Can higher speeds harm the user experience?

Inspired by "Is coffee a good excuse for a slow application start-up time?" I tried to look for examples where having higher speeds could be bad for the user experience but I couldn't find any.

Are there any scenarios where faster {startup times, interactions, animations, etc} can harm the user experience? Do we always have to optimize looking for the highest speed?

Answer

I know some people advocate introducing a deliberate delay after certain actions in order to make it feel like some sort of processing has happened. Consider a 'save' function for example. Even if the system is able to save changes almost instantly without delay, introducing an artificial delay may well instil confidence in the user that their changes really have been saved. This is based on the idea that people are accustomed to computers "taking a while to think" when performing certain actions.

Here's a real-world example of how Coinstar used this idea: Adding delays to increase perceived value: does it work?

Other than this, I'm sure we all introduce subtle delays in one way or another. One example is a dropdown menu that opens and closes based on mouse hover. It is often necessary to introduce a delay so that the menu doesn't open immediately when the mouse pointer passes over it on the way to something else, and equally so that it doesn't close immediately if the mouse pointer accidentally moves away momentarily.

Alternative to this dual list UI

So a while back, I asked a question about a dual list UI. I didn't explain my question well enough, and the answers reflected that. My question now is, "Is there a better way to allow the user to accomplish their goals than with the UI I've created".

The goals are as follows.

1. User must be able to select Super-Categories to cut down on the Available List size


2. User must be able to Filter Categories to cut down on the Available List Size.


3. User should be able to use a general Add/Remove to move Categories from the Available to the Selected List.

Here is my current setup, pay no mind to the colors, they were used for sizing and positioning. The thing I'm noticing is how this UI setup seems to always feel like it needs more and more space. It also feels VERY unbalanced because of the Filter and Super-Category selection being on one side, and nothing being on the other.

I could move the Filter so that it was on the same line as "Sections"/"Super-Categories" and then add a Separator for a mental break. But I feel that leads the user to think that the filter works on the Selected List when it only works on the AvailableList.

Any help is GREATLY appreciated.

UI Atrocity Below...

Answer

About the List Builder and the Add/Remove List

TL;DR. Here's a summary of two design patterns that might work, with lots of questions to help you decide.

This information is from the usage patterns for list boxes, and you have to scroll down a few rows to see details about List builders and Add/remove lists. Nothing in these guidelines says that the screen must appear "balanced", which is one of your concerns.

First, here are some questions to help you decide which pattern is best for your problem space.

Is this the right design pattern?

Is the control used to choose zero or more items from a list of values? If not, use another control. For choosing one item, use a single-selection list instead.

Does the order of the selected items matter? If so, the list builder and add/remove list patterns support order, whereas the other multiple-selection patterns do not.

Is it important for users to see a summary of all the selected items? If so, the list builder and add/remove list patterns display only the selected items, whereas the other multiple-selection patterns do not.

Are the possible choices unconstrained? If so, use an add/remove list so that users can choose values not currently in the list.

Does adding a value to the list require a specialized dialog box for choosing objects? If so, use an add/remove list and display the dialog box when users click Add.

Is screen space at a premium? If so, use an add/remove list instead because it uses less screen space by not always showing the set of options.

For list boxes, the number of items in the list isn't a factor in choosing the control because they scale from thousands of items all the way down to one for single-selection lists (and none for multiple-selection lists). Because list boxes can be used for data, the number of items might not be known in advance.

Interaction details and UI descriptions

Here is a description and the interaction details for each design pattern.

The list builder

List builders allow users to create a list of choices by adding one item at a time, and optionally setting the list order.

A list builder consists of two single-selection lists: the list on the left is a fixed set of options and the list on the right is the list being built. There are two command buttons between the lists: Add and Remove.

Add moves the currently selected option to the list being built, inserted before the selected item. (Double-clicking on an option item has the same effect.)

Remove removes the selected item from the built list and returns it to the option list. (Double-clicking on an item in the built list has the same effect.)

The built list may optionally have Move up and Move down commands to order the list items.

In this example, a list builder is used to create a toolbar by selecting items from a set of available options and setting their order.

This is an older example, and the location of the Close button, or alternatively the OK button, will be dictated by the standards for your operating system.

The add/remove list

Add/remove lists allow users to create a list of choices by adding one or more items at a time, and optionally setting the list order (like list builders).

Unlike a list builder, clicking Add displays a dialog box to select items to add to the list. Using a separate dialog box allows for significant flexibility in choosing items—you can use a specialized object picker or even a common dialog. Compared to the list builder, this variation is more compact but requires slightly more effort for users to add items.

This extra step may make it easier for users to understand.

Here is an example:

In this example, users can add or remove tools from a menu, as well as set order.

While the list builder and add/remove list patterns are significantly heavier than the other multiple-selection lists, they offer two unique advantages:

• Users have control over the list order, while building the list and after.

• Users can review a summary of the selected items, a benefit if the number of choices is large.

Their disadvantages are that they require much more screen space and can be difficult to use when creating a large list of items from scratch. Consequently, they are best used to create short lists or modify lists that already exist.

Filtering

If you are concerned that the user might not understand that the filter applies to both lists, you can cue the user by using layout, a graphical element, or a simple phrase (embedded assistance) to make this relationship clear. In this illustration, the filter on the right is more readily seen to apply to the entire list builder screen simply by its layout:

You seem to favour balance, so you might like to adjust the layout, or use it in combination with text, or background shading, or a graphical bar. If you're unsure, you can always ask a graphic designer for advice.

I hope that helps you decide whether to implement one of these solutions.

zooming - Should users be able to zoom in a responsive webdesign?

When it comes to a responsive design: should users still be able to zoom in or out?

We are currently working on a responsive design and one of our testers found it awkward that he wasn't able to zoom in or out. When I check some responsive designs (such as Boston Globe, Polygon and Currys.co.uk), it's not possible to use pinch-to-zoom. Is it a convention that when a website is properly scaled, the ability to zoom in or out is disabled and does it still provide a good experience?

On one hand, I say that zoom abilities should be disabled, since if a user needs to zoom in or out, there's probably a different reason for it (text is too small, images aren't good) and the problem lies elsewhere (your RWD isn't properly formatted). On the other hand: to use zoom or not is a decision made by the user, it should not be forced by the designer. It's a standard capability and something that users are frequently using when viewing other websites that aren't properly formatted for that viewport.

Any ideas?

Answer

Yes, you should allow Zooming.

I have changed my mind on this from having worked on RWD projects in the past. Originally my opinion was 'people only used to zoom on mobiles because the site wasn't designed to work on a mobile, but that's not the case with a well designed RWD site' however I changed my opinion, partly from some user testing that was happening but also from the general principal of putting the user first.

You don't know why the user wants to zoom. It could be any number of reasons, as you have suggested:

• They want to view an image in more detail


• The are trying to select a word / paragraph to copy and use elsewhere so zoom in to get a closer view and make selection easier


• They want to read a particular area of content that is too small for them to view so zoom in to do so


• The resolution of different mobile devices is not standard, so just because it's a 4" screen doesn't mean the text is as clear on all 4" devices.

There is any number of reasons why they may want to, but if they do want to and can't then that's a worse User Experience than if they weren't bothered about zooming but accidentally do so.

Aside from some minor development work required to allow it there is very little overhead in adding that functionality in. (Don't forget that people can zoom any page they like if they're using a desktop browser).

Also, some responsive sites do allow zooming. http://smashingmagazine.com/ or http://clearleft.com/ being some of them.

website design - Why is 13px Arial font the web standard?

If you use any of Google's applications, from search to Gmail you will find the base font used for most things is 13px Arial.

font-family: arial, sans-serif;
font-size: 13px;                       

I always thought 16 pixel fonts were easier for the "masses" to read. However, Google seems to disagree - and they are not alone. Twitter's Bootstrap project and many others also use 13px fonts. Even the text of this very site is only 1px bigger.

Do web browsers have it wrong, is the proven standard font size really 13px and not 16px? What about mobile devices - which works best on them?

Note: Serif fonts (Georgia) need larger sizes than Sans-Serif (Arial). However, most everyone agrees that Sans-Serif are easier on the eyes in digital format while Serif are easier to read in printed media.

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Edit: Is there research or usability tests that back 13px? What evidence supports this trend? Where can I learn more about the pros/cons or applicable states for this size?

black scholes - Understanding the solution of this integral

The following integral represents an expected value of a geometric brownian motion for $S_T>K$ (i.e. part of the Black-Scholes call option price): $$\int_{z^*} (S_te^{\mu\tau-\frac{1}{2}\sigma^2\tau+\sigma\sqrt{\tau}z})\frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi}}e^{-\frac{z^2}{2}}dz =e^{\mu\tau}S_tN(d_1^*)$$ with $z^*=\frac{\ln\frac{K}{S_t}-(\mu-\sigma^2/2)\tau}{\sigma\sqrt{\tau}}$, $d_1^*=\frac{\ln\frac{S_t}{K}+(\mu+\sigma^2/2)\tau}{\sigma\sqrt{\tau}}$, and $N(\cdot)$ cumulative Standardnormal distribution.

Can you please explain how this equality is obtained?

Answer

Let $\tau = T-t$. Then \begin{align*} S_T = S_t e^{(\mu - \frac{1}{2}\sigma^2) \tau + \sigma \sqrt{\tau}\, Z}, \end{align*} where $Z$ is a standard normal random variable, independent of $\mathcal{F}_t$. Moreover, \begin{align*} E\left(S_T 1_{\{S_T >K\}}\mid \mathcal{F}_t \right) &= E\left(S_t e^{(\mu - \frac{1}{2}\sigma^2) \tau + \sigma \sqrt{\tau}\, Z}\, 1_{\left\{S_t e^{(\mu - \frac{1}{2}\sigma^2) \tau + \sigma \sqrt{\tau}\, Z} >K\right\}}\mid \mathcal{F}_t \right)\\ &=\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}S_t e^{(\mu - \frac{1}{2}\sigma^2) \tau + \sigma \sqrt{\tau}\, z}\, 1_{\left\{S_t e^{(\mu - \frac{1}{2}\sigma^2) \tau + \sigma \sqrt{\tau}\, z} >K\right\}} \frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi}}e^{-\frac{z^2}{2}} dz\\ &=\int_{z^*}^{\infty}S_t e^{(\mu - \frac{1}{2}\sigma^2) \tau + \sigma \sqrt{\tau}\, z}\frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi}}e^{-\frac{z^2}{2}} dz\\ &=\int_{z^*}^{\infty}\frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi}} S_t e^{(\mu - \frac{1}{2}\sigma^2) \tau + \sigma \sqrt{\tau}\, z - \frac{z^2}{2}}dz\\ &=\int_{z^*}^{\infty}\frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi}} S_t e^{(\mu - \frac{1}{2}\sigma^2) \tau -\frac{1}{2}(z-\sigma \sqrt{\tau})^2 +\frac{1}{2}\sigma^2 \tau }dz\\ &=S_t e^{u\tau} \int_{z^* - \sigma \sqrt{\tau}}^{\infty} \frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi}}e^{-\frac{x^2}{2}}dx\\ &=S_t e^{u\tau}N(\sigma \sqrt{\tau}-z^*)\\ &=S_t e^{u\tau}N(d_1^*), \end{align*} where \begin{align*} d_1^* &= \sigma \sqrt{\tau}-z^*\\ &=\frac{\ln\frac{S_t}{K}+(\mu+\sigma^2/2)\tau}{\sigma\sqrt{\tau}}. \end{align*}

website design - Why should I calibrate my screen?

As both a web and print designer, I have never seen the need to calibrate my displays. Especially for web design, I wonder why I should spend several hundred euros to calibrate when I can instead test my colour choices on multiple uncalibrated displays in different lighting conditions. Only a handful of users are going to look at my colour choices on an accurately calibrated screen while under the same lighting as I had when I stuck my ColorMunki to my screen.

For print design, I understand that you can calibrate your screen to display an RGB approximation of CMYK as accurately as possible. But it's still going to be an approximation—it's never going to be perfect because of the fundamental differences between the two colour models. After some initial surprises in my beginner period, I have gotten a gut feeling for how my work is going to come out. Especially after a test print on my desktop printer. So why calibrate?

I know that I am asking a rather fundamental question here, which many of you will want to answer with "But of course you must! Everybody does it!" Call me a rebel, but by default, I am genuinely unconvinced of doing anything that people say "everybody does it" about. Therefore, I am looking for objective reasons and arguments. Forget the feelings and the tradition, just tell me why.

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^{Even though this question looks like it's asking what I am, it only goes into finding an affordable way, and not the why.}.

Answer

First we have to make a very clear distinction. Seeing exactly what you expect is not required for the vast majority of work. Especially as a professional designer where changes are going to be minimal. What I mean is even if I, or likely any professional designer, works on a display that isn't calibrated I can still know pretty close what my colors are. I know that if it says CMYK (0, 20, 50, 10) it's going to be an almost gold-like color. I know this because I understand that I've added some Magenta to Yellow and then darkened it a bit.

If I see it as Bright Blue then I know my display or my brain is seriously screwed up. Because the Color Wheel never lies. RGB (255, 255, 0) is always going to be yellow, no matter how I perceive it.

Now let us say we're working on a website and print materials for a makeup company. They, being the client, send us a sample of a few lipsticks. We're going to use various tools such as a colorimeter or colorchecker passport, etc to find out what best represents that exact lipstick. Often in these cases the client will even tell you. It then makes little difference if my display is showing it correctly; as long as I sample the color and see the values are correct. To put another way, if my client tells me to use Pantone Red; I'm going to use Pantone Red. If it looks a little orange on one of my displays and a little magenta on another, I don't care. It's Pantone Red.

The more important thing is Contrast and Gamut. Ensuring that none of your colors fall outside of the color range the end product will be in, that your blacks and whites are where they need to be, and ensuring that banding isn't going to occur. This has nothing to do with color accuracy and everything to do with a wide gamut display with excellent contrast.

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So then why should you calibrate? Well if you want to be a perfectionist its a lot easier to do when things are accurate. That's really it. Especially if you're working on high end print campaigns for fashion or makeup companies; or a client that has a very specific brand color. The other usage is mostly in cinema where you want to ensure the film is going to look identical in theaters as it does on the standard TV. That means color grading it for both.

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You can absolutely get by as a photographer or a designer without ever calibrating a monitor. Do you have to do it? No. Does it help? It can. If you're going to spend money on something do a high end display first though otherwise you're just wasting your money trying to calibrate a low end display.

versioning - What version number format would give users the most reassurance?

I am trying to figure out a good, meaningful version numbering system for an application and the data sets the application uses. The critical thing is that the versioning system has to give the user comfort. What version formats would do that? Should I start on like 3.025 vs 3.001 so users don't have the perception they are on beta code.

(the rest of this question contains background on the application in question, version numbers used, and examples of how a couple popular products present their version numbers).

two associated but distinct components: app and data set

The app has releases at least twice a year, during which the version number should change. The app works with a data set. A data set has about a two year life; it's rarely upgraded in less than 2 years unless there is feature the customer specifically needs. The app version and the data set version have pretty much nothing to do with each other - a given customer can often be on separate versions with different data sets.

It is important for the customer and support to know what version they are on. And user admin actually would benefit from know a schema change as they dump data. Customer support needs the version numbers to diagnose and reproduce bugs. Version numbers also signal enhancements to the product so that customers know it's time to upgrade.

Given the information below, what versioning technique would be best for my product? Is there a version format that brings confidence to a user?

current version format: #.##[a-z[_featurecode]]

Our version is represented in the format #.##[a-z] and if there is customer specific feature we have a code for that with an _.

Internally we really need 5 parts but they don't need to be communicated to the user

• version of the software we use to build the software


• version of the database schema



• version of the code


• indication of customer specific release


• version of bug fix

We once made the mistake of putting something to describe the release in the version and that raised all kinds of speculation - we learned never to do that again.

Microsoft versioning

Microsoft has these really long versions.
Long version numbers seem to be the standard - even in end user products.

chrome versioning

Look at Chrome stable channe

Should we avoid like a 3.001 and start on like 3.321 so people don't think I have a beta version?

out of scope

I am not looking for input on providing feature lists and bug lists as part of the release.

Answer

There may not be a real standard with regards to versioning, but I believe this ideology is straightforward, useful, and picking up traction: Semantic Versioning

Summary

Given a version number MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH, increment the:

1. MAJOR version when you make incompatible API changes,



2. MINOR version when you add functionality in a backwards-compatible manner, and


3. PATCH version when you make backwards-compatible bug fixes.

Additional labels for pre-release and build metadata are available as extensions to the MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH format.

There's much more information (omitted for brevity) with regards to the additional labels that covers more complex scenarios on the site.

conceptualization - How to promote three different products to three different audiences in one banner?

My client requests something like the title described. I do not agree the initial idea though. As they insist on doing in this way, I had to come here to ask for some help.

Let's put the question like this: how would you approach designing an outdoor banner that advertises (for example) suits, work uniforms, and children's clothes?

Normally design starts with the question: "what is the purpose to show to audience?" - but here, there are three very different audiences. How can I go about coming up with ideas that do three very different things?

Answer

You're not alone in this problem - supermarkets and department stores also often need to advertise different products to different audiences in the same space.

AFAIK, there are two basic approaches. Choose the first if your brand identity suits all three products, and the second if each product requires a different personality and tone.

• One brand, presenting the products very simply. Very clean, with a crisp clear layout and/or lots of whitespace, and very simple clear photographs or strong simple styling that lets the products do the talking and lets the audience notice the products that are relevant to them. If there are any USPs like price, add them but focus on clean clarity above all else.

Here's an example (source). I couldn't find any "lots of whitespace, just photos" examples but I'm sure you can imagine them. In this one, the brand personality is the same, but each product neatly stands out to people interested in that type of product:

• 'Mini-brands'. The banner could be divided to look like three banners side by side. This is a good idea if your approach to selling the products is very different. For example, some supermarkets here in the UK have their own clothing brands with different logos and a different brand identity to the supermarket overall - usually this is because they want the supermarket brand to look cheap and friendly, but for clothing, "cheap and cheerful" would look undesirable and unfashionable. So, they section them off as if they were completely different identities that just happen to share buildings and ad space.

I can't find any billboard examples (turns out people don't love photographing supermarket billboard ads...) but here's an example of different characters. Asda (left) markets itself as cheap and friendly, but its clothing brand George (right), which is wholly owned by Asda and is only sold in Asda supermarkets, has a very different brand personality:

Portfolio Optimization : Shrinkage of Covariance Matrix when data is available

It seems that shrinking the covariance matrix is especially useful if the number of individual stocks is greater than the number of data points. However is there any special gain if you're not constrained by the data ?

Answer

When using the estimated covariance in the context of mean-variance optimization, then, yes, shrinking the covariance matrix is useful even when you have sufficient data.

A good reference is Golts and Jones, A Sharper Angle on Optimization, who discuss convariance shrinkage among other techniques and give two examples of the usefulness of shrunk covariance estimates in forming (unconstrained) optimal portfolios. The first is desensitizing the optimizer to small variations in alphas of highly correlated assets. The second is controlling leverage.

Are there Material Design best practices for Filtering/Sorting in a Tab Layout?

What I’m trying to do I’m trying to find out what the Material Design best practices are for adding independent filter and sort options to EACH tab in a tab layout.

What I have proposed I’m proposing putting a Filter/Sort text button under the tabs next to the first list sub-header.

What examples I have found from Google Apps I have examples where the designer have put sorting options in the first list subheader.

I understand that Material Design doesn’t cover every aspect of UX, but there seems to be overlap when they suggest how to filter lists (i.e. List Title Filter).

Searching further this quite similar question to the below link, except I have sourced examples from Google in hope of the correct answer.

Mobile - Sorting Items on one tab

What I think is not a solution

List Title Filter is probably out of the question as it’s a tabbed page. Adding an icon in the Toolbar is not available as its already full of fixed content.

style - How can I stop overusing "I" in my writing?

I won't edit this question, so you can see how much I use it. The current count is 3 times. I've been told that the solution is to revise, revise, revise, but is there a particular strategy for editing that I should be taking? I never really learned editing strategies other than to just...do it. Are there patterns I can look out for to avoid this while writing something, so I can retrain myself? Are there resources for writing less casually in the area somewhere between non-fiction and technical writing?

"When is it acceptable to use the first person ("I", "we") in technical reports" doesn't help, because not everything is a technical report. It could be a comment on GitHub, an email, or especially some of my longer Stack Exchange posts, where I found my preferred initial style is to build a narrative that mirrors how I thought about communicating a problem or figuring something out. Part of this habit comes from the perceived need to couch every scientific statement I've ever made with some "I think-" or "Most likely"-type language, and it seems to have pervaded my writing ever since the end of undergrad. The result is long blocks of text that ramble too much and contain anywhere between one "I" every two sentences to two "I"s every sentence. Writing a science PhD dissertation did not break this habit.

Here and here are concrete examples. Upon rereading, maybe these aren't so bad, but I at least perceive them to overuse "I" because of their rather casual style.

optimization - How to understand this Risk Parity Algorithm?

I am trying to understand an optimization algorithm to achieve risk parity in a portfolio. I need some help figuring out the notation in the following formula:

I found this on THIS paper.

I understand the following, if you could help me by pointing any mistake, would be great!

I understand that this algorithm is suppossed to iterate the allocation for each asset at a time.

• 
  

  $x^*_i$ : The iteration n+1 of asset i.

  
  


• 
  
  

  $σ_i$ : The standard deviation of Asset i

  
  


• 
  

  $x_j$ : allocation for each asset j

  
  


• 
  

  $\sigma_j$ : The standard deviation of asset j

  
  


• 
  

  $\rho_{i,j}$ : This is my biggest question. WHAT is this?

  
  
  


• 
  

  $b_i$ : The risk budget for the asset, which for risk parity is $\frac{1}{n}$

  
  


• 
  

  $\sigma(x)$ : The standard deviation of the portfolio

  
  

What am I missing?

Answer

Your question seems very simple. The $\rho_{ij}$ are the correlations between asset i and asset j, in other words these are the elements of the correlation matrix. This notation is very standard in portfolio optimization problems. The number of securities n, the n-by-n correlation matrix R and the n vector of $\sigma_j$'s are the main inputs of a risk parity problem.

navigation - Double click to edit, but how to navigate?

We are working on a online dictionary tool, e.g. you have different dictionaries that you can browse.

Now we would like the possibility to in-place-edit the settings by double-clicking on the text. E.g. in the first picture, if you click on the description, the languages, etc. the screen switches into edit mode (picture 2).

The same happens currently if you click on the title (Remy Test), but we also need the option to browse the dictionary, e.g. the title should be a normal link. But then the double-click does not work anymore. We rather don't have a "Browse" link/button, since this is the main function and I think clicking on the title is obvious enough. But then we have this half-backed edit-mode. And we really do like the double-click edit idea too.

Any ideas? I know we could just add an edit button, but....

Answer

Double clicking to edit something that looks like an

tag is a really unconventional behaviour to use in a browser environment, and to my experience double clicks as a whole are very rarely seen. I could imagine a scenario where a user hysterically double clicks a range of labels just to be annoyed that they don't understand which ones are editable and which are not.

You say you don't want an edit button, but you still want the headers to work as links. Personally I think that some sort of indication that a label is editable and a separate button to initiate this is the way to go. I'll attach a mockup of how I would try and solve it.

I would add a small subtle icon to indicate that an item is editable, just noticable but not obstructive. And on hover I would let the icon enlarge an work as the Edit CTA/Button to let the user edit the label.

licensing - What are general practices in handing over usage rights to the client?

When a graphic designer creates work for a client, in many jurisdictions, the designer keeps some rights to the work by default. This means that when e.g. designing a logo, the designer can sometimes claim license and usage fees - often more if the work is used in large circulations - long after the project has ended.

This default case can often be overridden by written agreements.

What are some real-world practices to deal with this? I realize this will differ strongly between countries, but I would like to know nevertheless how this is dealt with, and learning how it's done elsewhere doesn't hurt. I myself am in the "give up everything" camp: When a project is finished, if asked, I will sign a document waiving all usage rights without any further payment. Out of the belief that further claims aren't legitimate if you've been paid well for your work, just as a carpenter can't make claims to something they've built for a client.

But there are other practices, and scenarios in which keeping usage rights, and long-term licensing agreements may be perfectly justified. What are some general ways this is dealt with?

(Again, a disclaimer: I am asking out of curiosity; and because I think this is in some way relevant to many graphic designers. Whether this is in the site's scope or not, the community will have to decide!)

Answer

Are you concerned about who owns the rights or rather are you concerned about getting proper credit for your work?

I would think that unless it has been stated otherwise you as a designer are doing work for a client who can then turn around and do with it as they please, free of any input from you as the designer. I can't imagine any client agreeing to have work done only to have to go to the designer for approval at a later date. At my company, when a job is done, they hand over everything, layout files, source art files, the works, and the relationship pretty much ends unless we decide to pick it up again.

illustration - Create a bar chart within a table in InDesign?

I want to represent numbers in a table I've created in InDesign as a scaled bar chart, similarly to the image below. Is there a way to do this in InDesign or Illustrator without manually adding and sizing rectangles for each cell? What about replacing the numbers with glyphs to represent scale?

fixed income - Stochastic Leibniz rule

We have the following single-factor HJM model $$d_tf(t,T)=\sigma(t,T)dW_t+\alpha(t,T)dt$$ $$f(t,T)=f(0,T)+\int_0^t\sigma(s,T)dW_s+\int_0^t\alpha(s,T)ds$$ The discounted T bond is then \begin{align} Z(t,T)&=\exp-\bigg(\int_0^Tf(0,u)du+\int_0^t\int_s^T\sigma(s,u)dudW_s+\int_0^t\int_s^T\alpha(s,u)duds\bigg)\\ &=\exp\bigg(-\int_0^Tf(0,u)du+\int_0^t\underbrace{-\int_s^T\sigma(s,u)du}_{\Sigma(s,T)}dW_s-\int_0^t\int_s^T\alpha(s,u)duds\bigg) \end{align} By Ito's Lemma $$d_tZ(t,T)=Z(t,T)\Bigg(\bigg(\frac{1}{2}\Sigma^2(t,T)-\int_t^T\alpha(t,u)du\bigg)dt+\Sigma(t,T)dW_t\Bigg)$$ My question is, how was Ito's Lemma applied to the term $\int_0^t\int_s^T\sigma(s,u)dudW_s$, which contains an integral of Brownian motion?

Claus Munk's Fixed Income Modelling proves the following stochastic Leibniz rule on page 57-58 $$Y_t=\int_t^Tf(0,u)du+\int_t^T\int_0^t\alpha(s,u)dsdu+\int_t^T\int_0^t\sigma(s,u)dW_sdu$$ $$dY_t=\bigg(\int_t^T\alpha(t,u)du-f(t,t)\bigg)dt+\bigg(\int_t^T\sigma(t,u)du\bigg)dW_t$$ however due to the different limits in the integrals, I am unable to extrapolate from Munk's example to solve my question.

Any help is appreciated.

forms - An alternative to Indeterminate checkboxes?

How best to display incomplete or indeterminate state?

Microsoft UI pattern has an display icon for this - a dark box within the checkbox instead of a check. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh700393.aspx#is_this_the_right_control_

Another pattern is shown in: http://css-tricks.com/indeterminate-checkboxes/

I have never been pleased with these choices. In the past I’ve solved this problem by using something besides checkboxes such as changing the background color of the label or using “thermometers.”

Now I have a use case where these tricks aren’t applicable. So what to do? The screen displays the list of groups. Selecting the group name displays the children There are between 10 and 30 groups depending on the task to be completed. In short analysts need to select none, some or all from a group of checkboxes.

Analysts need to / would like to know which of the groups are partially selected. AND the icon ought to be intuitively clickable.

So, the UX question is how best to display this incomplete state?

Answer

I don't think you should base UX on what pleases you. What will most users understand? The way Microsoft does it is what most users will understand.

I think a gray check is more intuitive but I went with the way Microsoft does it.

I am responsible for an app that is in an industry that is not computer savvy and have these battles with marketing all the time. Younger users raised on computers get it. Older users are going to learn standards and they are going to retire.

We looked at support calls and 10% of the users performed over 1/2 of the total processing and we got no support calls from that 10%. Marketing bought in that we design for the savvy users and treat the non savvy as a training issue.

You will have this phenomena of a non-productive user will blame it on the software. Don't design for the bottom.

volatility - GJR-GARCH Model In R

Any idea how to estimate GJR-GARCH models in R? Is there any particular library like fGarch that supports such models?

login - Material Design - How to display a log in error

Problem

I am trying to create a log in page that follows the material design guidelines, but I don't know how to handle when the user inputs the wrong email or password.

In the material design guidelines they recommend showing an error text right below the incorrect input field, but for security reasons we cannot tell the user whether the email or password is wrong. We can only tell the user that one or both fields are wrong (but not which one).

Our current error message on a failed log in reads:

We dont recognize this e-mail or password. Double-check your information and try again.

Example

When trying to transfer this to our material design, we end up with options looking like this:

1. The first option does not follow our safety regulations as it tells the user which of the fields is wrong.


2. In the second option the information is repetitive and feels like it doesn't provide the user with any helpful info.


3. The third option deviates from the material design guidelines.

We have thought about splitting the log in up into two pages, but that is something we want to avoid.

What's our best option?

Edit

Added a snackbar toast based on advice by @Harshith.

---

Answer

Try using toast in material design

Material-UI Snackbars Docs https://material.io/guidelines/components/snackbars-toasts.html

I think this should solve your problem

If not try this other option of card

In this case have a error shown and show a icon, as the error text is big by clicking on the icon reveals the text. Main thing we need to show to user is there is error in a field.

Or simply show email/password entered is incorrect . please check

typography - Why is an el­lip­sis represented by one single character rather than a sequence of kerned dots?

An Ellipsis (Unicode character U+2026 and HTML symbol …) is a

series of dots – typically three – that usually indicates an intentional omission of a word, sentence …

as Wikipedia states in its article and the following example demonstrates:

Furthermore, as you might know and according to practicaltypography.com, the el­lip­sis char­ac­ter should be used (first example sentence in the next image)

instead of typ­ing three pe­ri­ods in a row (second example sentence) – which puts the dots too close to­gether – or three pe­ri­ods with spaces in be­tween (third example sentence) – which puts the dots too far apart.

I wonder now why is there a special character to represent a mortised sequence of dots when the adjustment of the spacing between each of the periods could also be achieved by appropriate kerning instead?

^{Note: The sans-serif typeface Lato was used in the examples.}

Answer

The ellipsis (…) is a punctuation mark. It is as distinct as any other punctuation mark and, as does any other punctuation mark, has its own meaning and uses. An ellipsis is not three periods. It looks like three periods and is more often than not, written as three periods—but it is not three periods.

Depending on the context it can have different meanings, but usually represents an omission. Other meanings may include an implied pause or silence.

The confusion over it's similarity to three periods isn't helped by the fact that in informal writing it is almost always written as three periods. In blogs, social media, text messages, emails, chat rooms and instant messages you will often see strings of periods ending a sentence.....

There seems to be a lot of debate on the correct usage of an ellipsis. Various style guides recommend different ways of forming an ellipsis. For example:

The Chicago Manual of Style and The Modern Language Association Style Manual recommend using three periods separated by non-breaking spaces, and surrounding spaces if not at the end of a sentence. The MLA Style Manual however differs from the Chicago Manual of Style in usage guidelines. If omitting material after the end of a sentence, MLA recommends including ellipsis (composed of periods and spaces) after the final period of the sentence (resulting in four periods), whereas the Chicago Manual of Style would only include the final period.

Various other style guides recommend other usages and there seems to be no consensus.

There are valid arguments for both using an ellipsis character and using periods separated by spaces. The article Dot Dot Dot . . . at creativepro.com puts forward an interesting argument:

Its problem is that it’s too small, constrained by the physics of font design to be only one em wide. […] If the idea of ellipsis points is to indicate an omission, they have to open a space wide enough to visually communicate a gap, […] a one em–wide opening in the text just doesn’t cut it

The arguments seem to me to be visual vs technical vs semantic. Visually, periods separated by non-breaking spaces emphasise the omission or pause. Technically, periods separated by regular spaces may get broken across lines and an ellipsis character can get lost with translating character encodings. Semantically, the ellipsis has a distinct meaning from a group of spaces and periods.

In my opinion, using periods and spaces is nonsense. There is a distinct character for an ellipsis, so use it. A period means the end of a sentence, it is meaningless to end a sentence three or four times. Using periods (separated by spaces or not) just because it looks like an ellipsis is like using a 0 (numeral zero) as an O (capital O). But that's just my opinion.

In short—The character exists because it IS a distinct character and the benefits of using it are… debatable.

research - How would you create and validate personas for something that is not a person

There are a few questions here about personas, and research methods that you might use in order to create them, (some of which I've answered at length). Examples include:

However, I have an exciting opportunity to create a set of personas less directly connected to the users themselves. More specifically, the personas relate to:

• A department within an organisation, as distinct from other departments


• Each set of product lines within that department


• Individual products within those product lines

There are of course real people involved in the department, the products, etc. There are those that work in the organisation, those that develop the products, and those that use the products, but the personas are not about those people.

The intention is to drive future development and design in a consistent manner within a division and across products. It's not as focused or directed as a style guide - it's like a persona for a user experience, that covers all touchpoints.

For example, these personas could anthropomorphise elements into human traits and characteristics, or they might communicate through human emotional channels like colour, shape, art, elements of nature, sound, voice, tone, music.

We can use some elements of traditional persona research. For example, interviewing stakeholders is ok, but ethnographic research is out. We can validate the persona with real product users to see if they identify them with the product, but obviously can't ask the products if they identify with its own persona.

So what alternative or additional tools and methods could we use to create and validate such personas.

Answer

I would probably not call anthropomorphous objects 'personas', but I think I see where you are going. Two things first:

• 
  

  I would normally expect a product 'personality' to be the result of a branding idea/process and not the other way around (brand is friendly > product is friendly).

  
  


• 
  

  My background is not in marketing but in social sciences.

  
  

Two interesting research pieces you might have checked already are On Seeing Human: A Three-Factor Theory of Anthropomorphism and Pushing the Envelope of Brand and Personality: Antecedents and Moderators of Anthropomorphized Brands. The second one is based on the first, but applies the 3 principles to anthropomorphized brands.

Anthropomorphism describes the tendency to imbue the real or imagined behavior of nonhuman agents with humanlike characteristics, motivations, intentions, or emotions.

Epley's article describes three psychological determinants to our tendency to anthropomorphize: the accessibility and applicability of anthropocentric knowledge (elicited agent knowledge), the motivation to explain and understand the behavior of other agents (effectance motivation), and the desire for social contact and affiliation (sociality motivation).

Levy (1985) and Plummer (1985) provide evidence that consumers easily view brands as possessing human characteristics. The tendency for consumers to utilize brands as symbols in expressing one’s self-concept arises from the fact that consumers imbue brands with human personality traits (Aaker 1997).

Regarding the process of anthropomorphizing objects, you will find plenty of examples (an excellent resource: The Anthropomorphic Food and Kitchen Gallery). A brand that I like and keeps a consistent 'personality' in its products is Suck UK. You can probably find a dozen more like it.

I can only see an anthropomorphized department as a sum/average of the standardised characteristics of its members. I don't think it's too different from creating personas, actually. It would be an average of an average, sort of. I can easily imagine a commonplace persona for the development team I work with.

A game could actually give some interesting insight, something like asking people (the actual people in the company) to write some keywords of how they imagine an archetype from another department. I think a nice example of something similar is the Mac vs PC video(s).

A very practical advice: Buy those bags full of googly eyes, print some buildings and glue the eyes to them. It's amazing what a pair of eyes can do, we can't ignore something with them. It's instinctive (the bigger the eyes, the more attention we pay, because it might mean a bigger predator). 'Gamifying your persona creation' can make things much easier and fun.

export - Exporting from Principle App; an interactive animation without the need for the Principle App?

I came across a very adorable interactive character animation made in Principle app. I realise it might not be the best platform to do something like this in, but since I own Principle and no other animating software I'd like to do it here anyway.

When I'm done, I'd like to show this to the world, preferably with interactive features like the demo. I'd like to upload this somewhere and still keep the interactive features, kind of like 'good old' flash did.

How would I best go about this? Is HTML/CSS the way to go? jQuery? Are there other options?

Answer

It appears as though Principle will allow you to save a video file or gif if you record an animation (Of course you lose the interactivity)....

Just hit the record button, in the upper right corner...

Then when you click it again (after interacting a bit with the image), you are presented with save options...

(I'm assuming you know the above since you linked to a gif animation)

It would appear if you want the interactivity, you're going to have to rebuild from scratch using html, css, svg, canvas, etc. I see no method to export anything in web-ready formats other than .gif. In addition, there appears to be no underlying structure which may be in a usable "starting point" state.

Principle's own docs state that in all instances (other than gif or movie) viewing requires the Principal Viewer application. And the documentation also states that a user will be presented with a "view in Principle" warning when trying to view anything. There are zero documentation notes regarding exporting or saving to anything other than gif, movie file, or Principle viewer file. I even saved as a Mac app and viewed the internal package contents along with viewing the code structure of the .prd file ... I don't believe the app us set up to render standard cross-browser web pages or markup in any way.

fixed income - How to trade interest rate futures calendar spread?

This has always been difficult to understand for me. How is the second futures contract valued in relation to the front month contract? My understanding is there are carry considerations (3 more months of carry for basis) and there is basis switch price involved. However, in a world of prolonged low volatility and low nominal rate levels, basis switch is a thing of the past. So is carry be the main driver for calendar spread? Then assuming the same CTD, a long calendar spread position would be short front month basis and long next futures' basis.

Answer

Trading bond futures calendar spread is actually a very involved exercise, with many moving parts. But first things first, recall that bond futures price is approximately: $$ F = \text{spot price} - \text{carry} - \text{delivery option value (DOV)} \pm \text{rich/cheap}.$$ So calendar spreads represent the differences in spot prices, in carries, in delivery options, and in the relative richness/cheapness.

This decomposition gives some clues on what drives calendar spreads:

1. Duration: Typically (not always), the back-month contract has longer duration. When yields rise, the back contract will lose more money than the front contract, causing calendar spread to widen (rise). This suggests that bond calendar spread is actually very directional with interest rate. (Of course, you can always hedge out the duration risk by trading DV01-weighted calendar spread.)


2. Curve: When the yield curve steepens, back contract is also likely to underperform the front contract, which causes calendar spread to widen as well.


3. Repo: This affects the carry component. Back contract has more repo exposures. When repo rate rises, back contract increases in value more than the front, causing the calendar spread to tighten. This factor becomes important when the Fed is active.


4. Switch Option: Assuming delivery option is involved, then back contract is likely to be more sensitive to rising volatility. As a result, higher implied volatilities will widen calendar spread. A detailed scenario analysis should also be performed to determine how CTD switches may affect contract valuation.


5. Relative Value: Futures may trade rich or cheap relative to fair value in persistent patterns, perhaps because market participants behave in predictable ways that cause temporary imbalances (more on this next).



6. Flows: During the roll period, perhaps the most important factor is flows. Real money asset managers tend not to hold their bond futures into the delivery month (because they can't accept physical delivery) and have to roll over to the next contract pretty much around the same time. So how they are positioned will affect the valuation of calendar spread profoundly. For example, if they're predominantly long, then they'll, in aggregate, have to sell the front contract and buy the back contract, causing calendar spread to tighten (all else equal).

adobe photoshop - My options to link large image into AI file

My .psd file has a resolution of 6m x 3m @ 150 DPI. This makes it 35433px x 5906px in size. Photoshop CS6 saves the file as .tiff or .psb only. When I first import into Illustrator I get an error that the file is not readable but I have tried many options. Last one is not supported by AI.

So I'm puzzled... is there a way to link large images into Illustrator?

Answer

This answer is undoubtedly a bit late for you, but maybe this'll be of some use to you or someone else in the future ...

The reason you're only being offered 3 file formats to save to in Photoshop is because the document is classified as a 'Large Document' as soon as one of the dimensions exceeds 30,000 pixels. You may already be aware of this, particularly if you created the file from scratch (at which point you'd usually see the message "Documents greater than 30,000 pixels in either dimension may not be compatible with older versions of Photoshop and/or other applications").

Now, the Large Document (.PSB) and TIFF (.TIF / *.TIFF) file formats are technically compatible with Illustrator CS6, but you are still likely to run into problems if either dimension is much over 30,000 pixels in length. You can prove that the file format is capable of working (if you wish) by creating a comparatively 'lightweight' document that measures, say, 32,500px by 20px - Illustrator CS6 will probably tolerate that.

In layman's terms, Illustrator isn't nearly as capable as Photoshop at handling pixel-based / rasterized artwork. If you want to mix pixel-based content with your vector art, you either need to lessen the pressure on Illustrator or migrate your project to Photoshop for the latter stages of your output.

With that in mind, there are two or three solutions I can think of that would quite possibly work for the exact problem you're describing;

1. Quite simply, chop up your pixel-based image before importing into Illustrator. Depending on the size of the imagery, Illustrator may be a little less stable if you place too much content (so save a copy as a precaution) - but three placed images that measure 12,000px by 6,000px each are going to behave much more nicely than a single image that measures 36,000px by 6,000px.

This is likely the easiest solution, if you can get away with it.

2. Alternatively, if your work in Illustrator is otherwise finished, you can export the content to a PSD file and add your remaining large pixel-based imagery from within Photoshop directly.

Converting your Illustrator project to pixels using this method is one of the most dependable ways of ensuring that effects convert accurately within Photoshop - but this isn't a suitable solution for all situations. If you know the specification of the device you are printing to, you should be able to use export settings that match the printer's capabilities ensuring as little loss in print quality as possible. Where this method falls short is in the fact that many printers will be able to print vector-based art more accurately than pixels - and here, we've just rasterized everything, so that advantage is lost.

In truth, though, for a billboard some slightly pixellated edges may be completely imperceptible - so this might be absolutely fine. I might be a little more concerned if this were for a business card - but in that case, you wouldn't be running into this problem in the first place (unless you carry a 6-foot business card ...)

Either way, you would do well to retain your original Illustrator file so that further changes can be made to your vectors in future or on the offchance that you'll be required to print to a different specification.

3. The third option is really a variation of number 2., but might be more suitable - if undoubtedly more complex.

You can also transfer your Illustrator content to Photoshop in a number of other ways - as a shape layer(s) or as a smart object(s), for example. If you import your entire Illustrator file as a smart object, you will still be able to scale your content losslessly within Photoshop, but it will output as pixels - so this isn't ultimately any better than what you would see from the second example for the purposes of print (though you WILL be able to edit the now-embedded content via Illustrator).

If, instead, you copy your vector content from Illustrator and paste it directly into Photoshop, you will have the option of defining it as a shape layer - which will STAY as a vector (assuming you save to an appropriate file format, such as PSD or export to an appropriate PDF). Pasted shape layers are just that, though - shapes. Any detailed effects work will be lost in the transfer, so you may need to re-implement some of your design using Photoshop's tools if you choose to work in this way. Converting text to shapes is almost always desirable for print (assuming non-compatible effects aren't in use), as this will afford you the sharp vectors you want in print whilst ensuring that the printer does not require access to a potentially elusive font.

Either way, a combination of smart objects, shapes and pixels will give you some very good print options.

Hope that's of some use.

mobile - When is the best time to display ads in phone applications

Many online resources suggest you display ads when the app is launched, or when an important action is called (ex. image is being saved), but is it really efficient or rather off-putting?

The reason I am raising this question, is due to massive concurrence on Google Play and Apple App Store. Users have a lot of choice and if your ads are too annoying, but the functions you are offering are the same as someone else, why stay with you?

I would like to hear your thoughts on this.

Answer

Speaking from the user experience point of view - Ads are bad experience

I mean how often you see a pop-up ad and feel... well joyful? No, that's not how it works!

However, ads make a large chunk of app revenue models from a long time now & can't be just neglected. [I belong to school of people who believe that UX people should know business]

So, now we've got a chunk of information (usually flashy with a lot of colours, gifs and probably a blunt call to action - that's how ads are) which we need to push in our experience.

Banner ads & pop-up ads are the two most common way of doing it. The first one to bring a change in this approach was mobile games (I'm pretty sure but don't have a link to give), they attached watching ads to the revenue system of the game. Like you get something in return to watch an ad. Now, this worked out a little bit but, is not doable for most of the other use cases.

For mainstream applications which perform some sort of processing on the device (as I suggested in a comment), I think the best ad placement would be the time while users would have to wait anyways. Since loading is a state which almost empty - it can be used for various purposes.

I recently wrote an article here about various states and how to utilise them as well.

In the sense of business - There are not many options when starting off, so you can't be selective & you have to display what the ad-network has to offer. But once you grow and acquire a good amount of users, You should focus on doing a bit of niche advertisement. This gives a little bit control over how you display & Structure the adverts. Yes, it's tough then simply implementing a pre-existing library and start making money. But, once you crack the right person/company/domain to advertise to your client, there are at least these advantages -

1. With right ads/offers, you can add some value to you users (even with ads)


2. You get better rates for each view


3. you can go beyond just views and get interaction, conversion etc...


4. By doing all this you are innovating in the ad-tech industry which has already crossed a billion dollars market a while back.

I guess I went a little overboard with the surrounding stuff, but I guess that's what someone mentioned here as well, right?

The community shall benefit, so here are my thoughts, lemme know your :)

navigation - Is there a name for this drop-down anti-pattern?

Recently I have seen a small UI issue in mouse-over drop-downs. Here is an example of such a drop-down (although Bloomberg is not the only offender):

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-08-09/yogurt-liquidity-and-listings

edit: Adding marked-up screenshot for historical purposes. The red line is the user's mouse path. Entering the red box will instantly hide the Opinion drop-down.

If you hover over "Opinion" in the top bar, you will be presented with links related to the Opinion section.

The issue: A straight-line path from positions within the Opinion button to some of the links will cross through the "Politics" section, instantly clearing the Opinion options. This means the user has to conciously think about their mouse pathing as they select the link.

Is there a name for this issue? What are the best ways to resolve it?

edit: Here is an additional gif displaying the issue, courtesy of Ben Kamens' blog, which is also linked by Midas below:

Answer

One suggestion for a name for a solution is from this great article is directional menu aiming.

It shows how Amazon prevent users from incorrectly selecting an unwanted element while hovering their 'mega-menu', without using delays, through detecting the path of the cursor.

At every position of the cursor you can picture a triangle between the current mouse position and the upper and lower right corners of the dropdown menu. If the next mouse position is within that triangle, the user is probably moving their cursor into the currently displayed submenu. Amazon uses this for a nice effect. As long as the cursor stays within that blue triangle the current submenu will stay open.

genre - The role of inexplicable events in hard science fiction

The modern world has few true mysteries, among them the fate of the Roanoke colonists and the crew of the Mary Celeste but do such happenings have a place in futuristic settings?

In settings with locally instantaneous communication and ubiquitous forensics using techniques we'd recognise but with equipment of far greater sensitivity is there any room left for not being able to explain odd happenings?

I'd like to have a setting which is technologically advanced where the "every day life" can be explained to a degree that almost makes life boring but in which a few paradoxical situations still have the scientists throw up their hands in puzzled disbelief once in a while. How can this be achieved without creating a visible paradox that is damaging to suspension of disbelief?

equities - How to simulate stock prices with a Geometric Brownian Motion?

I want to simulate stock price paths with different stochastic processes. I started with the famous geometric brownian motion. I simulated the values with the following formula:

$$R_i=\frac{S_{i+1}-S_i}{S_i}=\mu \Delta t + \sigma \varphi \sqrt{\Delta t}$$

with:

$\mu= $ sample mean

$\sigma= $ sample volatility

$\Delta t = $ 1 (1 day)

$\varphi=$ normally distributed random number

I used a short way of simulating: Simulate normally distributed random numbers with sample mean and sample standard deviation.

Multiplicate this with the stock price, this gives the price increment.

Calculate Sum of price increment and stock price and this gives the simulated stock price value. (This methodology can be found here)

So I thought I understood this, but now I found the following formula, which is also the geometric brownian motion:

$$ S_t = S_0 \exp\left[\left(\mu - \frac{\sigma^2}{2}\right) t + \sigma W_t \right] $$

I do not understand the difference? What does the second formula says in comparison to the first? Should I have taken the second one? How should I simulate with the second formula?

Answer

The way you do it in the first place is a discretization of the Geometric Brownian Motion (GBM) process. This method is most useful when you want to compute the path between $S_0$ and $S_t$, i.e. you want to know all the intermediary points $S_i$ for $0 \leq i \leq t$.

The second equation is a closed form solution for the GBM given $S_0$. A simple mathematical proof showed that, if you know the initial point $S_0$ (which is $a$ in your equation), then the value of the process at time $t$ is given by your equation (which contains $W_t$, so $S_t$ is still random). However, this method will not tell you anything about the path.

As mentioned in the comments below, you can also use the close form to simulate each step of the paths.

website design - Invite users to inline edit not only on hover?

It's very common to indicate to the user that they can "edit in place" by changing the style of the editable content when hovered over (e.g. adding a yellow background, "click to edit" tooltip, pencil icon appearing, etc). This means the user doesn't discover the functionality until they just happen to hover over something editable.

In my web application, I have a page that has upwards of 25 editable fields. I want the user to know just by looking at the page that they can make edits. Additionally indicating the ability via hover would just be an added bonus.

I've thought about dotted underlining each editable content, as this usually implies "hint" or "hover on me" (like the image below):

The problem with this though is that it doesn't imply "i'm editable", it instead just encourages the user to hover (without them knowing why), and then the hover will have the indicator. Maybe this is OK? At least they'll discover it faster. But is there a better way?

NOTES:
The reason the page isn't a permanent edit form is because users want to view-only the information just as often as they want to edit it. But when they do want to edit, they usually just want to quickly edit a single field. Also, I am not worried about mobile, as my users are solely on desktops.

Answer

I would personally use an edit icon like the following

edit http://catalogus-professorum.org/extensions/themes/silverblue/images/icon-edit-grey.png This is your text

By using an icon the users will know that there is an action associated with those contents, without having to interact with the mouse cursor.

This solution works also on touch devices where the absence of a cursor would make it impossible to discover this functionality.

I would also recommend to put the icon before the text and not after it: this way it's immediately discoverable being consistently placed in the same place all the times.

If you could use a small icon with a color that doesn't attract too much the eye -ie a light gray- it will be almost unnoticed during a quick scan of the page, but would be visible enough when searching for it.

print design - Designing Flash Cards in Indesign Two-Sided Document

I am designing a template for 6 2.5" x 5" flash cards on an 8.5" x 11" landscape orientation in InDesign to be printed at a print shop. There is a front and back side design and they are aligned properly and have proper margins of 0.25" on each side. No bleed is set and will be cutting these manually.

My question is how do I set the document to print properly? When it prints, the document is ever so slightly off for the back side of the design. The design looks right in Indesign and the PDF looks right, but when it prints the double sided document is off due to the design having a border on the front and back side along the edge of the flash card.

I also see documents for size A4, would this help any?

Thanks. I don't know what I am missing and it is a perfectly good design file up until it is printed.

Screen size to start designing in Android?

I am newbie at working with android.

I have read several uxexchange questions here, articles etc. but I am still struggling on which size of screen should I start for the android app we need to work?

I have read the guidelines also in android but I still don't understand. My head is a mess with all the dpi, dp, the formula they give...I don't know where to go/start...I'm lost.

The app we need to work has as target devices the followings: Motorola TC55 and Samsung Galaxy S4 mini

I know for mobile the best is to start designing with the smallest screen. So, in my case, which should be? I'm working with fireworks/photoshop...so I only have the option there to manage px...which size should the screen be? which dpi resolution?

and if you could let me know, how did you arrive to that resolution I would be entirely grateful. I would like to understand android screen way of thinking. =S

Could you help me please?

Answer

At the time of writing:

• 
  

  Low-end smartphones and older generation smartphones generally have 3.5in screens at 480x320 resolution. For example, Alcatel One Touch Fire (FirefoxOS) and iPhone 3GS (iOS).

  
  


• 
  

  Mid-range smartphones usually come in with at least a 4in to 4.3in screen and a 800x480 to 540x960 resolution. Examples are Samsung Galaxy S "Mini" series (S Advance, S3 Mini, S4 Mini).

  
  


• 
  

  Higher-end phones come in 4.7in to 5in, with resolutions that go up as far as 1280x800 to 1080x1920. This would be seen in Samsung Galxy S3 and higher. iPhone has stuck with 4in in the iPhone 5, but is denser (more pixels per inch).

  
  
  

These should be good for starters.

What's a good resource to find Beta Readers for short stories?

I'm currently in the market for beta readers, particularly for short stories. I've finished an early draft for a contest, and I'm hoping to hear some feedback. I'm open to reading the work of others as well. Thank you.

Answer

Try YouWriteOn. Rather than me tell you how it works, this is from their About Us page:

YouWriteOn began in 2006 to assist new writers to develop their writing. Editors for leading publishers such as Random House and Orion - who publish bestselling writers such as John Grisham, Bill Bryson and Ian Rankin - review our highest rated writers each month.

YouWriteOn's premise is simple: members upload opening chapters or short stories and the YouWriteOn system randomly assigns these to another member to review. You then review another member's story excerpt - assigned to you at random - each time you want to receive a new review back in return. After 5 reviews a story enters our chart system and the highest rated writers receive free feedback each month from editors for leading publishers Orion and Random House.

Feedback can be diverse, but the experience of the site over its history has been that collective feedback from a range of reviewers helps writers to get a collective viewpoint of what works well and what needs developing in their stories. The result has been that the majority of stories are higher rated as a result of revising their writing through feedback.

Calculating volatility of inhomogeneous time series

I am reading an article by Zumbach and Müller whose name is Operators on Inhomogeneous Time Series. This is interesting in general, but my main goal is to learn a good and efficient method to calculate volatility of inhomogeneous time series (of prices).

So far I was calculating volatility in the following way: I have created an artificial regular time series, spaced by 5 seconds (say), and calculated the simple standard deviation of the returns of these intervals, and annualized. In the paper I'm reading, the authors explain that this method is noisy and that it loses data (and this is clear). In addition, they claim that while this method uses $L^2$ norm, it may be a better option to use $L^1$ norm.

Question 1. why? If I'm going to treat volatility as some sense of standard deviation, why would I use a definition which is less similar?

Later, the authors provide their own volatility operator, which uses three parameters, $\tau$, $\tau'$ and $p$. $\tau$ is the time being checked, but $\tau'$, which is more important, is the time interval in question (for example, in my method, $\tau'$ would be 5 seconds). $p$ is the norm dimension - that is, if we "work" in $L^2$, $p$ would be 2.

Their definition involves two previously defined operators - the norm operator which is the square root of the moving average of the square values, and the differential operator, which is a very weird operator involving empirical constants which the authors claim that are much better than the common return operator $r[\tau](t) = x(t) - x(t-\tau)$. It looks like this: $$\Delta[\tau] = \gamma(EMA[\alpha\tau,1] + EMA[\alpha\tau,2] - 2EMA[\alpha\beta\tau,4])$$ where $\gamma=1.22208$, $\beta=0.65$ and $\alpha^{-1}=\gamma(8\beta-3)$.

Question 2. why? Should I really use an empirical formula, instead of simply use a (perhaps a little bit noisy) interpolation scheme and simply calculate returns and their standard deviations?

Do you see any real profit in the above mentioned idea?

Question 3. Don't you think it worth working with log-returns instead of returns in general?

android - Should touch-screen simple informational dialogs have an OK button?

I am developing an android application which has quite a few dialogs that just contain text and an 'OK' button. Pressing the 'OK' button loses the dialog, as does pressing the 'back' button on the phone.

Would it fit more into the touch-friendly philosophy to remove the 'OK' button and let the user intuitively close the dialog using the 'back' button?

Answer

If you have a full screen information dialog (or even a full screen dialog with more than information e.g. settings), you could place a "Back" button at the button instead of an "OK" button, since "OK" is more common for smaller pop-ups.

("OK" makes me think, "OK" I have read this, close this window. However, if the windows is full screen, I can't tell if it will close the previous window too. "Back" does not cause such an ambivalence.)

Specifically, on Android phones, there is always a global back button (or at least in all those I have seen), so omitting the "Back" button within the dialog would fit in with the OS's UX.

(If you do rely on the OS back button, make sure that users won't go back twice by mistake due to a long press or an additional press due to slowness in responding to the first press.)

If the information dialog does not completely hide the previous dialog (is not full screen), then an "OK" button would fit in with common UX. Clicking outside the dialog could be a useful secondary means for closing the dialog, however, you would have to leave a margin around the dialog that doesn't close it in order to prevent the sausage fingers effect from cause accidental closure of the dialog.

svg - Automatically merge overlapping nodes in inkscape

My SVG has multiple line objects forming a closed shape. I must convert this into a single path, so that a laser cutting machine just follows the path to cut the shape from the material without jump.

Of course this can be manually done with inkscape by:

1. Converting all individual objects into one path, resulting in a single path but two overlapping nodes at each angle of the shape


2. For each angle, select both nodes that share the same coordinates and Join selected nodes (Shift+J)

However it requires to perform step 2) thousands of times (once per angle), is there an option to merge all overlapping nodes automatically?

Even if in my case, coordinates of overlapping nodes perfectly match, since there is no perfect equality between floats, eventually a distance could be provided to research overlapping nodes, e.g. all nodes n1, n2 for which distance(n1, n2) ≤ 1e-6 mm (or in pixels) are merged into a single node.

Conflicts start to happen if there are more than 2 nodes within this tolerence, however the Join selected nodes (Shift+J) tool itself seems not to handle this case and only merge two nodes.

This option might also be useful to duplicate a single shape several times on a board, and prevent the laser from cutting a same edge several times damaging the material. But it seems more advanced because there are several paths.

Here is an example of input file:

   xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
   xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#"
   xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"

   xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"
   xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"
   version="1.1" id="svg5169"
   viewBox="0 0 20.302442 20.250575"
   height="5.7151623mm"
   width="5.7298002mm">
       transform="translate(-41.214011,-1123.8181)"
     id="layer1">
    
       transform="matrix(0.99667782,0,0,0.99980745,-163.30415,1035.5366)"
       id="g4" />
           id="line134"
       d="m 41.339286,1123.9953 20,0"
       style="stroke:#191919;stroke-width:0.35433069;stroke-miterlimit:4;stroke-dasharray:none" />
           id="line138"
       d="m 41.339286,1123.9434 20,20"
       style="stroke:#191919;stroke-width:0.35433072;stroke-miterlimit:4;stroke-dasharray:none" />

           id="line142"
       d="m 61.339287,1143.8181 0,-20"
       style="stroke:#191919;stroke-width:0.35433072;stroke-miterlimit:4;stroke-dasharray:none" />
  

And the output I need to produce to send to the laser-cutting machine, i.e. the same object with a single path:

   xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"

   xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#"
   xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
   xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"
   xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"
   version="1.1" id="svg5169"
   viewBox="0 0 20.604885 20.60488"
   height="5.815155mm"
   width="5.8151565mm">
       transform="translate(-84.099911,-1123.8181)"

     id="layer1">
           transform="matrix(0.99667782,0,0,0.99980745,-163.30415,1035.5366)"
       id="g4" />
           id="line142-9"
       d="m 104.52763,1123.9953 -20.000004,0 20.000004,20 z"
       style="fill:none;stroke:#191919;stroke-width:0.35433072;stroke-miterlimit:4;stroke-dasharray:none" />
  

Answer

Referring to the provided source, you need to:

1. ungroup (Shift-Ctrl-G) your object, select the paths and combine (Ctrl-K) them in a single path


2. switch in Edit paths by nodes mode (F2), select all the nodes and join selected nodes (Shift-J).

When all the nodes are selected, the join selected nodes function applies to all the couples of endnodes found.

If the coordinates of your nodes overlaps perfectly, this should work (you don't need to repeat your step 2. thousands of times).

In case the coordinates of the nodes doesn't overlap, Inkscape joins the nodes but you can obtain unexpected behaviors, e.g.:

So, the use of the join on all the nodes should be used with a bit of carefulness.

software recommendation - How to make a font with Adobe Illustrator?

I have recently created my own font/typeface with Adobe Illustrator, and I would like to use it as a real font (e.g I would like to use it as I type something).

Is this possible in Adobe Illustrator or would I need a different software?

If so what program would be good for creating a font?

Answer

To create a font, you need a font editing program. FontCreator is quite popular and inexpensive. FontForge is an open source font editor, if you're up to the somewhat dense documentation. FontLab has a utility called TypeTool, a little more expensive but has a good reputation.

characters - Is there a quick way to know I have created a Mary Sue?

For those who don't know what a Mary Sue is: see here.

The problem is, there are far too many ways a character can be a Mary Sue, as seen here. Many websites that offer tests to see if your character is a Mary Sue give pages of questions as well.

Is there a quick way to know I have created a Mary Sue?

[Please note: the above links go to the website TVTropes, which is an addictive time-suck. Visit at your own risk. —ed.]

Answer

If your character sounds too good to be true, then it is probably a Mary Sue. If your character always seems to be in the middle of everything and is always the one to resolve any issues/problems, then it could be a Mary Sue. If your character is more attractive/powerful/impressive than any other character by a mile, then it is probably a Mary Sue.

Unless your story is specifically about super-heroes, your character should not exhibit supernatural tendencies. Also, if you find yourself relating very closely to the character and feel that you are modeling it after your own traits/preferences/ideals, then you are definitely leaning towards a Mary Sue!

Basically, just evaluate whether or not your character is realistic. If it seems to be instilled with any form of talent that gives it an unfair advantage over other characters, then you need to tone it down.

One more important note: simply being aware of this pitfall goes a long, long way towards avoiding it in your own writing. Once you're sufficiently aware of the effect, with any luck you'll know it when you see it.

resource recommendations - Introductory books on graphic design

I will probably get some downvotes for this since I asked a similar question here: https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/29362/cs-graduate-starting-out-in-graphics-design-what-are-the-main-principles-of-de and it was closed down. The answers/comments I had in that question where mostly concerning UI designing which is NOT what I am looking for. The title was a bit deceiving.

In the linked question, I had an answer that stated I should I read Visual Grammar by Christian LeBorg, which I have just finished.

The other links where mostly concerned with UI design which is not what I am looking for.

What would be a next good book I should read that focuses on design/print media?

I am looking to learn the basic principles behind designing such print media.

I am NOT talking about print requirements(print bleeds, DPI settings etc), I am mostly concerned about "Principles of Design"-style books.

EDIT:

Thanks for all the answers so far, I'm sure most of them are really nice. I can't accept an answer until I have read some of the books here which I plan to do, I have lots of free time on my hands. For now I am reading Universal Principles of Design

Answer

I am not going to give you a massive list of resources, but as a basic understanding of graphic elements, I will recommend first:

Visual Grammar by Christian Leborg

I also think that seasoned designers would do well to dip into this now and then; we often get stuck in our use of elements. It goes right to the base of the nature of visual grammar.

Best thing is; you can download it for free from Google.

Since you have recently finished this, for type, I would suggest:

Thinking with type by Ellen Lupton