personal good and evil, so even though it is packed with the trappings of science fiction, at its heart it's a fantasy story.
Naturally, there are a lot of stories whose internal struggles are a blend of the distinct genres; 1984 is both horror and science fiction.
So identify the key internal conflict in the story—start over if it doesn't have one!—and then add the dressing you want.
I want to write a sequence in my screenplay where the same news broadcast continues on different screens in different locations. For example, a bunch of people in a bar are watching the broadcast, then it continues in a family's living room on their TV, then people on the street are watching the same broadcast on a TV in a shop window, etc. How should I format this in a screenplay?
The small h letter in Garamond italic usually bends inward, as the following:
Sometimes it's difficult to distinguish it with b. Can anyone give some (historical) reason for that?
Answer
The Garamond Roman typography designed by Claude Garamond, is one of the first Roman typefaces designed specifically for the novel printing system of the Middle Ages, expanded throughout Europe. Hence, its design is well studied and adjusted within a modulation, but in essence many of its lines continue to maintain the trait of manual writing of the scribes of the time. No just in the character h, but also the J, R, j, Q...
Garamond Italic designed by Morris Fuller Benton in 1917 (source flickr)
The printing press not only served to print and distribute books, but also to unify all the Latin Nationals lowercase in the only standard Carolingian minuscule, name due to Emperor Charlemagne, the architect of the unification. Until then, the scribes of each European country had their customs about writing and each character differed considerably. Among them the round h.
This image perfectly shows the evolution of the first manual Sweynheym & Pannartz's Romans, practically equal to the calligraphy of the scribes, to the best graphically constructed and adapted to the printing system.
Spira and most of the earliest printers in Venice used a round h (the uncial construction of h) that was more common in the humanistic manuscripts of the time.
We should have in mind that the Garamond we see today has already gone through many processes of redesign, from the "insert into a grid" of the XVIII th century, to Morris Benton's drawings at the beginning of the 20th century, the photographic adaptation of the mid-20th century until reaching the digital age. Even so, many of its essential features are maintained.
Although all the current classic typefaces keep the Carolingian minuscule, some historical like Garamond Font prefer to retain part of these old characteristics as an essence of its origin.
More explanation about Roman evolution here
I am trying to animate a piece of text rotating in a circle. In itself, this is a relatively easy thing to achieve; using Adobe After Effects I created a string of text and used the CC Cylinder effect (Effects & Presets->Perspective->CC Cylinder) to create the rotation animation. Take a look at this .gif to see my current result:
However, what I would like to accomplish is a more static rotation of the letters, that is, the letters rotating around an axis as individual objects instead of being mapped to an invisible cylindrical surface on which they rotate. Take a look at this example to see what I mean:
How might I be able to achieve this in After Effects?
UPDATE: Thanks to Cai's simple and effective solution I was able to create exactly what I was aiming for. Thank you very much.
Answer
You can create a path for your type and animate along the path...
Create your type layer
With your type layer still selected, draw your path; this will create a mask. You should have something like this:
Open "Path Options" under your type layer and select your mask from the "Path" dropdown. Set "Reverse Path" to "On" and "Perpendicular To Path" to "Off".
You should now have something like this:
You can then use the "Margin" options to offset the text and animate as you wish:
I'm currently working on my Masters project related to accelerating Greeks computations for CVA on mixed interest rate portfolios. I would like to know about the status of technology for CVA and its Greeks computations in the industry (mainly related to speed of computation).
Example situation:
Question: How long (approximately, or simply mention the order) would it take on your system (or system you know) to compute total CVA (including all the netting agreements, collaterization stuff...) and sensitivities of it to every yield curve used, vol surface?
If it is not too confidential, mention the underlying technology (cpu cluster, gpus) and maybe also methods used (like Longstaff-Schwartz); you can skip the name of institution.
Why I need this? I do have a few numbers from local smaller banks, but I'd like to get a broader picture for the need of accelerated methods for these computations.
(Basel III is coming soon, so this will be mandatory for every single serious bank.)
I hope it is clear what I'm seeking.
I was browsing dribbble.com today and came across a new post by one of the designers that I follow. He had posted a new modal form which was using rounded check boxes. I have never seen these before.
Are this an accepted standard, or are they confusing to the user (before they check them especially) because they look like radio buttons?
Update: Just found another place that uses them as well.
Update #2: After reading some of the comments, I realized this is present in iOS also, but I have never noticed. Also after going back Morgan's other work, I saw that his original design of this type of check box was a redesign of the current iOS one:
My guess as to where this came from is as a modification of the usual iOS delete button which is round. Since the only time the round check box shows up is when deleting messages, it must have been a clearer way to display that several messages were ready to be deleted, but they didn't give any thought to the fact that is looked like a radio button. It also seems to only be used when removing an item.
Answer
If I saw that in an interface - I would assume only one item can be checked, especially before any had been selected. Only the wording of the title would indicate to me that multiple selection is possible. I think this design would lead to a greater than normal number of people choosing a single item rather than a selection of items.
I don't see the benefit here in bucking accepted trends other than to make it all curvy everywhere, but pretty rounded rectangles would do the job just as well, be more intuitive and more standard.
I don't dislike the appearance from a pure graphical perspective - I just don't think it's right from the affordance perspective.
-- edit update --
I redesigned it with rounded squares:
-- further update --
As an interesting addendum - I found this (below) on a Google spreadsheets viewform survey (from UXPin) recently. It combines the outer shape of a checkbox, so that multiple-answer questions and single-answer questions have options that look quite similar in appearance, but the single-answer options have the inner circular shape of a radio button.
I had no confusion as to how it might be used, but I found this representation very unusual - in fact this was the first time I'd seen it. I find this quite interesting.
Are more explicit visual cues, like the arrow buttons in "Variant 2", necessary to convey that there are more images available and the user can reach those by swiping left or right?
Or are users already used to dots like these as indicators?
download bmml source – Wireframes created with Balsamiq Mockups
EDIT: I completely forgot to mention that this question is mainly about mobile displays. The desktop version would use something else than those dots.
So the main interaction is supposed to be swiping.
It's about fashion product presenation of ONE product, like Adidas or Nike would do, so it's not about homepage carousels. So the images are all related and I think users already expect multiple pictures of the product.
Answer
Arrows serve as a signifier that the carousel contains multiple images, so if you remove them, you may run the risk of users not noticing the slide indicator dots underneath. Removing the dots is risky too, as it is a clear indication to the user of how many slides are in the carousel, as well as their current position in the set.
I personally would also not make the arrows only visible on hover for two reasons. One is because that this limits their discoverability, and secondly because tablets and mobile devices have no support for hover functionality, so they would never see the arrows.
There are other alternatives to arrows too - you can show a 'peek' of the next slide which can act as a good tool to show users that there is something to come.
This article has some more good tips about carousel use, and is very recent: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2016/07/ten-requirements-for-making-home-page-carousels-work-for-end-users/
I am working on a new project that draws influence from a currently running television show. What I want to do is make a reference to that show in my work. Almost as a joke to say, "We're nothing like that show."
Is it appropriate to use the name of that show in my work? Could there be a legal issue down the road? Is it ethical to drop the name of something that inspired the work itself?
Thanks!
Answer
Not only is this acceptable, but you should. Sometimes, mentioning the name of a book, a TV show or a brand can be a powerful way of making the reader feel like they are in the middle of the story. Remember that you should always try to make the reader feel what the characters are feeling. Use words that make the reader imagine the sounds the characters are hearing, the smells they are perceiving, etc. For example, something like
"She felt dehydrated. She opened a can of Coke and gulped the sugary, ice-cold liquid so avidly that the bubbles hurt her throat,"
is 1000 times more evocative than: "She was thirsty so she drank a cold soft drink very fast." However, note that this only works well if you can be sure that most of your readers know the mentioned brand and thus can relate to what they are supposed to feel.
Let's say that we have a plot that goes from A-Z and M is the middle (climax) part of it. There is this style of writing in which we start from M, then again back to A-Z.
At the start of a book is the chapter containing that M. What is it called? Prologue? Prelude? Or is it something else? I've Googled for this for almost 20 minutes with no luck. It isn't mentioned anywhere.
Answer
In medias res does not mean that a story is narrated from its middle. It means that a story begins in the middle of events instead of introducing the characters and the setting first (this is called ab ovo, "from the egg onwards").
Stephenie Meyer's Twilight does not employ in medias res: the novel opens with a slow and quiet scene in which the protagonist moves to a new home; we learn of her family background, and her new surroundings are extensively described. The events that are relevant to the story in Twilight begin after this introduction and not "in the middle of things".
Horace coined the term in medias res when he praised Homer's Iliad in his Ars Poetica for not beginning his narration of the Trojan War at its beginning but in the middle of things. The Iliad begins at a point in the story where Troja is already besieged by the Greeks and Chryseis is held captive by Agamemnon. The narration does not start in the middle (where Hector bursts through the defensive wall) or near the climax (when Achilles stabs Hector), but it does start in the middle of an existing problem.
The following schema illustrates the difference between narration that begins in the middle of a story, and a story that begins in medias res:
You can think of a story that begins in medias res as one story in a sequence of stories. For example, the Iliad is preceded by the works of Euripides, Sophocles, and other literary works and legends about the Trojan War. Twilight on the other hand is the first story told in its world and it does not have a prehistory that its protagonist is already involved in at the beginning of the narration. Bella's story begins as she moves to Forks and meets Edward there.
Stories that begin in the middle, usually tell their beginning "in flashback". A flashback is "an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point in the story" (from Wikipedia). Sometimes a large part of the story or all of its beginning is told in flashback from its middle, as in the Odyssey:
In the Odyssey, most of the adventures that befell Odysseus on his journey home from Troy are told in flashback by Odysseus when he is at the court of the Phaeacians. The use of flashback enables the author to start the story from a point of high interest and to avoid the monotony of chronological exposition. (Encyclopædia Britannica, s.v. Flashback)
In my schema above, the dotted part of the story that begins in the middle is told in flashback. See also the illustration below.
Apart from stories that begin in medias res and stories that begin in the middle, there are also stories that prepend an episode from the middle to their beginning. These stories employ a
A flashforward is "a scene that temporarily takes the narrative forward in time from the current point of the story" (from Wikipedia). Often, especially in crime fiction, a flashforward is used as a prologue.
The following illustration shows a narrative beginning in the middle of the story and recounting the beginning of the story in flashback (left) as well as a flashforward to the middle of the story prepended to the narrative (right):
I believe "flashforward" is the term you are looking for. There is no special term for narratives that begin with a flashforward.
There is a term for a story told in reverse order from the end to the beginning, and that is "reverse chronology", but that is not what you're asking.
I’ve been working with Illustrator CC 2014 on a floor map for a ~400 rooms building. To allow visitors to find rooms more quickly, I wanted to generate a series of images with highlighted rooms. The rooms are mostly rectangles with their object name corresponding with their room number.
In short, I need some sort of procedure that does the following tasks:
I have no problem with steps 1, 3 and 4 using Automating tasks, but cannot figure out how to do step 2.
My goal is to learn this kind of graphs that represent articulation points / biconnected components
and now I am trying to learn it
but every time I try to colour a half circle it colours the whole circle.
So how can I colour segments of circle like the above?
Answer
Assuming that you've drawn the circles and lines using the Ellipse and Line Segment tools (or the Pen, etc.), the colouring is relatively simple using the Live Paint Bucket or the Live Paint Selection Tool (Illustrator CS4 and newer). These tools require that the shapes and lines are not grouped or placed in different layers (if they are grouped, ungroup them first: select, then press Cmd-Shift-G).
Select all shapes and lines that belong to the diagram using the normal Selection Tool, or press Cmd-A (Windows: CTRL-A).
Click on the Live Paint Bucket in the tool palette. (It might be 'hidden' under the 'Shape Builder tool' – click on it and hold the mouse button down to access the hidden items. You can also have the group of tools open in a separate tool set.)
Then move the mouse over the selected group of elements and click once to turn it into a Live Paint Group object. The tool will then interactively highlight in red the area that it recognises as an individual painting area.
To select a colour, the Live Paint Bucket is connected to the Swatches palette. Use the arrow keys to navigate and choose a colour… Or mix your own colour in the Colour palette… When done, click in the area to fill it with the colour.
It's also possible to use the Live Paint Selection Tool to just select an area within the elements by clicking it, and then paint it by clicking on the colour in the Swatches or Colour palette.
(Applying the Live Paint Bucket compounds the selected elements into one 'Live Paint Group'. Individual elements can still be selected using the Direct Selection tool, but to completely revert it into unpainted – e.g., to make structural changes – choose Object > Live Paint > Release.)
(Unfortunately the tool's mouse pointer isn't recorded correctly in this screenshot for some reason.)
I promised my friend I'd design a book for him he's releasing for free and I could use the help of you guys.
I'm going to use the latest InDesign. The book should be in .pdf format and is intended for printing.
I googled as much as I could and this is what I found out:
I don't know what font-size/line-height to use for text.
I think these are the basics I found out. Can these be improved on? What else should I know before I start? Any recommendations?
Also, I live in Europe, where we don't use inches. Should I still set the sizes to the inch values, or should I somehow use cm/mm ? Because 6'' / 9'' does not convert to a nice cm/mm value.
When a user fills out some input fields and adds it as an entry to an existing list. Usually there's a way to edit/delete these entries as well.
I am writing an app which heavily depends on having a connection to the host.
The app works fine with no connection it just doesn't send anything up or down.
Because it's a business type app the users NEED to be able to easily see when they have a connection.
I was thinking of using something simple like...
I was thinking of something really simple like putting a coloured circle into the status bar but I'm not sure that's even possible. (currently a question on SO).
I am looking for suggestions of other possible ways of doing this. Currently I'm just changing the colour of the navigation bar (until I can find something better). Changing the nav bar is too garish and confusing when using.
Answer
You shouldn't rely on just color for this. Most colorblind people cannot differentiate red and green, especially on very small icons. One possibility is to have some sort of network connectivity symbol to show when the connection exists and put a large red "X" over it when the connection is off. Use color to reinforce the symbol shape. Even spell out "Connected" and "Disconnected" if you have the space.
So I'm reading some blogs and I get to the bottom of the page when I see a graphic similar to this:
<< Newer Posts Older Posts >>
This makes sense to me. But then, quite often, I'll see it reversed!
<< Older Posts Newer Posts>>
This issue is compounded even further when the labels are changed:
<< Next Previous >>
It really, really makes me want to rip my hair out. What is the correct logic when specifying this type of information?
Answer
The text should largely depend on the actual content itself. Is it time sensitive, like news, or is it content that will be relevant no matter when it is viewed? If it's time sensitive, it makes sense to use older/newer. If it's not time sensitive, previous/next seems like a better fit.
However, I would argue that adding page numbers would increase the understandability of your pagination because they would give you a starting index that's readily apparent and they would also provide more context for your pagination. Much of the confusion in the above methods results from either not knowing where you are, not knowing where you've been, or both. Page numbers help mitigate that problem, especially if you make it clear which page number the user is currently viewing.
As far as which should come first, older/newer, it depends entirely on your sort order. Again, however, adding page numbers here greatly minimizes the confusion.
What's more, for both usability and SEO purposes, you should provide more than just older/newer or next/previous.
Consider:
Suppose your blog is about business news. Which is most usable?
Or let's say your blog isn't time sensitive. You instead publish business articles like best practices about marketing, hiring, strategy, etc. Which is most usable?
Current web application is being updated with twitter bootstrap and the UX people are hover / tool-tip happy which is leading to a very busy page.
My understanding is that tool tips should be used for icons that may not convey enough information about what they do e.g. a toolbar, but not for buttons where the text is / should be enough.
What I'd like to know is; are there current UX guidelines for current web applications that I can use to base my assumptions on?
This question has to do with color in the context of web pages.
Computer monitors and mobile screens can vary a lot in their color rendering, meaning that a given color on one monitor can look much different on another monitor.
For example, some greens and teals may look pleasant on one monitor but look sickly yellowish on others.
Are there certain web colors that are "safer" than others (NOT to be confused with the outdated practice of using "web-safe color palette")?
Or do you just create the web design on a calibrated monitor and know that's all you can do?
Can anyone please tell me what this greyscale vector style is called and how can I achieve it?
I was informed I should put my image in Photoshop and adjust the levels and run the cutout filter before live tracing in AI. I cant get this to turn out right though.
The image above is a super bad 5 minute live trace after some PS tweaking to try and show you what I mean, it makes a bunch of smaller blobs of grayscale versus bigger blobs.
How can I apply a high contrast artistic effect to a monotone image, where highlights and shadows are exaggerated, and there are few shades of grey?
Answer
I found a quickish method!
You had almost all of the workflow, and the 'cutout' part that you had, is what I was missing when trying at first.
Starting with this image, because I couldn't find the one you're using:
The longest part for me was masking out the background. You may also need to add a Black & White adjustment layer after step 2 if you're using a colour image, but want monotone. Here's the workflow I used, though there may be a few 'unnecessary' steps:
Paste image into Photoshop.
Right click the layer in the Layers panel and choose Duplicate Image....
Go to Image → Adjustments → Posterize... and adjust the first layer to 4 levels and the second (duplicated) layer to 2 levels.
Go to Filter → Filter Gallery... and select the Cutout filter. Set the Number of Levels to 4, the Edge Simplicity to 4, and the Edge Fidelity to 2. Use it once on each layer with the same settings.
Set the Opacity of the second (duplicated) layer to 62%.
Add a Brightness/Contrast... adjustment layer and put the brightness all the way up, leave the contrast at 0.
Mask the background if you want to, I prefer a clean background for this effect, so that's what I did.
Save for Web...
Drag and drop the new file on to an artboard, or use the open function, in Illustrator.
Use Image Trace / Live Trace → High Fidelity Photo.
Disclaimer: I cannot speak for the results in anything below Adobe CC, but I naively assume that you should get a very similar result in Adobe CS5 & CS6.
Save and grin like Ray Charles. :)
Also tried and tested on a famous image of Steve Jobs. It required 3 layers, and different opacity levels, and I found it better to run the image through PS and up the contrast after Live Tracing, the rest of the workflow was almost identical.
What pixel width should a designer use for the PSD, given the pixel width of the website? (for example, I need a design for a website thats 1920px wide. What resolution should the designer use in photoshop?)
I'm a web developer and I always get PSDs from designers that are ridiculous arbitrary sizes. For example, I just got a PSD (for one single page of a website) that is well over a gigabyte, the image size / resolution is 5616px by 3744px. This makes it really difficult because I have to resize practically every element of the design. I have no idea why or how the designer chose to work in that resolution.
Personally, I would design at 2x the final website resolution, so I have retina images available..
I am drawing an image that's going to be parsed by a program. It expects very specific pixel colors, in this case black 0x000000FF (full alpha) to work properly.
... I made a whoops! Randomly, some of the pixels that should be pure black are actually 0x000100FF (just green enough to cause a problem). The data is spread across over 200 layers, so fixing this by hand would be heart breakingly tedious.
Is there a way to change pixels with the color 0x000100FF, to the color of 0x000000FF (black) across all layers?
Answer
Open "Levels" and zoom in as close as you can on one of the incorrect pixels. 
Using the Black Eye Dropper within the Levels window, click on the bad pixel. It will change all pixels of that color (and darker) to pure black. 
Let’s say I’ve created an outline, have explored my characters properly, and have properly broken down each scene to an appropriate level of detail. I know the story, I know the pacing, and I know where I’m gonna got add conflict and emotion.
I’m ready to put pen to page.
Where should I start writing?
Should I start with the opening scene to explore the story as I go along? Should I start with the end so I know exactly where I’m trying to get to? Or should I start somewhere in the middle so I can explore a little further before plunging into the big chapters?
Answer
As everybody else says, all options are viable. You can start from a scene that's bright in your mind and write to it and from it, you can throw scenes on paper and then connect them, you can start from the end and then write towards it. For every writer, a different approach works. So, listen to advice, but above all be guided by your own instinct, by what feels write to you.
For myself, I start at the beginning. Here's why.
I am not a complete discovery writer: I sort of know where I'm going. But I'm not a neat plotter and outliner either. I plan some waypoints along the road to the end, and then I let the story sort of take me there. As I go, I discover that scenes I've sort of planned happen in a different way than what I originally had in mind, because the original plan no longer works with the way the characters have developed. Other scenes move within the story, and yet others stay on the cutting board of my mind, not because they don't work, but because they slow the overall pacing. And yet others show up unbidden, born from the story's demand. I sort of go gleaning for my story. And that's not something that I could do from the middle.
Another reason to work from the beginning, for me, is pacing. As I write, I can see where the story is getting too slow, and I need to chop a scene to speed things up. Or I can see that it's moving too fast, I need to slow down, develop some aspect a bit more for it to make sense later in the tale. You can take care of those issues in a different stage of the writing process, but this is what works for me.
However, @Secespitus is right - don't get bogged down writing the perfect start. In fact, don't get bogged down writing the perfect anything. Write a version, a draft, and move on. Come back and edit it later. Compare this to the work of a painter: if one sets out to draw a tree, it makes little sense to spend hours on the shading of a single leaf, when the bole and the branches are not yet so much as hinted yet.
Is there any way to reverse the order of anchors in a path? I don't want to redraw the path again. I want to change the starting anchor point from the starting point of any path to its end. reversing the order of the anchors I already drew has some benefits to me, like:
Answer
Yes there is.
If your path is open:
If your path is closed:
menu->object->compound path->make. The path will be turned into a "compound path"menu->window->attributes)
Note: If you cannot see these buttons it is because the Attributes window is "minimized", so it is not showing all the attributes. Click on the top right corner and select "Show all".
