In Photoshop, how can I open up a view (in the same window) with another zoom level?

When drawing pixel art in Photoshop, I like to have the zoom level really high. Is there a way to also have a regular-level zoom (or perhaps an outer zoom) in another part of the window, so that I can see how the regular zoom will look as I work?

Answer

Look under the Window > Arrange menu for "New Window for [document name]" (it will be at the bottom). That opens the same document in a second window. Then you can tile the two and zoom in on one of them.

This is a very common technique when working in Photoshop for retouching as well as drawing.

style - What constitutes a 'hook?'

I intuit that hooks are things that hook. (I'm quite astute in this way.) They can be good prose, relatable characters, rich settings.

Books must start with a 'hook.' This is a current truism. The hook is (often) seen as establishing the tone of the book, placing the reader into the setting, into the mindset of a main character. The (implying singular) hook should be the first page of the story, perhaps the first 300 words. Or the first sentence.

My cherished beta readers have indicated that they do not know what it is that my characters want, and it finally dawned on me that this is a stumbling block for them (and myself) - if they knew what my characters wanted, they would be more 'hooked' into the characters.

With this dawning realization I began to wonder, what other elements can be conceived of as a hook? Put otherwise, it had not occurred to me to see character desire, specifically, as a hook. It had not occurred to me to take a broad view of what a 'hook' could be. (It had not occurred to me to hook my readers in as many ways as possible! I saw the readers merely as people to be entertained - not quarry to be poached and reeled in, and now I see that they may ... wish to be reeled in and I'm happy to re-envision my efforts through the lenses of hooks!)

Through the valuable contributions of esteemed contributors on this site, I understand that style, setting, tension, story, and so on are important to writing in a compelling fashion. These can all be considered 'hooks' but are not typically seen or defined as such. I am hoping to gain insight into what does and does not constitute a hook, the more specific the better. I'm not looking to tread over old ground, although I expect that may be necessary. I'm curious as well, what does not constitute a hook. Perhaps there is a reason that setting is not? seen as a hook although it is seen as a necessary component of effective storytelling.

Answer

First, I would not say a hook has to be in the first 300 words (a normal published page is about 250 words). Anybody that picks up a book with the intent of reading it will give you more credit than *one page, you will get three or four: As long as the prose is going somewhere.

For me, that "going somewhere" has been literal, in my current novel I start with a character actually running somewhere relatively fast, in a hurry but the reader doesn't know why. She seems calm and collected, hyper aware of her surroundings, thinking about things to do and people she knows. But it is not an idle jog, she is intent on getting there on time. Then in some pages, when she arrives, I reveal the purpose of this hard run was to escape the scene of a major crime she had just committed. Which reveals character, she is a professional, she's fit, she's fast, the run reveals some setting, her musings reveal some relationships that matter later.

So this "intent on getting somewhere fast for an unknown reason" is a minor "hook", it does keep the reader reading for a few pages, but then it is over, it did it's job, so it isn't a major hook that lasts for chapter.

This is what constitutes a hook, IMO: a question the reader needs answered. Why is this girl running? Where does she have to get, and why does she have to be on time? There are other questions or clues. She stops and walks the tree line silently at a blind bend in the path, then seeing it clear resumes her pace in the worn middle.

The reason it is important that you do not need a major hook so fast is that you want to set up a major hook (big ass question) just like anything else. IMO, a major hook isn't great unless it has context. To get that context, you can use a series of these "minor hooks" before you spring a big hook (question) the reader will want answered, that will pull them through more than just a few pages.

Think of it as building a rope bridge across a chasm. first, tie a thread to a stone, and throw or catapult that stone over. Use the thread to pull a string over. Use the string to pull a rope over. Use that rope to pull ten ropes over. Minor hooks, middling hooks, big hooks.

While each hook is operating, you are exposing character and plot and setting up the next-sized hook.

mobile - Best strategy to gather feedback for beta android app

I am working on a product that will soon release a beta android app, not through google play, but just sending the apk around to a couple of people.

I am now looking for ways to gather user feedback in the best way through this process. The info I am looking for is more about the user experience (user value, things that look strange or are not understandable, expectations etc). I would like to find an easy way for users to quickly comment and propose improvements of specific features.

I can think of a number of different ways to do that:

• Personal Feedback through email


• Distribute survey after a couple of days


• Integrate some kind of feedback loop in the app


• Create a group in android forums for beta testers (in the future)

However, I am not sure that these methods are as straightforward and I am wondering if someone has some best practices and tips regarding this process.

I have read that services like google+, spotify and a number of others had a very good strategy when it comes to their beta releases and gathering user feedback but I am not sure how to find some extra info and details about these. So if anyone has some best practices or examples to share I would be glad.

info visualisation - Data visualization: go with conventional format or a different format?

I'm dealing with a graph to help managers quickly determine the workload of various team member. The industry term for this is a "Resource Allocation Graph"

This is commonly shown in a calendar grid with one cell per person per day. It uses traffic light colors or shades to indicate workload. The darker the cell, the more work a team member has for the day. Red is typically used when too much work is assigned for the day.

e.g.

Problem with using colors is that our eyes are not very good at discerning relative differences between shades. E.g. when you say people were assigned too much work, just how much extra work are we talking about? If it's just a half hour overtime, this may be acceptable. But not if it's 5+ hours.

The top graph solves this problem by showing user numbers within the cell. This means users have to pause from the scanning to focus to interpret that number. Not ideal.

---

I'm looking at an alternate way of representing this information using a line/area graph.

Overages are shown as area in red. Available hours are shown in blue.

However, this is a very unconventional graph. I worry people may not understand what is being shown.

Question: What is a better approach? The conventional heatmap graph or the alternative line/area graph? Or something else?

This graph is used regularly. The managers tend to review resourcing at least once a week, if not more frequently.

Edit: This is a forecasting tool. Managers want to use this to determine if work needs to be reassigned to another team member or who has the capacity to take on more work.

Answer

I agree with you that third one is too counter-intuitive, it took me a while to read it and understand the notation.

And I agree shades are hard to tell apart, especially when they denote such small things as hours.

I dislike the idea of traffic light, because they show green as some load and yellow as zero load, and while it's reasonable, it conflicts with the intuitive recognition, I think (when green == good, yellow == medium, red == bad).

So one of the things that could work is a combination of good chunks from all three options (comments below).

• Not shades of color but a bar-chart.


• Bar-chart is aligned to the bottom of the cell, not to the median (that median-aligned chart is really hard to read).


• There are three shades for color-coding: blue for work hours, orange for stack ≥ 100%, grey for available time (blue is associated with business and grey also means empty, so it's a fitting connotation here; orange stands for a non-aggressive kind of alert).


• Since people can be booked for more than 100% and precise overtime amount matters, values are needed — I don't think there is a way to avoid them here (other than hiding them in the tooltip that appears on hover).


• I've added a "general availability" icon (on the left of the username) to show how available this person is on average of displayed time (and how prone are they to work overtime etc).

Illustrator: how to export artwork by layers

I made a large project with a bunch of layers, but I need each layer exported as it's own (.jpg/.png) image.

I know there's a way to export my project by artboards, but now It's all in separate layers (on one artboard).

What would be the easiest way for me to export all my layers (~25) without cloning each layer to a new artboard (and then dealing with all the placement etc.)?

Is it even possible? Would I have to use a script?

Answer

You can use this nice script by Tom Byrne.

Just copy this code into a notepad and save it as all files and with the filename MultiExporter.jsx.

Then drop a copy of that into your scripts folder. It can be found under

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator [YOUR VERSION]\Presets\en_[YOUR LANGUAGE]\Scripts

OR

C:\Program Filesx86\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator[YOURVERSION]\Presets\en_[YOUR LANGUAGE]\Scripts

Then in Illustrator, use the File > Scripts > MultiExporter option to bring up the dialogue box. From there it’s all fairly self explanatory.

Once you have each layer exported you can just split the pdf up and place each "page" as a new layer or whatever you need to do to recover your work!

website design - Popular serif and sans-serif browser compatible font combinations?

I was curious as to which combinations of serif and sans-serif fonts are preferable to use that are compatible with most browsers.

While I am aware that with the introduction of CSS3 importing custom fonts is a great solution, I was wondering, as a back-up, which combination would be good to use? Is there even a good/bad combination with the available fonts?

The fonts would be used for a restaurant webpage.

I'm not 100% familiar with typography and would appreciate some professional opinions.

Answer

If you want to use @font-face, go for a service that ensures proper display on all (most) browsers and OS. Google Webfonts, Typekit and Fontspring come to mind, but there are some others as well.

Two articles on the topic that might interest you (also covering the standard webfonts):

DesignShack: 10 Great Google Fonts Combinations

and

Smashing: Complete Guide to Font Stacks

options - call vs put open interest

I have been observing the data for US stock options.

In general, it seem like there are more open interest for call rather than for put, is there a reason people like to write more call?

at the same time, some stocks have rather sharp ratio of put to call open interest (5:1 or 1:5), why would these happen? would market maker be rather exposed?

When is it appropriate to ask User confirmation?

A couple of times I archived some of my emails accidentally ( touch screen you know ) . They don't usually ask for confirmation while archiving messages or emails. But they do while deleting . So in what situations is it appropriate to ask for user confirmation ?

Answer

User confirmation is almost always a bad solution. It breaks the user's flow and there's a real risk of habitually clicking yes on the confirmation. It basically makes 99% of the actions require more attention to catch the 1% that go wrong. And it works poorly.

This article explains it better than I can.

Of course, if there's no undo option, a confirmation is often the only option, but even then there are better or additional ways of making the user aware of the risk:

• Separate the dangerous actions from the safe ones by space and color. Make sure the user is already aware of the risk before initiating the action and make sure to limit the risk of initiating the action accidentally


• Queue the action if immediate feedback is not required (Gmail can do this when sending an email). Give the user some time to realize a possible mistake. This basically gives you a temporary undo.


• Show a preview in the confirmation dialog. If the confirmation changes appearance in a meaningful way, it can help to break the user out of the habitual flow. A kind of "oh wait, I don't want that!" response.

adobe photoshop - How can I place the product on a social media post better?

(The Logo in corner and product label is hidden for privacy reasons)

When I finalized the design, I got the feedback that the product (the grey thing in bottom left) isn't fitting well. (Image 1). So I did place it little above (Image 2). It looked better, still I got feedback that it is floating in the air.

So I believe, there's something wrong and I don't know how can I fix it. It's an air purifier. It has to be placed on left and should look better than these options. What can be done?

Also, you may suggest other possible way also, if you don't want to place it on left only. But the priority is left side, because the product name is mentioned on that side.

PS: Besides, generally asking, what else do you see wrong and can be improved to make it more aesthetic?

Answer

I have the feeling you are answering your question, maybe unconsciously.

Try to see the reading order:

Knowing the western reading order is from top to bottom, from left to right, the reader's eye will try to follow that path.

There's an object that first calls the eye attention: the girl picture. With the tendency to start from top to bottom, our eye will immediately goes to the beginning of the title, specially by the size, together with the reading sense and color.

After the stop at the logo, then the visual way goes down and finally left, where the orange bubble and the product are. All the elements at the bottom are absorbed by the picture, because they are interpreted as the ground. That's why in the sense of reading they are relegated to the end.

---

If we make the exercise with basic shapes it's more clear:

There is a large central object pointing to the title as a triangular arrow shape. Following the reading sense, the top objects, and from there to the bottom.

---

On the other side there's the disadvantage that the product is light grey, the color that less contrasts throughout the whole composition.

The color exercise shows how the contrast plays against the product. Imagine someone trying to remember the colors after seeing the add for a minute: the product doesn't exist.

If this were my job I would change the color of the girl's pants to eliminate a dominant and irrelevant color. With this simple change (also softening the green of the back plant), the product gains more presence:

Finally, why I think you have answered your question, you have placed the images number on the place of greatest visual relevance, so that whoever reads your question sees it clearly. Halfway between the beginning of the reading order and the main element after the photo, the title. The best site in the whole composition to place the product.

Unlike the second example, where the product is levitating, floating in the air, here it will be hanged in the wall.

Where would you put a clock in this scene?

Insert after the comment

I follow with the clock example.

Suppose the users haven't seen that product. They'll read the text "POCKET AIR PURIFIER" and might not know that the product is in picture. They might think that it's just part of the background image.

The only elements that visually compete with the clock in that position are the objects located behind the model. The reader unconsciously creates the perspective and defines a background where everything is located on the wall at the same level. We must find find a way that the rest of the elements get behind the clock, not literally but visually behind.

Here's an example blurring the background completely. It's something unreal, because the clock would be hanging between the back wall and the girl, but a very good visual resource to highlight the product even more. On the other side, blurring the background creates a noise-cleaning effect.

Second edit:

Why is the product flying in the air?

The product must be somewhere in the whole composition, in graphic design you don't have to please everyone, but find the right answer to define why everything is in its place. I think this whole answer gives you enough reasons to justify the product position. If the product was the clock, you might think about the location of the last picture, following the double virtual guide generated by the sleeves and collar of the model T-shirt and her shoulders (1). But unfortunately your product doesn't have much visual presence, so you have to give a predominant place in the entire composition, that's why it's in the central place with the large blank space around.

(1) - There's an indirect perception associated with this position: the healthy product is in line with the heart.

---

What would you answer to this: why did you put a girl instead of an elephant?

Well, the same reasoning you would do for this answer you should do it for answering about the product position.

Which UI/UX sketching software is recommended?

Which UI/UX sketching software do you use and would recommend? Why?

Showing the status of an action on a button

I have an application that can synchronize content between a website and a social network. with a button you can turn on and off the synchronization.

the user needs to see the status (sync on or off) and the action (turn the sync on or off).

Between switching sync on and off there is a waiting time, which should see the user.

This is my solution? Is there a better way I can achieve this?

the labeltext shows the action and the bubbles show the status. while the waiting time the labeltext changes to "wait ..."

forms - Why do websites use "you are being redirected..." pages?

Frequently after logging in a website - specially old ones - I see the following:

Welcome! You are being redirected, please click here if your browser does not redirect you.

And similar pages whenever clicking on a link or sending a form. Why do developers use those?

At first I thought they didn't want to use Javascript/Ajax, but they could simply reload the current page with a welcome message - not only that, there's usually some javascript on the "you are being redirected" page itself, like a spinning loading wheel. So I thought it could be spam control, but I can think of at least three better and simpler ways of doing it. DDoS control, perhaps? But that wouldn't do it if only some pages throw you at the "redirecting" page. So why make the user wait n seconds?

Answer

Generally there are two reasons (from my experience):

1. You got to the page via a link and that page either doesn't exist anymore, or was moved. If it doesn't exist anymore, you will sometimes get redirected higher in the navigation stack (Apple does this with their documentation, sending users to a ore filled search of related/similar pages, if you're lucky). If it has been moved due to a change in the IA of the site, it may be in a "sun setting" period wherein the user is moved from the old URL to the new - to slowdown and stop further propagation of the old link. After the sun setting period that redirect page will be dropped for either a 404 page; or, the higher level search concept.


2. Depending on the type of form you are filling out, there may be a process which must be run without user interaction; however, these rarely have the option to click the link.

Of course, with the latter part of the first reason, there must also be a process in place to stop this sort of thing and take the page down altogether. Either a date or a "when less than X users land on this page in a month, we can take it down" - so, sometimes a well intentioned change management consideration may never get fully resolved to the new way of things.

Hope that helps.

Roman numbers in Inkscape?

How can I write roman numbers in the program inkscape? Do I have to use the glyph-mode somehow or how is it done? Strangely, manually putting in the Unicode for example for the 'I' , U+2160 does not work and give me an 'I' in the text on my drawings.

Open Source alternatives to FF Tisa fonts

Recently, I have stumbled upon the FF Tisa fonts quite often and I happen to like them. Unfortunately, I have not found a matching open source alternative yet.

FF Tisa Pro:

FF Tisa Sans Pro:

_{Pictures from the myfonts.net entries of the fonts}

The following fonts seem quite close to FF Tisa Pro:

And other ones close to FF Tisa Sans Pro:

Unfortunately, it is very hard to find a good pairing to replace the Tisa combination, because either the weights differ too much or the character widths feel wrong. Do you have any recommendation for a good pairing?

resources - The must-read User Interface Book?

I'm looking for the Book that explains the essentials of user interface and user experience design.

I read Beautiful Visualization and Designing Interfaces from O'Reilly. I think they are very good but, I'm still looking for the one.

Please provide your recommendation and why it stands as the essential reference.

Answer

Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug. The book is written in the way it preaches: very simple and easy to understand. The book covers a wide range of user experience topics. It's a must-read.

A new edition of this book as been released in early January 2014. Don't Make Me Think Revisited

forms - Should we ask for name on card even though it's not required for credit card payments?

The name on card is not used when processing credit card payments. Paypal does not ask the user to enter the name on card when saving a card to the "wallet", while Amazon.com does.

The benefit of asking for it is that the user can feel more "secure" because we are asking for more details. With out the name on card field, the user might think: Hey, does that mean anyone can just grab my card number and the expiration and they can use it? This is taking into account the fact that CCVs and Address Verification can be turned off by the merchant.

The obvious advantage of not having the name on card field is that it's faster. 1 less field to fill in is always better when it comes to form design.

Should we ask for the name on card when users are paying/storing credit card details?

---

As an aside: We do not plan to store any of the card holder details and billing addresses in our system at the moment (that will happen when be grow to be a huge company and that becomes cost effective and feasible ;)). These will all be stored with the payment processor and details will be passed using direct post/transparent redirect, so that they never ever hit our server.

data - A generic limit order book: What are the most important queries it should be able to answer?

Assume a class LimitOrderBook which represents a limit order book in a trading system.

To be able to represent the limit order book a data handler reads a feed which adds data to the representation of the limit order book using the following three methods:

• public OrderReference add(Order order)


• public boolean cancel(OrderReference orderReference)


• public void execute(...)

These three methods alter the state of the limit order book. These three are more or less given, they're all needed to implement the LOB representation.

In addition to those three required "state altering" methods a typical LOB representation also provides a number of query methods that the trading models can call. One obvious example of such a method would be getBestBid(...).

What are the most important query methods a general LOB should provide? Or more specifically, in the LOB's you've built, what query methods did you include? Why?

Answer

There is no need to complicate things:

...

d = getBdepth();
d = getOdepth();
// for the calls below pos == 0 means the best bid/offer
p = getB(int pos); // bid price at pos
p = getO(int pos); // offer price at pos
q = getBq(int pos); // bid quantity at pos
q = getOq(int pos);// offer quantity at pos

Note that the above API is not the best choice if your LimitOrderBook instance is updated in background. But as long as you update its state within the same thread that does strategy calculations you're safe. In case of asynchronous updates things complicate a bit - you'll need two classes. The first one will have all the methods you describe plus one for getting a static snapshot of the order book at current time:

...

public LimitOrderBookSnapshot getSnapshot();

The LimitOrderBookSnapshot instance is made by synchronously copying data that underlie your LimitOrderBook instance. LimitOrderBookSnapshot API is made of the six calls I described at the top of this post.

Also note that in real solution you need to remember the time of getting a snapshot - if you won't you may end up using quotes that were not available at the moment of obtaining the order book data.

adobe photoshop - Batch convert 5000 vectors to PNG with transparency

I have 5000 vector images (mostly eps / svg) that i need to convert to PNG with transparent backgrounds. PNG images need to be maximum 4000x4000px

Any idea what would be the best way to do this ? Most batch image converters won't support transparency and resizing.

The first part of the task (vector to PNG) could be done using illustrator or photoshop actions, but i haven't found a way to set max size at 4000x4000 while keeping aspect ratio and maximum resolution matching the requirements

One option could be to split the task and run the PNG through something else to resize them to maximum 4000x4000px... Maybe Inkscape ? I saw some people were able to write python scripts to do similar tasks

the problem is that it's hard to set the 4000x4000px limit

Answer

That would be a job for the command line tool Image Magick mogrify. The following command:

mogrify -resize '4000x4000' -format png *.svg

Will convert all SVG files in the current folder to PNG keeping the aspect ratio but with the largest side exactly 4000 pixels.

In case we had defined a non-transparent white (or any other color) background in the source SVG we can add transparency with:

mogrify -resize '4000x4000' -transparent white -format png *.svg

---

Note on Windows command line:
We need to prefix the commands with magick and should not use ticks ' but nothing, or quote marks " instead.

An example Windows command may look like this:

magick mogrify -resize "4000x4000" -transparent white -format png *.svg

---

Converting EPS files need a density value (in DPI) in addition:

magick mogrify -resize "4000x4000" -density 300 -transparent white -format png *.eps

What is the font used in the Elysium movie code editor?

What is the font used in code editor in the Elysium movie?

See here if the image link broke.

Answer

Looks like FF Isonorm Monospaced Regular. Initially sold by FontFont but not seemingly available anymore. Typekit has a similar looking font but its spacing is proportional and you will find differences in some glyphs because of this (e.g. i, j, etc.).

naming - How to create a consistent feel for character names in a fantasy setting?

Recently while doing some world-building for a role-playing game with a friend we were seriously struggling with naming character consistently.

By consistently I mean make the names feel as though the belonged to the same culture or race. We had a particular theme or structure in mind but struggled to create names that suited it. So I'm turning to the wisdom of writing.se for advice.

How do you name characters so that they feel as if they belong in the same culture?

General tips on technique people use to keep names consistent are useful but in particular I am looking for advice on the traditional fantasy type names. Names with lots of "'" and made up syllables.

Answer

Use the same process online name-generators use

I'm not sure of the protocol for providing answers that are pretty much just links to other answers on SE, but the answer to this worldbuilding question sounds like exactly what you're looking for.

tl;dr Define a set number of linguistic building blocks ('ne', 'rt', 's'en' etc.) and combine them using a random number generator. The set number of 'blocks' will help give your language a distinct 'sound' to it.

You can then go further by defining some grammatical rules like 'ab never follows aa' and cross out words that use that combination.

A point on real-world names

Names in the real world travel further than you think, even before the invention of fast travel and communication technologies. They travel by diffusion along shared borders, through shared history/mythology/religion, and through conquest.

Names that make the jump between cultures are frequently adapted to fit the vagarities of the adoptive language (or do so over time). This is one of the reasons the Hebrew name 'Yohanan' crops up as the Greek 'Ioannes', the Latin 'Johannus', the Slavic 'Ivan', the Arabic 'Yahya' the Italian 'Giovanni', the Spanish 'Juan', the French 'Jean', the German 'Hans', the Welsh 'Ifan', and the English 'John'.

Might be getting a little Worldbuilding.SE on you here, but if you use a couple of different iterations of your random name generator for different languages, you can use the interplay of your names to tell a little about the deeper history of your cultures. Who invaded who. Which religious movements spread through which cultures. Who has a shared mythological heritage, if not a linguistic one.

Pick one name, and morph its phonemes to fit each of your particular languages to paint a picture of a shared history.

options - Calculate strike from Black Scholes delta

I have a list of deltas and their corresponding volatilities in an FX market but I want to go from delta to strike price. In this Question similar problem is being discussed

How can I calculate the strike price or implied volatility from a given delta?

The way I understand it, the strike price can be found like this:

Is my approach correct? If yes; pleace help me understand the term, N(d_1), so I can proceed with the solve process?

Edit:
I basically want to create the volatility smile in (strike,vol)-graph from data found by Bloombergs OVDV function:

So maybe there's a simplere way to do so

Answer

This is a little more complicated than the answer provided above since this is FX and the convention for determining the strike matters.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275905055_A_Guide_to_FX_Options_Quoting_Conventions

Most pairs take premium in the foreign (i.e. left hand side) currency. This means that you are paying for an option in the underlying - like paying for an IBM call option with IBM shares - and those shares can be viewed as part of the delta - as a result most pairs use the "include premium" convention. The details are in Wystup's paper and you should read it. The math is easy and it is nice to see everytrhing spelled out for you. The only pairs that "Exclude Premium" are EURUSD, GBPUSD, AUDUSD, NZDUSD - so these calculate delta in the usual way. Also in FX for BBG, the convention is to typically use spot delta for expiries less than a year and forward delta for expiries >= 1 year. Otherwise onlyvix's answer above is fine if you assume that the foreign risk free rate is 0.0%. The actual delta is $e^{-r_ft}N(d1)$ in the exclude premium case.

How can I keep text identical across several text boxes in InDesign CS6?

I have a layout with many (2x2) postcard-size cards on an A4 page, which are going to be cut into individual pieces after print. The postcards should remain identical. Each has multiple text fields. I would like text changed in one of those fields to be automatically updated in the corresponding fields in the other postcards. How do I achieve this?

In the following example, if I change e.g. "Vor genau" in one place, I would like that change to be reflected on the other side as well.

progressive disclosure - UI: Hover/focus to reveal controls?

We have profiles for our Web application holding a fair amount of data which takes up a lot of screen space. Each segment has related edit/remove buttons which clutter the screen and distract from content if they are all visible at the same time.

We are toying with the idea of revealing controls when hovering or focusing on a data segment. This behaviour can be seen on applications like Facebook, when hovering over items on the news feed (a drop-down or "remove" button appears.) Twitter also implement this on individual tweets. There are many other examples in the wild (comment features, forums etc.)

My concern is that there is no affordance to prompt the user to hover over/focus on an empty segment of data, and that creating such affordance will complicate the visual aesthetic. I don't want to create a barrier to learning how to use the interface, but really I don't know how much of a barrier this will create, and my assumption (dangerous) is that it's not a big deal. Unfortunately I am not our users.

Does anyone know how big a learning curve is introduced when controls are hidden from the user until they start interacting? Are there better options? Drop-downs have been considered, but purely lessening the visible 'clickable' elements is not optimal.

ipad - Drag and Drop with scrolling on tablets

I'm currently facing a design problem with drag and drop on tablets.

Scenario: The screen is split in half, on the right side, I have a list of items and on the left side I have a list of boxes. I can pick up an item and drop it in a box.

On the right side, it's possible to scroll the list if there are so many items that don't all fit on the screen.

I have three solutions for picking up an item to drag, all of them have problems:

1. 
   

   Touch and hold for 0.5s, then the item is picked up, then it's possible to drag. Problem: Most people just don't hold and try to drag right away. They fail and it annoys them.

   
   



2. 
   

   Instant drag on touch, the item is draggable instantly on touch. Problem: When they try to scroll, they pick up the item instead of scrolling the list. It doesn't do that they wanted and it annoys them.

   
   


3. 
   

   Have a drag handle, so if they touch on the handle, they instantly pick up the item and can drag it. If they touch elsewhere, the item is not picked up. Problem: Has to make the item icon bigger. The draggable area (drag handle) can be small so harder to pick up an item.

   
   

I think drag and drop is the most natural interaction for this scenario, but I can't find a perfect way to do it. Do you guys have any suggestions?

It's possible to avoid drag and drop totally, but I would resort to that as the last solution.

Thanks!

software - Where can I publish a book/e-book at a minimal cost?

I have a book I want to publish. The book is in PDF format. I want to sell it on Amazon or somewhere similar for 5 $ each in electronic format (downloadable to Kindle or the Kindle app for smartphones), or $12 in which case $7 could go to Amazon for printing the book for me, the buyer would then pay for the shipping. Is there a better way to index my book for sale with given keywords and sell it online. How do I proceed? I am looking at minimizing my profits as I am just starting out.

Answer

Print Edition

If you want to publish a paperback edition, you can use CreateSpace or other print-on-demand (POD) service. CreateSpace (and maybe the others) take no money up front. They take a cut of each sale. And the retailer takes a cut of each sale. You set the retail price, and your royalty is whatever is left over after CreateSpace and the retailer take their cut.

For CreateSpace, their cut depends on the page count and on whether you want color or black and white. See CreateSpace’s royalty calculator here: https://www.createspace.com/Products/Book/

Ebook Edition

For ebooks, you have a few options:

Option 1. CreateSpace can make an Kindle book from your PDF. That’s an epub or mobi file with the PDF inside. I have never tried that, because it creates a fixed-format ebook, which prevents users from being able to adjust the font or the type size. So there’s a good chance that the book will be challenging to read on a small screen.

Option 2. Make your own epub files. There are several tools available for this, some free and some not. Each tool involves a bit of a learning curve. Perhaps others can recommend tools for this. (I created my own, and I can't recommend that one for anybody other than me.)

Option 3. Use an “aggregator” such as Smashwords or Draft2Digital. These aggregators can typically convert your Word file into epub format. And they can submit your book to a variety of retailers. For their contribution, they each take a cut of the purchase price.

Option 4. Use an ebook formatter service. This involves an upfront fee. I have never looked into this, so cannot offer pointers here.

Perhaps there are other options that I'm neglecting.

Cover

You will need to create or purchase a cover for your book. To create the cover yourself, you will need:

• Licenses for the art you use in the cover. There are many sources of stock photos. You may be able to find suitable art that is freely-usable without a license fee.


• Image editing tools to create the book cover. Some are free. Some are very expensive. Each involves a learning curve.

Or you can hire a cover designer. Naturally, this will involve a fee.

option pricing - Probability of touching

For a vanilla option, I know that the probability of the option expiring in the money is simply the delta of the option... but how would I calculate the probability, without doing monte carlo, of the underlying touching the strike at some time at or before maturity?

Answer

There is a simple solution if there is no drift, as the probability $p(x,t)$ obeys a simple diffusion equation: $\mathrm{d}(p)/\mathrm{d}t = \frac{1}{2} \sigma^2 \frac{\mathrm{d}(\mathrm{d}(p))}{\mathrm{d}x^2}$, here $x$ is the price difference $\text{price}(t) - \text{price}(t=0)$. Of course there is a simple solution to the diffusion equation (using scaling as a method to solve the PDE):

$$ p(x,t) = (4\pi \frac{\sigma^2}{2} t)^{-\frac{1}{2}} \text{e}^{(-x^2/(4 \frac{\sigma^2}{2} t) )} $$ to find the probability of hiting a barrier $x$ on or before $T$ simply ( :} ) integrate, $$ \text{prob of hitting ($t \le T$)} = \int\limits_{t=0}^{T} p(x,t)\mathrm{d}t $$

pathfinder - how to combine two objects using path finder in illustrator?

i want it to be like this

but when i click the minus front, both objects got cut out like this;

so how? how do you combine it like in the first picture?

here the 2 original objects before i click minus front;

animation - How do you save an Animated GIF file using Photoshop?

I am making a .gif file in Photoshop CS5. While saving this animation, I used the steps = File > Save for web & devices > Preset= GIF 128 Dithered > GIF > Save. After saving the .gif file it does not show the animation. So what is wrong with the procedure?

What's Risk-Neutral in an Interest Rate Model?

In Shreve II, on p. 265 he states the Hull-White interest rate model as $$ dR(u) = \left( a(u) - b(u)R(u)\right) dt + \sigma(u)d\tilde{W}(u), $$ and then mentions "...$\tilde{W}(u)$ is a Brownian motion under a risk-neutral measure $\tilde{\mathbb{P}}$." However, when he defines a risk-neutral measure on p. 228, he states that $\tilde{\mathbb{P}}$ is a measure under which the discounted stock price is a martingale.

This definition doesn't really apply here, so what is meant by a "risk-neutral measure" when modelling interest rates? Also, why do interest rate models always seem to be stated under these risk-neutral probabilities?

Answer

It is a very interesting question. There is a brief explanation in the book Martingale methods in financial modelling. Basically, it says that, the interest short rate $r_t$ can be modeled in any martingale measure $Q$, however, as long as the zero-coupon bond price $P(t, T)$ is defined by \begin{align*} P(t, T) = E^{Q}\Big(e^{-\int_t^T r_s ds} \mid \mathcal{F}_t\Big) \end{align*} then the discounted bond price $$\frac{P(t, T)}{B(t)},$$ is a $Q-$martingale, and is arbitrage free. Here $B(t)= e^{\int_0^tr_sds}$ is the money market account value. This provides us the freedom to choose the martingale measure, and people always assume that the interest rate model is defined under the risk-neutral probability measure.

Novelizing non-fiction, is it worth it?

There are a few lifestyle subjects where I feel I need to write non-fiction books.

The problem is that in these fields, most of what is published is 101 intro manuals, while my takes to the field are mostly for advanced practitioners.

If I do write them as non-fiction, I probably would have to include 101 basics, before delving into the specialized notions.

Also, I am not sure that an explanatory text, perorating a theoretical lecture, is the best medium for convey my contribution on these subjects.

I though that maybe it would be better to show instead of telling by having a character who is a practitioner of these subjects. The protagonist would reach these “advanced” notions, or realizations, through the dramatization of the story.

The goal is of course to reach the most people, so specialized non-fiction or dramatized novel?

usability - Heuristic evaluation. Which set of heuristics follow?

I have to perform an heuristic evaluation of a website. I found in internet several guidelines on which the evaluation is based. I found also this article from Smashing Magazine (http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/2011/12/16/guide-heuristic-website-reviews/) in which the evaluation is performed on several aspects like Home page, IA, Feedback and error tolerance and so on. Maybe I don't know enough the Nielsen's heuristic but they seems different from the ones on this articles. So, my question is : which set of heuristic an evaluation has to follow? I think that such a division like that on Smashing Magazine's article could be very useful to better assess usability problem for each area.

Answer

A heuristic evaluation does not have to follow any specific set of heuristics. You can use a well-known set of heuristics such as Nielsen's usability heuristics. You can use a lesser-known set of heuristics, or you can devise your own heuristics that are most relevant to what you are evaluating. If you have been asked to do a heuristic evaluation, it is worthwhile to ask whether they had a specific set of heuristics in mind when they asked you to do the evaluation.

A heuristic evaluation does need to specify what set of heuristics are being used in the evaluation, and those heuristics need to be clear enough such that those who are consuming your heuristic evaluation can understand the criteria that you are using for the evaluation and the importance of the issues that are revealed in the evaluation. If you and someone else are conducting the heuristic evaluation together, you need to ensure that you are both using the same heuristics and interpreting them in the same way. In any case, you should be prepared to explain what the heuristics are, how they apply to your application, why you chose to use those heuristics, and what steps to take to address the issues that are exposed in your heuristic evaluation. You should also specify where the application is doing well with regards to the heuristics to ensure that these strengths continue to exist and be built upon.

If you have never done a heuristic evaluation before, Nielsen's heuristics are valuable for several reasons. They are widely used, which reduces the need for explaining the heuristics that you are using. There is a body of research which supports those heuristics, which can help you in explaining the importance of violations of the heuristics to others. It is also a small number of heuristics, which reduces the complexity in trying to determine which heuristic a given issue violates. There are many examples of the application of Nielsen's heuristics, which can help you understand how to conduct your own heuristic evaluation.

The most important thing is not the specific heuristics that you use in a heuristic evaluation. The heuristics that you use are a tool to accomplish the evaluation; it's your analysis in the evaluation that is of value.

How much detail in wireframes?

How much detail should you put in your wireframes?

I have been creating a lot lately and I usually end up putting a lot more detail in something that I am handing off to another designer; whereas if I am going to be designing it myself, I always seem to have a lot less. Is this the best way to go about it?

Answer

This is a very general question, and deserves a very general answer. (Which is cool.)

You should put as much detail as you need! There's no right answer. In general, stick to the minimum required to move forward. Don't waste your time! Try putting half as much detail in and see if it gets the results you need. You may find that you were wasting a lot more time than you think.

Sort-of a follow-up question: Are you using Photoshop? Photoshop prototypers are notorious for over-detailing. I almost never use Photoshop if I can get the same result from HTML/CSS/Javascript. (37 Signals agrees.) If you can, skip Photoshop. I personally love using Balsamiq. It's fast, easy, and purposefully limited. You can't waste hours over fonts, because you only have 2 to choose from, tops.

To answer your question a bit more, we need to get back to why we're making wireframes / prototypes in the first place: to test things out. If you're just testing out the IA for your site, you probably don't need to spend time adjusting color schemes or edge beveling. But, if you're testing out a radical new visual design, then you may need to put in the time working on those details.

I'm using "test" in a very loose sense here. A full clickthrough HTML prototype in a usability lab and a simple doodle on a napkin are both tools used in testing. It's just a matter of what you're testing and how accurate your results will be. The HTML protoype will give you pretty accurate information about what users will do with something, but it will take a long time to make. Showing someone a napkin sketch will take two seconds, but will give you really general information. (Maybe even miss-information.)

These ideas don't just apply to websites -- you can make a simple / complex prototype for a car, building, service, song, PhD thesis, whatever. Anything man-made has any number of conceptual levels at which it can be represented! Check out the amazing book Understanding Comics. It'll change the way you approach the craft of UX.

Good question.

designers - Why was my experience with a logo contest so miserable?

I'm starting out as a freelance designer (and no job experience at any company before) and I decided to join "contests" held by freelancer.com's users.

I've joined several of them already and I can tell that my designs are really good, I read what the client wants and doesn't want, etc... But instead my designs end up getting rejected or having only 2 stars and 1 star.

---

My head really hurts right now as I spent hours crafting it with all my heart and it end up getting beaten up by some crappy designs.

Thanks for sticking with me so far and sorry for making you read my rantings, and also for saying others' designs are bad, but I just can't accept that my designs got beaten up by crappy designs.

Have you guys gone through this before? What advice would you give me? Any response would be really appreciated. Thank you :)

Answer

On the point of contests in general, on top of what Farray's said I'll just add, do the maths: $490 prize for one person out of 1,109 entrants? Assuming all designs took just two hours on average and people keep at it as long as it takes until they finally win something, that'd give the designers participating in this system an average wage of 22 cents an hour. I imagine you probably spent longer on yours, so it's probably even lower for you. That's exploitation. Your time is worth more than that, and that's clearly no way to pay the bills.

(from http://freelanceswitch.com/freelance-freedom/freelance-freedom-158/)

There's an actual campaign, No Spec, against spec work (including exploitative contests) like this.

There are better ways to gain practical experience early in your design career. Anything that doesn't involve real direct feedback from a real human with a real mutual understanding of your real shared goal is like practising archery blindfolded.

---

Edit: Since writing this, I did actually meet one guy who had not bad experiences of these kind of contests (first ever) - but not in the way most people who enter them are hoping.

He works in interior design, and occasionally enters logo / web design contests because it's a no-risk, no-commitment way to keep his unused graphics skills slightly fresher. He prefers it to pro-bono work as there's no risk or commitment, and he prefers it to self-initiated work as, after a tiring day on his regular job, he's more likely to actually knuckle down if there's a convenient list of near-random briefs to idly choose from and actual deadlines to make it happen.

He's an exception that proves the rule. Like him, never enter competitions like these expecting to make any money, and never expect any meaningful or useful feedback. Use them only if you want an easy, lazy, no risk way to keep certain skills in practice, and if you're not realistically going to get around to doing higher-effort but more rewarding things like pro-bono and self-initiated projects.

---

As for the question of why your design didn't go down well, here's one concrete issue with why your actual submitted design probably didn't go down well:

I personally quite like it, it's got some character, it's fairly memorable, original and intriguing (a few critiques below). This is probably a big part of the reason why it didn't work out: it very effectively communicates a personality, but when the "client" is someone you've never met who's disinterested in the logo design process to the point of using a contest instead of actually working with someone, what's the chances of it by luck matching the specific personality of this company/guy you've never met?

If they wanted something challenging, innovative or high quality, they'd have chosen a designer and worked with them in a proper process. They went with a contest because they probably don't care very much and just want something (anything) that looks professionally produced, so they probably went with something very ordinary.

---

The following are more passing comments than part of an answer, but I'll throw them in anyway:

• Minor tip: the moustache looks a little bit high relative to its size and the size of the hat


• There's no real stylistic relationship between the "ecilipse" backdrop and the chef image. At first I didn't even realise the eclipse thing was part of the logo, I thought it was a separate presentational device and only realised it was part of the logo when I realised it was an eclipse. There should be some correspondence that ties them together as being part of one unit - for example, the stark white with non-perfectly-circular edges style that exists in the logo could work for an eclipse.


• There's also not much correspondence between the text and the central image (the fact it seems you weren't satisfied with any one of the placements of the text, and the fact it seems to work as well as part of the image as it does as something wholly separate floating outside it, is always a good warning flag that something needs re-thinking). The typography doesn't feel like it's adding much to the image, and the earnest serious sci-fi/space character of the type feels like a clash with the slightly cool cheeky understated character of the cartoon


• Book recommendation: Really good logos explained, it's a panel of designers giving good quality critiques and comments on a bunch of decent, realistic quality logos. Full of valuable practical insights.

Gaps between shapes when exporting from illustrator to photoshop

I often have .ai files that need to be exported to .psd but with paths retained. To retain all vectors I follow this tutorial. All works as fine, expect for the fact that I often end up having small hairline gaps between different shapes, the same shapes stick perfectly to each other in Illustrator or even an exported PNG.

Here's what it looks like as a PNG / AI

And this is what I get in Photoshop

Here's a few questions I came across on SE

Space between 2 paths in Illustrator

Fix gap between path and shapes in Illustrator

Hairline gaps between shapes

There are a few more that I went through, but can't find them now. In any case, they all had the same explanation and solution suggested.

1. 
   

   This is caused due to issues with Anti-Aliasing in Illustrator

   
   


2. 
   

   Solution 1 : Keep an object behind the area where the line shows up and give this object a favourable solid fill color

   
   
   


3. 
   

   Solution 2 : Use Illustrator's path offset feature to "grow" all shapes my a small unnoticeable amount so the shapes then appear to be contact

   
   

I can't use the first solution as these AI files are normally icons with no specific background, would be tedious to fill the gaps manually

The second solution is helpful, but more of something I would try if all else fails. This is because :

1. 
   

   The solution I followed to retain vectors needs all shapes to be converted to compound shapes before exporting. However, because of this, I tend to have a lot of compound shapes for each separate element. To make things worse, any group in AI get's exported as a rasterized layer. So I need to keep a rather long list of compound shapes.

   
   
   


2. 
   

   When using the offset feature, I noticed that it adds a slightly larger new path below the selected shape, which means I'll have even more elements to handle now. This doesn't seem like a problem with simple designs, however when it comes to larger complex artworks things get quite messy.

   
   

Are there any other ways of solving this problem.

EDIT :

Here's the AI file

adobe photoshop - Squeeze the neck of a t-shirt

My aim is make the neck area more narrow

Before:

After

Currently I am tring to achieve this with liquify, but the results I achieve are not very succesful. Is there a better option to change the neck?

Edit: To Clarify the problem better, What I am tring to narrow down is not the neck of the person, it is the neck of the t-shirt. I am t-shirt seller and the t-shirts that I sell have necks like the one in second picture, but my t-shirt template looks like the first one, so I am tring to make my template look like the t-shirt in the second one.

Edit 2 I am uploading my current template (PSD), and the possible candidate JPGs which I want to achieve a similar look. Click to download.

Answer

EDIT: Your additions make my original answer ridiculous. Even the one single word that I seem to have guessed right is in totally wrong context.

Seriously:

The PSD composition over the base photo in the template is a respectable piece of pro quality work. Messing only around the collar probably will destroy it - at least, if you want to use it in the original resolution. In addition it would be idiotic to change the collar. It affects in so many places that it's much easier to change the whole shirt.

Your high quality solution is to rebuild the PSD around your new base photo. If you can understand the details in your PSD, you are able to do it yourself. If not, you must hire a pro and be ready to pay half a day. All layers, masks and colors must be adapted to be based on the new photo.

The job can be substantially reduced if you do not use all features of the PSD template. But the job still needs understanding the layers.

ADDENDUM: Just in case you need something just now, you can try one of my trials on the same concept. I put into it your "Yellow candidate" from your links. Of course it's a fast crunch and much simpler, but also has something nonexistent in your loose hanging template. Adjust layer opacities to see what they do.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qza57yvz1lkbpms/T_Shirt_287001.psd?dl=0

===========================

**THINNING THE NECK - THE OBSOLETE ANSWER ** I see the problem. You want quite heavy thinning and liquifying easily spoils the perfect round shape of the collar. In additon there may have existed some reason that prevented the thinning before the photo session.

One solution is to clip the top part of the shirt to another layer and use it to cover the distorted collar. Use Edit > Transform tools to

• reduce the size of the clip


• warp the clip to fit to shoulders and the thinned neck

Add a layer mask to the clip and fade the edges to get rid of steep color difference at the outer edge of the clip.

This is the thinning without the new collar

This is the added new collar:

And this is the final result:

filtering - Search Vs. Filter- what is the difference

From the view of the user (not from a technical view)- What are the main differences between searching and filtering data, in order to get specific results?

i.e.- in both cases the user is looking for specific data so why should he care which method is used to find it?...

would you say these two methods are mostly the same (in the eyes of the user)?

If not- when would you use each?

Why Illustrator if I have Photoshop shapes? Why Ai at all?

I know it is an old silly question this whole thing about Illustrator vs Photoshop, but since I never found answers for my questions that, at least for me, reasons enough to stay with Photoshop, I decided to post my thoughts somewhere. These are the arguments in favor of Illustrator and my answers to them:

• It's vector based. Photoshop has shapes and paths.


• You can resize freely. if you use Photoshop shapes, you can do the same;



• It's good for printing. Since you can create the file whatever size you need and even use CMYK, it's not an excuse.


• Illustrator has artboards. Just like Photoshop (in the latest versions).


• You see pixels when you zoom in Photoshop. I love it, since the pixels won't be there when you save a PDF file with Ps, I feel I have more control over things while I'm capable of adjust pixel by pixel.

Now, my arguments in favor of Photoshop:

• Much better pen tool and shapes control.


• Awesome layers organization (what I hate in Illustrator).


• Lighter program. Illustrator runs very laggy in my PC (and it has good specs).


• I never plan 100% of my arts before I start them. Because of this, I always have to keep both programs open to edit pics in Photoshop and send them Ai.



• Awesome "Save for web" and "extract assets" functions.


• Better (really better) clipping mask.

What I mean is, people say Illustrator is way better for logo designing, but since I'll probably need the logo to be used in a website, since I can design the logo with shapes and since Photoshop can do it all™, why is Illustrator better than Ps in any way? And why should I use Ai?

Answer

I almost daily deal with clients who don't have vector versions of their logo because people think that Photoshop is an acceptable tool to design logos; it isn't. I'm including in that, logos that are exported as PFD or EPS from Photoshop.

They may be file formats that are capable of holding vectors but the files exported from Photoshop don't contain complete and proper vectors; they are at best (and not always) vector paths containing raster fills (and any styles, effects etc. will always be raster). What you think is a vector file is at best partially vector. See How to create vector graphics In Photoshop?

Logos should be delivered in a number of formats, especially and essentially a true vector format. See Logo Pack - What should I include?

Let me respond to your points one by one...

These are the arguments in favor of Illustrator and my answers to them:

• It's vector based. Photoshop has shapes and paths.

At the risk of repeating myself; Photoshop shapes and paths are vector containers for raster fills—they simply don't compare. The only part of Photoshop that is vector is the path data, absolutely nothing that you see is a vector (except maybe live type). So any color; fill or stroke or effect or anything else attached to a shape layer in Photoshop is still a raster image.

Again, see How to create vector graphics In Photoshop?

• You can resize freely. if you use Photoshop shapes, you can do the same;

Yes... Inside Photoshop. As soon as you're outside Photoshop you can't; so useless (or at least significant extra work) to anyone who isn't the person creating the logo.

• It's good for printing. Since you can create the file whatever size you need and even use CMYK, it's not an excuse.

Sure, you can use Photoshop for printing. Photoshop isn't vector though so there are a lot of issues to keep in mind; you need to worry about resolution and colors at all stages—you can't quickly resize your A6 flyer to an A0 poster and if you're printer comes back and asks you for a file 3x the resolution you started at, you're probably in trouble.

Working with spot colors (which is essential for a lot of commercial print work) in Photoshop is also significantly harder. You can't just use a spot color, you need to work in multichannel and create channels for you spots.

See Can't apply a Pantone color in Photoshop and linked Q&As.

• Illustrator has artboards. Just like Photoshop (in the latest versions).

Cool. I still use CS6 so don't have artboards in Photoshop. But I don't see what the argument is here; I doubt artboards in Photoshop would/will change my choice of program at all.

• You see pixels when you zoom in Photoshop. I love it, since the pixels won't be there when you save a PDF file with Ps, I feel I have more control over things while I'm capable of adjust pixel by pixel.

If you're working for a digital output, great. Otherwise that makes no sense. There are no pixels in printing so you're giving yourself an unrealistic sense of control where there is none; it is actually the opposite, you're applying an unneeded limitation on yourself.

That "control" is also limited to a single output size (or multiples in scale thereof).

Now, my arguments in favor of Photoshop:

• Much better pen tool and shapes control.

This couldn't be further from the truth. Other than the Pen tool and Shape tools you don't have much more to work with in Photoshop; Illustrator has a myriad of tools and effects that create, distort and work with vectors. Being unfamiliar with or unaware of a tools capabilities does not mean they are inferior; there is a steeper learning curve with Illustrator, but it is vastly superior to Photoshop with its vector capabilities.

• Awesome layers organization (what I hate in Illustrator).

Photoshop and Illustrator layers panels are not comparable; Illustrator show layers and objects, giving you a lot more control. I can't stand Photoshop's layer organization; but that's mostly because I work with Illustrator and rarely use Photoshop and humans like what they are used to.

• Lighter program. Illustrator runs very laggy in my PC (and it has good specs).

True. I rarely have trouble Illustrator, even on my laptop; but that's besides the point. MS Paint is probably less laggy than Photoshop, that doesn't mean it's better suited to logo design.

• I never plan 100% of my arts before I start them. Because of this, I always have to keep both programs open to edit pics in Photoshop and send them Ai.

Great, that's what you should be doing.

• Awesome "Save for web" and "extract assets" functions.

Illustrator has the same (or comparable, not sure about newer versions) "Save for Web" and "Extract Assets" functions. Photoshop has generally been seen as better for digital assets, although that has changed a lot in recent years. That's mostly a matter of personal preference though, so no arguments there.

• Better (really better) clipping mask.

Clipping masks in Photoshop and Illustrator do fundamentally different things. Clipping Masks in Photoshop are more equivalent to Opacity Masks in Illustrator, and Clipping Masks in Illustrator are equivalent to Vector Masks in Photoshop.

In Illustrator you can use any number of shapes in any configuration, all with distinct appearances and attributes as a single opacity mask, whereas you're limited to a single layer in Photoshop; which—in my opinion—makes them vastly superior.

---

TL;DR — Use each tool for what it was designed for. Illustrator is a vector program; use it to create vectors. Photoshop is an image editor; use it to create and manipulate raster images. You can do some vector-ish stuff in Photoshop and you can do some image manipulation stuff in Illustrator; but you're just limiting yourself to what can be done and setting yourself up for trouble in the long run.

Apologies for the long answer and apologies if this comes across as anything other than sincere; this is something that I deal with every day and it is truly frustrating.

novel - What to submit when asked for "sample chapters"?

For a submission (to a grant program, competition, agent, or publisher) that asks for sample chapters, which chapters do you choose?

For example, a grant program for unfinished works I'm interested in wants 3 sample chapters. They don't specify which ones. Do you go in order? Include the prolog? Add another chapter if one is quite short? Do three consecutive chapters that aren't from the beginning? Is it better to skip around, to choose the best chapters even if they lack context? Or better to show a story progression?

What chapter choices lead to the strongest submission?

copyright - How can I establish ownership over my work?

I have an irrational fear of my work being stolen. I understand that this is, realistically, extremely unlikely to happen. There are just too many barriers to something being successfully stolen and sold, and I should be able to put my name and copyright on it and be ready to go.

Unfortunately, that understanding doesn't seem to be sufficient. Despite any rational arguments I make, I still find myself extremely hesitant to share my work and seek feedback - the slim possibility is enough to paralyze me.

So my question is - how can I go about ensuring proof of ownership to reassure my paranoid self? Is there a series of actions I can take, so that in a worst-case scenario I could approach a lawyer and definitively show that I was the original writer?

Note: I'm not sure if this question belongs here or on Law. It is specific to writing (and I am in the US), and I am willing to accept an opinion from someone experienced in copyright/publishing but who is not actually a lawyer.

usability - Affordability for clicking

I'm making a screen for a charging station for a IOT device. The screen displays charging status, and that will be a functionality initially. Moving forward it will have more functionalities such as configuring the IOT devices.

I was wondering if having a container (box) on the representation of each device a creates affordability on whether something is clickable.

Answer

The box indeed invites the user to click, whereas without the box it looks like a simple status with no possible interaction.

To decrease user cognitive load of having to match which status correspond to which device, I would make the boxes larger to occupy the entire screen real estate, so that each box corresponds to a physical slot as much as possible.

notification - Should alert boxes be avoided at any cost?

Thanks to Gabriel Svennerberg and Sam K for this one - raised in a comment here.

I was fairly casual about alert boxes until a run of user tests where an alert box was put up to warn learners that if they left an online course at a particular point they would lose work they'd already done. Leaving aside the fact that that situation should probably never arise in the first place (! no poka-yoke there), we were very alarmed by what we saw.

Users basically clicked on that alert box in a completely random way, based on their prior experience of alert boxes in other software.

Only a smallish minority of users read the text of the alert box. Most just clicked something: either the button that kept them safely on the page, or the one that deleted their work, or the 'X' to close the dialogue. Most were bemused by whatever came next. Digging deeper, it seemed that many people just had a set action for 'error' boxes - click something to make it go away.

On that basis, how far do we go to avoid alert boxes?

interaction design - Toilet flush buttons

This question has been bugging me ever since I've started learning usability.

I am talking about the two buttons for the flush : Full and half container.

On one hand, the button shape has to represent its function. Thus a bigger button must mean the full container.

On the other, dangerous/heavy process triggers should be protected from being triggered by mistake and generally harder to trigger(If you press it, you mean it). From that point of view, the full container button should be smaller and further from the user and the half-container should be big and easy to reach/press.

Also, keep in mind, that I come from a country where water is scarce. So people are educated and encouraged from a very young age to conserve. But it's also a rising trend worldwide now...

While observing these interfaces all over the world, I didn't see any consistency in the matter. The buttons really go both ways. Sometimes the full container is the big one and sometimes it's the small one. It is inconsistent even within the country. I've also seen all kinds of unconventional designs. But again, nothing clear and intuitive from the moment you see it...

What are your thoughts on the matter? Have you ever seen a good, clear design, that is really intuitive? Do you know of any standards for this?

NOTE: Please don't suggest text as a solution. Icons may be interesting. But I've never seen a clear icon for that.

Answer

Because litres are a unit used everywhere across the world, a non-language dependent text solution is to label the amount of water used. Typically the symbol "L" is recognised as litres in almost any scenario.

Here is an example:

In addition, the two labels could be used as "wave to flush" sensors, if spaced far enough apart, preventing the spread of germs in public restrooms.

Labelling the amount of water use in clear sight provides the benefit of educating users on water conservation. Anybody who uses a toilet with these buttons frequently could quickly respond to how much water a toilet uses.

Drawing a double helix in Inkscape

I've seen this How can I create a double helix? question but I am here to ask you how to create a double-helix in Inkscape, instead of illustrator. I have tried to achieve this via creating two sine waves (using the Parametric Curves extension) and doing some cutting and colouring-in from there and this is what I’m at at the moment. After this I would create another sine wave with the opposite vertical orientation (which would be the second helix) and go from there.

This is what I have so far from the sine wave method; see in the first instance where I wanted to colour between the waves, the coloured area would form part of the helix.

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I have also tried vectorizing a structure of DNA drawn using Accelrys DS Visualizer and failed pretty miserably: I find it impossible to seamlessly vectorize such complex raster files. See below for the original image if you have the skill to vectorize it in a way you could share with me I'd be more than willing to hear. I would like to know is there any better ways of doing this.

This double helix is the one I obtained using Accelrys DS Visualizer, with later GIMP editing (mostly in an effort to make it easier to vectorize, you may note that the helix backbone is no longer coloured in shades of white like it was originally).

physical - Why do ATMs need to take your card in?

In every ATM I've seen, the card is "swallowed" by the machine, and returned at one point or another (or not, if you type the wrong PIN 3 times or whatever). This leads to people forgetting the card, as exemplified in Why don't ATMs give you cash before your card?

However, many other machines - vending machines, auto-parking, gas pumps, supermarket auto-checkouts, etc. - only require that you swipe the card. This looks better to me - the card never leaves your hand, and you're much less likely to forget it.

Why this difference between ATMs and other machines? Is it just so the ATM can swallow your card if it doesn't like you or your PIN attempts?

Answer

By holding onto the card, the user is clearly informed that their transaction is not yet complete. If the card was given back before any transaction, the user may be uncertain as to whether they are still authenticated. Giving back a physical piece of identity makes it absolutely clear that you have 'logged out'.

There is a perceived and an actual security risk involved. Suppose for example you 'sign in' to your account, and the machine gives back your card immediately. You may withdraw £100, and when prompted 'Do you wish to perform another transaction?' you may accidentally select 'Yes' rather than 'No', particularly if you do not understand the language the machine is using. Walking away from the machine at this point would obviously be a huge security risk.

web app - How to tell to the user that a web app is optimized for a specific browser?

My web app is voluntary optimized for Chrome. It works on IE and Firefox but the user can find some design issues with old browsers like IE 8. It's a professional app' on an intranet and a some users don't use Chrome.

I'd like to display on the Home page something like "This site is optimized for Chrome" and may be a link to https://www.google.com/chrome/

Is-it a good idea to do that ? What is the "best" way to inform the user this app' is optimized for a specific browser ? Should I encourage the user to download Chrome ?

Answer

Don't inform them.

Provided it works fine on all browers and doesn't look a huge mess in IE8 (see 'Graceful Degradation') then why bother telling users to update their browser? The chances are if they're using an old browser it's because they don't have a choice - it could be a corporate network where they don't have permission / ability to update, for example. Telling them to update doesn't mean that they will. It'll more likely annoy them. "Everyone else is welcome, but you can't come in here with those shoes on sir".

You telling them that they are out of date isn't going to win you any favours from them. Ensure you've built the app using proper web standards so that it actually works. Telling them their browser is out of date is really just an admission on your part that "we haven't bothered making this site work properly on your device, it's your fault and you should do something about it". In fact it is not their fault the site doesn't work - it is yours. Especially considering this is an Intranet app, so you should have known what the browsers that it would be used on were so should build the app accordingly.

If you're not able to do anything about it then don't draw attention to the fact the site doesn't work ideally, just let them get on with it themselves. Ensure the site works and don't nag them that they're at fault.

login - Usable examples, recommended practices for interfaces optimized for using pass-phrases instead of passwords

Reading through What is the best way to inspire users to choose strong password?, I realized I have never used an interface where the primary login password system would use pass-phrases (and where the interface would be optimized for creating, entering, and maintaining them).

Sure, pass-phrases can often be used in existing password fields, but is that the ideal UI design? Can we do a better job of guiding users when this is the only (or just preferred) method, especially when creating? When entering the passphrases, should we consider showing the spaces in between the blocked out letters (a no-no in traditional password field, but might be worth the minor security tradeoff to help the user keep track of where they are in a long textfield)?

What are some model examples and/or recommended practices for UI's optimized for pass-phrases?

fiction - Can a writer joke with the reader without breaking the fourth wall?

Can I, for example, write a whole new storyline inside my novel, and then say something, for example such as: "just kidding"? Or is that breaking the fourth wall?

Answer

You can do it, if you have a narrator who is explicitly speaking to someone. For example, if you have a framing narrative where the protagonist tells the story of his life to another person, or if you have a framing narrative where the protagonist writes down the story of his life (he would then be joking to himself).

If your protagonist directly experiences the story, then the narration is a sort of self-reflection and you can have the "thinker" sugarcoating something to himself and then think to himself: "But who am I kidding?"

Otherwise any address to the reader in a narrative that doesn't address the reader is breaking the fourth wall.

black scholes - Calibrate a SABR model?

How do you calibrate a SABR model using R/Python/Matlab?

Using the data example from: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2725485

1) How does one calibrate the SABR model?

2) How to output and interpret alpha, beta, and rho?

3) How does one interpret the results output?