It's pretty annoying that you can't center text vertically in Ps automatically, like you can in Indd. It's even more annoying that the bounding box of text can't be 'collapsed' or 'fit to text', like in Indd.
I could convert the text to shape, but then I lose coloring. I could convert to smart object, but then its not vector anymore, for when I export to pdf.
Is there a work around anyone knows of that would make it easier to center text vertically?
When displaying suggested articles that are unique to the user, based on a personalisation algorithm, should the user be told that the articles have been targeted to them?
Would it be bad practice to just include articles in a list of search results or should you separate/flag them as "recommended"?
Answer
User should preferably be the one in control. Which simply means, there should be a way (now that could be as intended by the interface and the context), for the user to know what is going on - and if needed, alter that.
I like Medium's approach as a related example - For a signed in user(meaning to say for whom there is personalisation possibility) - home page shows Top Stories for you, but with a clean close button. See screenshot -
Now, if I possibly intend to check other/all stories, I hit close, and it loads the default set (in some order of course). So the essence is user being in control.
In most cases, expected user behaviour could be of not opting to close, but just knowing that I(user) am in control - makes the user feel better.
At the moment I'm trying to write a fantasy novel, and I think it's leaning more towards middle grade rather than children's or young adult fantasy, but I'd like to know if there are any particular clues I could look out for when deciding which I should class it as.
While I know the general age range for these genres (Children's (~8), middle grade (9~11), and young adult (12+)) and can think of some traits that tend to be in the writing of one or another, I can't help but wonder where one crosses over into another, and whether there are any clear cut distinctions between the themes/plots/stories for these genres. For example, while E. Nesbit's Five Children and It is very much a children's fantasy (it's light hearted, the children get themselves into trouble but not mortal danger, they learn from their mistakes), Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising Sequence is described on Wikipedia as 'for older children and young adults' (more of a classic Light vs Dark, Good vs Evil, ancient-magic-awakening kind of story), so I assume that means it could be classed as either middle grade or young adult.
In the end, basically, I would like to ask: Are there any definite rules such as 'stories like this are always children's fantasy, and ones like this are always middle grade, young adult, etc.'?
Answer
There are no clear-cut distinctions. Children are different. One child might be reading at 6 what another wouldn't touch until 12. For example, King Matt the First is explicitly written for children (under 8). It deals with themes like death, war, responsibility, and it doesn't have a happy ending. I grabbed it off the top shelf in my room when I was 6, and I loved it. I was copying illustrations out of it, I badgered my mum for "King Matt on the Desert Island", and loved that too, even though it's even more tragic than the first one. Then I recommended it to a classmate, and she found it extremely traumatising - so much that she couldn't finish it.
The one definite rule I can think of is sex. Under-12s wouldn't have a reference point for physical attraction - it's not something they've ever experienced. They would know love - they see it, but sex would be alien to them, thus either wierd-eww, or just boring.
Another thing you'd want to avoid is philosophising. An adult can be engaged in a "discussion" with ideas presented in the book. A child doesn't have the experience to weigh their ideas against the book's: they do not yet have well-structured "ideas" of their own. A lengthy theoretical tract would thus bore them. Distopias go out of the window for the same reason - a young child would tend to accept things at face value.
Avoid using strong language. Having read the Three Musketeers when I was 10, I had a period of wanting to be like d'Artagnan, thus talking like d'Artagnan. I knew this wasn't a good way to talk, but I didn't care, because d'Artagnan was awesome. My mum wasn't happy.
I don't know why, but I remember as a child my world was very black-and-white: there were the Good Guys, there were the Bad Guys. There wasn't much grey. Good Guys sometimes made mistakes, and sometimes struggled to make the right decision, but ultimately I knew they would do the Right Thing. In fact, if I didn't know what the Right Thing was, it clearly was whatever the Good Guys did. That's something you'd probably want to keep in mind - children would regard the main character as an example, so you'd better make sure it's a good one.
Other than that, keep in mind that younger children would be less knowledgeable and less experienced. Don't talk down to them - they're not stupid, and they hate that, universally. But do give a bit more information than you normally would. In fact, children are curious, so don't hesitate to tell them things. I loved Jules Verne because (among other reasons) he "taught" me so much about geography, and strange people in far-away places, and marine life and whatnot. (Today I know most of that information is erroneous. The "Suck Fairy" strikes again.)
It's not a bad idea to have a child of your target audience's age as the main character - their experience and world-view would be similar, thus easier to understand and empathise with, but this isn't necessary. The Hobbit is a children's book about a 50-year-old. It is, however, easier, I think, for a child to empathise with a character who isn't "on top" in his environment - whether it's a child, a hobbit, a pet, a newcomer to anywhere. In this respect, they'd be closer to the reader, who is relatively small and weak, and aware of it.
I am trying to create this effect
http://qldsignfactory.com.au/sites/qldsignfactory.com.au/files/photos/bunting.jpg
I've tried using this method here but I can't get the triangle to point perpendicular the path...
Any idea how I can create the effect?
Answer
Blends won't work for what you are after. The reason is you're looking to get artwork to align to basically one side of a path. Blends align to the center of paths in all cases. And, as you've discovered, blends don't rotate artwork based on their spine. Blends only rotate artwork if the artwork creating the blend is rotated.
First: Use this basic technique for a pattern brush:
How to make Objects follow a path (illustrator) (like on the las vegas sign)
Here's a screen shot of how the brush art would look, then how it looks applied to a curved stroke:
I want to generate decent-looking 8-bit versions of existing images for a project I am working on. The current method I am using involves changing the mode of the image to Indexed Color with the following settings:
This gives me mixed results. Sometimes the result looks decent and I can work with it, however, most of the time the colors don't look right together and sometimes unintentionally mix with other colors, and it's hard identify it with the original image.
Are there any other methods I can employ to help me generate decent-looking 8-bit versions of existing images, with a low color count? Or are there any changes to my current process to improve the result?
EDIT:
Here is an example of the effect I am trying to achieve. Original image:
Altered:
Even this result still looks like it could be better, however it was easy to achieve as the planet is the only thing in the image.
Answer
If you are starting with 16-bit images and you are using this process to get 8-bit versions that does not make much sense. Simply change the Image/Mode/8-bits per channel and you are done.
If you are trying to get 8-bit AND fewer colors in indexed color format for some special need you may have, I will suggest using File/Save for Web and picking the GIF option there. You can set the number of colors you like and see the preview of the result. You can also set the diffusion, transparency, etc on the same screen.
Addendum:
In case you are trying to get an illustration look that you can draw on top, try "Image/Adjustments/Posterize". There you can select the level of "banding" so to speak rather than number of colors. If you choose a large enough number, there may be no appreciable difference in the look. I am adding this since I have no idea what end result you are trying to get.
UPDATE:
I guessed that you were trying to get some posterized effect, but the sample makes it clearer. Here are the steps to produce the result below
This will give you a monochromatic result with bands of similar colors. If you like a multi hued result, use a blank layer instead of the Photo Filter and fill it with a gradient going from one color to another and change the layer blend mode to Color (as I did in the example) or for a more subtle result use the blend mode of Hue. You can build variations on this by using radial gradients that change from center to outside and by placing the center at different points on the image.
Go at it!
Example from my writing:
Aru smiled back at him and at his thought. “I think there’s no need to find him.” So what if Ichi wasn't a prime number? Their hearts combined would produce a one, one that might make her infinitely happy.
Two.
What to do in cases where you have awkward pronoun repetition?
Answer
There is nothing wrong with the repetition in this case. It emphasizes the important information in a pleasant manner.
If you want to avoid repetition of words, what you can do is
your sentence(s). How to rephrase will depend on the given situation, and asking for and giving help rephrasing passages is off topic on this site.
I have a JPG which appears to of retained a clipping mask:
(http://gdh.guildmembers.co.uk/logos/LEVENE%20MAG.jpg)
When this file is opened in photoshop / fireworks and then the "Paths" tab is visited, you can see the saved clipping path on the jpg. However I tried to replicate this in photoshop and couldn't replicate with a new file. How was this done? I assume it is via some form of metadata?
It seems that the clipping path could be removed when uploaded via a web based image uploader, in this case a flash based uploader.
Answer
What you're observing is not a clipping mask, per se. Jpeg has no transparency and no concept of clipping or masking. Jpeg does have several metadata sections, and many programs will happily store extra information in there.
Photoshop stores paths, as you've noticed, and guides. To replicate this, create a new file and add some paths and guides. Then "Save As" (not "Save for Web") to create a new JPG. Re-open this file, and you'll see that it saved the guides and paths.
Keep in mind that many programs, uploaders, etc. will not preserve metadata so this can't be depended on for transferring important data.
So, I am a week and a half into a new project, and I've been designing for a resolution of 320px * 480px. I am new to the game and I've just found out that that resolution is too small considering the high density displays of newer smartphones, and that my graphics will look blurry on new devices.
My ignorance is really costing me and I'd like to find out if there is an equivalent of the stock resolution mentioned above (which I assume was used before the high density displays were introduced).
If you have any suggestions on how I can salvage my existing graphics short of redoing the .PSD's that will also be appreciated.
Answer
Instead of designing your UI for a single resolution, you should design it to be resolution-independent. Take a look at how this is handled in Android: http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/screens_support.html
The resolution you are using (320x480) is a typical MDPI resolution, so you could basically continue using it, as long as you deliver your graphical assets for the app in other DPI sizes as well:
The operating system then uses whichever graphic is the best fit for the device.
In iOS, all of this is much easier, as you just have to provide two graphic assets, one for old screens (320x480) and one for new retina screens (640x960).
Quoting Hull's book:
When gamma is positive, theta tends to be negative. The portfolio declines in value if there is no change in S, but increases in value if there is a large positive or negative change in S. When gamma is negative, theta tends to be positive and the reverse is true: the portfolio increases in value if there is no change in S but decreases in value if there is a large positive or negative change in S. As the absolute value of gamma increases, the sensitivity of the value of the portfolio to S increases.
So there is a clear opposite sign correlation but I don't understand why if gamma is negative then theta tends to be positive and the portfolio increases in value if there is no change in S?
Is there any reason I should not use monospaced typefaces for text in articles? Do they negatively affect the reader's ability to easily read long-form text?
Answer
Monospaced typefaces do reduce legibility, albeit by a margin.
In Universal Principles of Design, the entry on legibility states:
Proportionally spaced typefaces are preferred over monospaced.
One famous research on this is Beldie I. P., Pastoor S. & Schwarz E, 1983, “Fixed versus variable letter width for televised text”, Human Factors, 25, pp.273-277, where part of the results include:
The reading time (Task 1) with the variable-matrix character design was 69.1 s on the average, and the mean reading time with the fixed-matrix character set was 73.3 s, t (8) = 2.76, p < 0.02. The difference is 4.2 s or 6.1% (related to fixed-matrix characters).
It has to be said that latter research has shown more marginal differences, and that in some cases (dyslexia or programming code, for example) monospaced typefaces increase readability.
I'm working on creating labels that will be cut out and placed as a sticker. I'm very curious on if there's a "standard" border between the image and cut lines.
I was looking at How to make striped/dashed border for a "cut out" coupon style? and a related video: http://www.iceflowstudios.com/2012/tutorials/photoshop-cs6-beta-shape-strokes/
The video shows the dashed line touching the image, other responses point to an offset path of 10 pts (line weight 4).
I know the offset will be pretty case-specific, but I'm wondering if there's any general standards beyond "ask your printer". In my case, I set the offset to 1 pt before sending it and asking if they want a bit more space. I did this because the sticker will be laid overtop the part exactly, then cut with a razor around the edge, so a very small border should make for precision placement. However, this would be extremely difficult to cut by hand if you didn't have the image already placed against a hard surface of the exact size.
The in coupon example in the link, a bigger distance would be good, as people are cutting carelessly with scissors or just tearing by hand.
Any recommendations on a "standard" border distance?
Answer
Without bleed I don't know what size your is coupon but the minimum safe margin is 0.0625 inch (1/16"). And that is really the ultra minimum only for very small prints. Normally, it's 0.125" (1/8") and that's better too.
With bleed, You can put your border within the 0.0625" all around your document but that's really thin and "dangerous", so if it looks nice on your design with a thicker border, use thicker. Bleed should also be 0.125" but sometimes on sticker, depending which process the printer is using (rolls or sheets), 0.0625" can be acceptable.
Again, if your coupon is big or the layout permits it, use the safe numbers for bleed and inside margins: 0.125"
Peel-off sticker
The same specifications apply for the peel-off stickers than any other stickers or custom diecut project.
Thickness of a dieline
The dieline is the line on your document that represents the custom shape of the sticker.
It will not be printed on the sticker but used by the printer to build a matrice with razors.
For maximum precision, it should be 0.3 points thick. The matrice is the diecut.
You need to use a spot color and name it "dieline" to make sure it won't be printed or provide it on a separate file with this outline only, centered and in the exact position and alignment of your design. Use registrations marks (trim marks) to makes sure it's perfectly aligned.
Provide a JPG proof to the printer that will show the dieline in a bright color, and the design together. This way he can see what you expect as final result and if your dieline is alright.
You have 2 options if you want to print that dashed line in bleed or non-bleed. I made an example below. The non-bleed version would give better results if you don't know if the printer is a very good one because any misalignment during the diecut phase will not be too visible. And if the printer uses rolls, the misaligned printing won't be too visible either. Plus it's cheaper.
As you guess with bleed, that kind of border doesn't look good if the printer doesn't adjust his diecut well. Some sides of the border could look thicker than the others.
PS: Sorry for the inch units, you'll need to convert them to the ones you prefer!
Stickers printed on rolls:
Stickers printed on sheets and diecut for shapes:
(diecut = probably what you call "razor"). The metal part on top is the diecut.
Sources: Rolls: Youtube.com user Peng Nicole, Sheets: go-media.com
I’m trying to find out how I can use Photoshop or Illustrator to give a piece of type a wave-like flow (with an additional feel of perspective; essentially I would like to make it appear as in waving/floating through a three-dimensional space). I am aware of the Perspective Warp in Photoshop, as of right now I am however unable to create a fluid, believable three-dimensional wave form. I have posted a couple of images of examples below in which the typography is behaving in the way similar to what I’d like to achieve (especially the first one, a piece of work by German graphic designer Fabian Fohrer). Can I achieve such visuals in Photoshop/Illustrator or would I be more successful with 3D software (Cinema 4D)? I greatly appreciate any help.
My apologies for not being able to post screenshots of what I have tried so far, but I am posting this question on the go and do not have access to Photoshop right now.
(Also: I do not intend any stealing of intellectual property, all credit for the examples given goes of course to the original designers, I'm merely interested in broadening my horizon in regards to visual techniques.)
Answer
You can accomplish some of the desired goal here using Illustrator's Envelope Distort. First, create your text. Next, make a rectangle and then using the Mesh Tool (U) click in the middle to turn this rectangle into a mesh. You can edit the mesh points to create some waves. Then make sure your text and mesh are both selected and use Menu > Object > Envelope > Make with Top Object to warp the text to the mesh. This works with objects that do not curve around to show a back side. Yet, this can too be approximated by doing more work and slicing your text into front/back pieces and warping them both to connect in the same place in a visually-acceptable way.
This shows a basic text wave distortion with top mesh object.
The 3D curve-around do not work so well.
However, there's also a method in Illustrator to 3-D wrap a piece of art around an object. Since your examples feature curves which appear to be wrapped along invisible oval 3D objects, it's possible to use Illustrator's Extrude and Bevel effect on a circle or ellipse and wrap it around inside the Map Art options. First, make your text and create a symbol out of it (in the symbols palette (Window > Symbols)). Then, create the circle/ellipse shape and apply the 3D extrude & bevel effect and rotate it how you want. Next, use the "More Options" button to expose the part of the 3D dialog which allows you to "Map Art". This will pop out another dialog which lets you select the face of the 3D extrusion to apply one of your symbols to. Choose the text symbol and arrange it how you like. Check the "Invisible Geometry" box to see only your text and no underlying shape. After all is done, you may expand the effect and manipulate the resulting paths as you please.
3D Effect Dialog
Map Art Dialog
As you can see, with the Map Art you are able to wrap a line of text in a helix as well. Keep in mind that a circle does not have to be your extrusion shape, it could be a wavy or scalloped shape with ridges or convex areas that would further curve the text.
I'd like to know how many font sizes can you use for a website.
Someone said to me it's better not to use more than 3 different font sizes (e.g. 16px for heading, 11px for text and 13 px for smaller headlines).
Is it a good or bad idea to use more than 3 font sizes per webpage (e.g. 4)? I just ask because I'm considering using a fourth one but don't know if it could ruin my design.
Answer
This question is interesting. I've honestly never heard of a limited number of font-sizes. I have, however, heard of the number of font-faces generally not exceeding 2 or 3. In today's responsive web, you'll see font-sizes changing all the time depending on the viewport.
This wouldn't be a good answer without some sources, so there are two interesting articles I think you should read from Smashing Magazine. One is on Typography guidelines and techniques(I've linked you down to the section they talk about scaling the heading tags in relative terms) h1: 1.5ems, h2: 1.375ems etc etc.
The second article is a huge study Smashing Magazine does on typography every year on some of the web's most popular sites. These sites are primarily content driven so typography is of key importance to them.
I think what you'll find though is that there aren't any generally agreed upon best practices for the font sizes. As long as they don't dramatically change as to distract the viewer, you can play with them at your discretion. If you can use the font sizes in a distinguishable way so the user can relate a font size to a particular content type, than you should be fine. Just don't go overboard.
Following the answer of @Cyn and my comment (on Doubt about a particular point of view on how to do character creation ): I would like to know more about how to "know" more about a true alived character. Now, if you think a little bit, the one will find a particular point of view that is tricky, I mean, say for sure what is an action wrote for an character and what is an action did by them.
I'll give you an feeble example: A character walking down the street sees a person asking for help, because this person needs to find a public telephone to talk about a urgent situaton. Then I "observe" my character actions and I conclude that this character helped indeed this person.
This example illustrates, at some level, what means "put your character in a situation". I gived my character the possibility to deny a help and say no; my character choosed to help. But the outcome of this situation is something that I imagined, I mean, is my mind. How can I know that my character's choose was a some sort of "independent thought" if I've imagined that outcome?
In developing a web application that presents monetary data for a variety of locales, I have inquired about the differences of currency formats. In particular, I'd like to know when it is appropriate to use currency codes, either in addition to or instead of currency symbols.
It's my understanding that all mainstream currencies require that a currency symbol be included, but some show them in different order (as seen on this website). The four currencies that I facilitate in my application are USD, CAD, GBP, and EUR — all of which have the same general currency format.
It makes sense to include the currency codes for USD and CAD, since they have the same currency code, but what about the others? What's the norm in these other countries?
Anyway, I have below what I think to be the correct formats. Please let me know if I have made any errors:
• United States — $1,234,567.89 USD
• Canada — $1,234,567.89 CAD
• Great Britain — £1.234.567,89 GBP
• European — €1.234.567,89 EUR
Also, should there ever be spaces between the currency symbols and the numbers? That is yet another thing I do know happens sometimes, but am not sure what the rules are.
Answer
I'll just answer for the Euro:
European — €1.234.567,89 EUR
Normally you'd use either the euro symbol or the 3-letter abbrevation, not both at the same time. The combination looks a bit odd, but is perfectly understandable.
The style guide used by the institutions of the European Union includes rules for expressing monetary units. The most important ones:
My personal preference would be €1.234.567,89 for most texts (that feels most natural and familiar) and 1.234.567,89 EUR for legal/formal documents (or EUR 1.234.567,89 when written in English).
UPDATE: Complete list of currency formats.
What are the main categories of systematic trading strategies (e.g. momentum, mean reversion), as might be considered by an index or fund-of-fund analyst?
Are there any common sub-strategies?
Answer
There are other strategy types not covered by mean-reversion/trend following:
arbitrage - keep correlated assets close in price (SPX index versus the 500 stocks contained in it, or Gold trading in London versus Gold trading in New York)
market making - buy on bid, sell on ask, gain the spread
liquidity rebate - some venus pay you for putting limit orders in the book. Put in a limit order to buy, when it's hit try to sell at the same price that you bought at (or better) and gain the rebate. Works best on high volume, low price assets.
predatory trading - seek big hidden liquidity in the market and front-run it
behavioral trading - quantify market sentiment and trade on it (analyze tweets, determine global/regional mood and use known psychological theories to predict the effect on market behavior)
event trading - analyze news (electronic, paper, blogs, twits) and predict market impact of new relevant facts (litigation, new products, new management, ...)
This is going based on the fact that apart from my University work, I don't have a great deal of freelance work to fill a portfolio so I can't really choose to leave stuff out.
I've heard people say before that you shouldn't finalise a design for a client based on what pleases you aesthetically but what the client wants but I've often done this myself in the past were I thought a logo looked more interesting a certain way to only have the client come back to me and say something like "oh, it's nice, but it just looks too fancy and I'd like it this way..." and they will want me to use very basic, tacky imagery and too many colours that make it look like it was made by a high school student (at best) as the client knows nothing about design and there's only so much I can do to make there idea somewhat acceptable. Sometimes I finalise a design with them that they are over the moon about but I think it looks average at best and sometimes bad.
I can understand this, as obviously it's the client that's using your work so if they don't like it then you have failed your task and they won't want to use it but I don't want to use it in my portfolio as I don't want future employers/clients thinking that this is all i'm capable of. ' Where do you stand on creating work for a client that doesn't please you aesthetically? do you ever turn work down as you don't want it to ruin your image as a designer or do you just smile, make the design and take the money?
Answer
In your case, this CAN be two separate things. Your work for a client and work in your portfolio.
I have tons of work that I've done for certain clients that I hate because of their feedback. I still have to deliver the product, so I sucked it up and completed according to their specifications. BUT I also save the version that I liked. This is what I would use in my portfolio.
Is it possible to import a batch of .png files into a PSD, such that each imported .png is in a separate layer?
Answer
File > Scripts > Load Files Into Stack
A dialog window pops up, click the Browse button and navigate to your files, select them and click Open. Then click the Okay button and each image file should be loaded as a layer into a Photoshop document.
What are some of the general rules to decide whether a particular factor is a "risk factor" or "anomaly?" Naively speaking, can't you put any anomaly factor on the right-hand-side of the regression and call it a risk factor? For example, momentum has been considered an anomaly in the context of the Fama-French 3-factor model, so Carhart included it in the RHS to create a 4-factor model, yet the latest FF 5-factor model does not include momentum.
A related question is: What distinguishes the 3/4/5-factors in the Fama-French/Carhart models from the rest of the factors in the factor zoo?
Answer
I would say the main difference between "risk factor" and "market anomaly" is that people demand to be compensated for risk and because there are different kinds of risks these can be systematized into risk factors whereas anomalies are results of behavioral biases.
Another big difference would be that risk factors will stay because of the need for compensation whereas anomalies will be arbitraged away in the long run.
I agree that both concepts are not completely orthogonal but that could be because scientists had (and still have) to find systematizations that make sense of the data so that certain ways of organizing the financial world become obsolete in later and more sophisticated models.
A good starting point for this way of thinking is Andrew Ang's new book about factor investing - you can find out more here (and there is even a short video which gives you a nice intuition by comparing factors to nutrients in food):
http://factorinvestingbook.com/
Is it bad UX to put a scroll bar in a module with a list, is there ever a case to use this?
My developer says its a bad idea and just annoys users.
Should this kind of thing never be used?
download bmml source – Wireframes created with Balsamiq Mockups
Facebook do something like this on this menu item below to choose your page you want to act as, but I do find the interaction a little irritating, so perhaps I've answered my own question - lol
Answer
You definitely should try to avoid nesting scrollable areas inside a webpage if possible: scrollable areas are breaking page interaction (nested block will be scrolled instead of outer page itself while using tracking pads or mouse wheels for scrolling).
There are some exceptions:
You may use nested scrolling panes if they're shown temporary (like in Facebook example you've mentioned in your question: the scrolling list in popup which is shown for a moment and will not break the page scrolling itself).
Editable areas like comments may be scrolled while being edited (and reverted back to non-scrollable mode then editing is done).
Web apps which may occupy the whole browser window and avoid scrolling of the content by using dynamic layout so it's OK to use nested scrolling panes (since main content area could never be scrolled anyway).
And in a case if you can not avoid using scrollable areas always showing a scrollbar is a good idea: users will notice that the area can be scrolled and will be aware of the area behavior.
I have done a lot of work on a lot of files. To give them to a new designer working for us, I have put them on an external HDD and passed them over. But he now has to open up every file individually and relink them to the External HDD or his own HDD. This is really time consuming (there are hundreds of documents). Is there a quicker way to do this? We really only need to be able to tell InDesign that the front of the image location has changed, as all of the other parts of the file structure are the same.
This would save me loads of time, and I'm sure there must be a solution...
Answer
I found another answer. In the Links Panel there's a drop down menu in the top right, choose Relink to Folder and it should relink all the files in one step.
If you don't remember, Choose Your Own Adventure books had bits of a story, then options for the reader to give them more of a feeling of control in their adventure: "If you want to walk through the dark tunnel, turn to page 16. If you want to take the bridge, turn to page 19."
I want to write a similar book, only a technical manual. My initial thoughts are to write it as a PDF with internal links to various pages, like
"If you already know how to engage the widget, go to page 60. If you want to learn more about the history of widgets, visit page 1010.
So, two questions. 1) Can I write it in this style and have the links to pages change dynamically (say I add an entire chapter and it bumps up page 60 to 80 and page 1010 to 1030. 2) Is there recommended software for doing this? Sorry for the noob question, this will be my first venture into writing a book.
Answer
Surely good old HTML would be great for this? Links would work perfectly for the transitions (especially in-document # links).
I am working on designing the UI of a video monitoring system. After I did some research, I found out that most designers use a dark background to be the primary color.
Does anyone know the reason why?
Answer
A very good question and I would say that you are very keen about all the small details used in design.
Here is the best example I think I can give, Take the Sky as background and Moon and stars as video, Moon is sometimes visible in day but stars are not.
Even though the moon is visible, it's not so pleasant as much as it's in night.
I would say a video for me is more like a dance of colors. There are multiple or couple color at a time, which gets changed in even frame.
Human eye is more attracted to dancing colors when they are hosted black background.
Having other color in background might distract them from actual content, which leads to missing of information some times.
Im just about to begin the programming aspect of my education towards being a Quant. I know what languages are currently being used and how popular they are. However, I have several good friends getting their masters in computer science and related engineering degrees who tell me that C++ and similar languages are surely outdated for what Quants do.
Now despite that the work builds on itself and thus a need for C++ and similar languages are currently needed, do you see a change in the languages being used over the next 10 years? If so, what expected languages do you anticipate will be used?
P.s. I know this is a bit more discussion based than Stackexchange normally deals with. However, I am polling from multiple sites with the hope of being able to write on this topic to provide help to those in the future (as there is almost nothing on the web on this topic). Further, as the number of active quant sites is limited, to acquire a large enough data set to be useful, Stackexchange was a great resource to use. - Sorry for any inconvenience.
I'm always struggling with choosing the correct icon for minimizing action. For ex: In accordions menu or on panels that can be minimized what would be the best icon :
An arrow that rotates like in OSX finder (right side/ deveices panel, for ex.)
A +/- button ?
The problem I have with the arrow is that one is often used as advanced menu (dropdown)
For ex. you've got them on firefox/ie/windows OS. It highlights the fact that this is not just a button but there is a dropdown menu that will come.
The problem of the +/- is that is often used for create/delete(remove)
Any ideas? suggestions?
Answer
I would definitely say no to the underscore, it is specific to minimizing a window, it also does not really have a reverse, what would you use for opening the surface back up.
Both Windows and OS X use the disclosure arrow/triangle/control in the situation that you are describing, it even occurs on the iPhone even though in that case it does not open up the subcontrol in place but changes the view
This set of controls is from the Microsoft UI Experience Guidelines while it contains the +/- icons all the other ones are arrows and triangles.
The appropriate Apple Document calls it the Disclosure Triangle
And as was already mentioned, the JQuery Accordion uses the same look for this kind of functionality.
In most of these cases the arrow rotates with the opening and closing of the hidden section
Regarding your worry that it is mistaken with the arrow that is used in the dropdown box, in most cases it looks completely different, but it also actually fulfills a similar purpose, in exposing a hidden view, even if the view is over the current content instead of inside the content.
If you do want to go with the +/- note that the way windows uses it is not just freestanding, it is on a graduated surface hinting to a button
I presume this is a pretty common problem but I can never decide the best way to do it.
Simple system. It has users, users can be a assigned a role. Roles are defined by the admin users.
The situation arises where an admin wants to delete a role from the system which is still in use. I don't want to delete the role and leave the users without role so I'm firing back a message saying
"role (x) cannot be deleted as it is still in use"
However this isn't very helpful as the admin then has to go figure out which users have this role and assign them a new role, then go back and delete it.
Does anybody have any better mechanisms for this kind of functionality?
For my research I need to obtain a series of densities, however, I am encountering some problems.
The first problem is perhaps very simple, but the answer eludes me. Let's say I have an observation from a time series, $x=0.001$ together with estimated mean $\mu=0.0001$ and standard deviation $\sigma=0.4$. Using R:
dnorm(0.001, 0.0001, 0.4)
z=(0.001-0.0001)/0.4
dnorm(z, 0, 1)
where z is the standardized variable. Why are the result different?
The second issue is connected to Hansen's Skew-t distribution. Let's add the skew $\lambda=0.1$ and shape $\eta=5$ parameters. When plugging in the all the parameters into the pdf (I take z which takes $\mu$ and $\sigma$ into account) I obtain $0.4832$, but when I use the sgt package in R:
dsgt(0.001, 0.0001, 0.4, 0.1, p = 2, 5, mean.cent=TRUE, var.adj=TRUE)
Iobtain $1.075749$. Inputting the standardized variable z and $\mu = 0$ and $\sigma = 1$ into the above yields $0.5425881$.
Can you please explain the reason why the values are different?
Answer
You know that :
$X \sim N(\mu,\sigma^2)$.
$Z = \large\frac{X-\mu}{\sigma}$.
$\text{Var}(Z) = \large\frac{1}{\sigma^2}\text{Var}(X) = \large\frac{1}{\sigma^2}\sigma^2 = 1$.
So that $Z \sim N(0,1)$.
However note that the pdf evaluated for X and Z have different domains.
The following figure illustrate it :
The vertical line is evaluated at X= 1.5, you see that the density differs accordingly the domain.
So in your example you also need to scale the density by ($1/\sigma$) :
(1/sigma)*dnorm(z, 0, 1) = dnorm(0.001, 0.0001, 0.4)
To summarize when you use a normal transformation you need to scale the density by ($1/ \sigma$) to get the correct density in the original domain.
You can find the matlab code used in this answer here.
I think you second issue and some of your others questions are related to this problem.
Our WPF desktop application will be executing various tasks. In general, the average length of time for each task will range from basically instant to a few seconds or longer (possibly minutes).
We are trying to establish a standard to determine when to change the cursor to an hourglass to indicate processing and for longer tasks display a progress bar in the interface.
Where are these thresholds in seconds? At what point does a user think nothing is happening and start to become frustrated that no progress is reported (which is what we want to avoid)?
Answer
0.1, 1.0, and 10 seconds...You have about 1 second to show something whether that be the finished result or an indicator that the computer is working (usually some type of spinner)
Not doing anything for 1 whole second after a user initiates an action can still make an application feel sluggish (as noted in the comments below) so I like to provide immediate feedback to my users by showing the spinner right away while fading it in slowly.
Spinners only work for so long, however, and any operation that could take over 10 seconds should have a more advanced mechanism for letting the user know when the task they initiated will be completed (such as a progress bar)
The basic advice regarding response times has been about the same for thirty years [Miller 1968; Card et al. 1991]:
- 0.1 second is about the limit for having the user feel that the system is reacting instantaneously, meaning that no special feedback is necessary except to display the result.
- 1.0 second is about the limit for the user's flow of thought to stay uninterrupted, even though the user will notice the delay. Normally, no special feedback is necessary during delays of more than 0.1 but less than 1.0 second, but the user does lose the feeling of operating directly on the data.
- 10 seconds is about the limit for keeping the user's attention focused on the dialogue. For longer delays, users will want to perform other tasks while waiting for the computer to finish, so they should be given feedback indicating when the computer expects to be done. Feedback during the delay is especially important if the response time is likely to be highly variable, since users will then not know what to expect.
source: Neilson Norman Group
We have a list of items, with one of the attributes being a time duration. (Imagine users, and avg time between certain activities).
Most of the time, this duration will be in the 0->120 second range. Some times, it will jump into minutes, possibly hours, ... and rarely (but it's possible) the duration could be in the days.
Where we're at now is a display like "2h 43s", "2d 15h", "21s", "8d 2h".. But, if you put all those into a list, a problem arises because it's not immediately clear that you have a long duration sitting in the midst of a bunch of shorter ones, since "2d 15h" is the same length as "2h 43s"
Adding seconds/minutes to the "2d 15h 00m 11s" seems right to ensure the days "stick out" and keeps all the elements aligned.. But I'm not sure. That's a lot of added noise.
Answer
You can use some cues for hours and days. As those are more rare, the icons don't create much visual noise.
I am working on a mobile application (Android ICS based) where I need to show a lot of products on screen. Now the products are categorized in several categories which are on X level, where X is defined by business. So it could be 4, it could be 10.
So in a navigation where I want to let the user choose from category to navigate to a particular set of products I am trying to use Cascaded Menu as shown below. But how can I let the user jump from one level to parent or directly to home or directly 2 level up? 
I am using a breadcrumb sort of feature here but want to understand if you guys have a better solution which is more for mobile usage and helps in easy navigation. Clicking on breadcrumbs looks cheap for a mobile device in my opinion.
Answering this question is relevant to assess the quality of a time series in order to observe whether the data vendor applies some rounding to the data or is more decimal are present than the actual tick size.
Please provide possibly the official source (e.g. www.nasdaq.com, www.nyse.com)
Answer
In case of NYSE equities rule 7.6 reads: "The minimum price variation ("MPV") for quoting and entry of orders in securities traded on the NYSE Arca Marketplace is USD 0.01, with the exception of securities that are priced less than USD 1.00 for which the MPV for quoting and entry of orders is USD 0.0001."
For NASDAQ equities rule 4701 (k) reads: "The term "minimum price increment" means USD 0.01 in the case of a System Security priced at USD 1 or more per share, and USD 0.0001 in the case of a System Security priced at less than USD 1 per share."
In addition there is the SEC tick size pilot program (FINRA, SEC) which you can find embedded in the rule books as well.
I have been through this dilemma many times with new apps. So finally I'm seeking some help. So when the app is new and in the process of gathering more users, is it good to let them use the app without even signing up and once they want to make payments or book something then asking them to sign up?
Answer
The answer is progressive engagement. You delay the sign-up until the user needs to (e.g. save selected items, use shopping cart etc.). The initial sign-up must require information that is absolutely necessary (no credit card). Only when the user is ready to buy ask for a credit card.
The following article by Joshua Porter explains it in more detail :
Design for Sign-Up: How to Motivate People To Sign Up For Your Web App
Please advise me how to use Gimp to create a tile for a word game like below:
I can see 2 rectangles with rounded corners - the outer one and then the one on the top.
Is the smaller rectangle filled with a linear gradient, where alpha changes from 1.0 on the top to the smaller value on the bottom?
How to create the "inner shadow" in the larger rectangle?
Answer
So in GIMP 2.8 you can do this:
Create a new layer for the button background, fill it with you base color 
Invert your selection in selection->invert
Go to filters->light and shadow->drop shadow, and create your shadow, with 0 for X and Y offsets - there you are -a new layer with he exact shadow you wanted. : if you use the classic drop shadow script (not the GEGL based one in GIMP 2.9), it creates a shadow of the selection itself - in a new layer, above the current layer (it is different of the behavior when there is no selection)
restore your ouriginal selection, create a new layer and make a white to black vertical gradient with the blend tool. Change this layers mode to "grain merge" and reduce its opacity until you are satisfied for the main blend of your button
And there you are!
What is the best way to find an open source alternative to a commercial font? I was thinking as some service as alternativeto.net or a whatthefont.com that would spit out fonts that are similar to the one uploaded.
For example: What is the open source font that looks most similar to Scala Sans? (see picture) What would be the criteria and tools to identify similarity?
Answer
Whatfontis.com is an alternative to whatthefont.com, but you have the option to just display free fonts.
However, when uploading my example, I could not find anything suitable.
A manually found alternative, in my opinion, would be Source Sans Pro, Semibold. As the width differs, I tweaked kerning manually:
I was wondering if someone could advise me on pricing for a website design.
I'm redesigning a blog/travel site for an individual. The site is about 8 pages plus some modules, etc. I'm also redesigning their logo. I've already spent about a week doing it, maybe 3 hours per day and I'm still not halfway finished (kind of a perfectionist). I plan to charge for the project itself, rather than hourly. According to the advise I've already received, I should be charging anywhere between $1000 and $1500. I'm just curious what other people thought.
My main concern is overcharging for a site that I will not be coding. I am doing ONLY the graphics and basically the product I'm delivering with be a wireframe layout and all the custom graphic files (vectors, etc.) and the person I'm designing it for will do all the CMS stuff himself. Again, I'm doing NO CODING whatsoever.
So, that said, what should I be charging? I'm also including unlimited design revisions up to two months after initial completion. Any ideas? Another thing to mention is that I'm a student and it's my first paid job (but he doesn't know that). Anyway, thanks in advance for any suggestions you may have!
I most often see this with compressed video, but I've also seen it often enough with JPEG images. Many times blacks, reds, and other generally dark colors seem to be especially prone to compression artifacts, even if you're just opening a file and saving a copy of it. What causes this, and what countermeasures can be taken to prevent it?
Answer
My first guess, specifically with JPEG, is that the colour palette doesn't include the colours your seeing as missing. From my understanding, compression algorithms generally try to remove visual or audio bits that a user can't see or hear--at least this is the way it works with MP3.
Another possible reason would be changing the bit level between the original and the compressed version.
In our app we use green buttons to signify primary actions (located on the right, but that's a whole different discussion) and grey buttons to denote secondary actions ('Cancel'). For example: 
The question is: what color to use for confirmation modals where the user will destroy data?
Note: in this example I'm focusing on deletion of data. The same case applies to other actions that have a bigger impact (regardless of whether it has impact on the state of the system or the amount of time it takes to reverse an action). Of course we should add methods to undo actions, explain the results of an action in (micro-)copy, not use modals in the first place, etc., but for now I just want to focus on the color of the button. We seem to have three options:
1) Be consistent with generic modals in the app
Drawback: 'Delete' feels too much as a safe action.
2) Make it more obvious that primary action is destructive
Drawbacks: 'Delete' may be discouraged too much, let's not forget that the user initiated the delete action before the modal appeared.
3) Combine green and red colors
Drawbacks: Although it communicates which action is 'safe' and which one is 'unsafe', it may be confusing and slow users down too much.
Is there a way to do infinite nested comment threads in a way that doesn't look horrible? I realize that one could simply restrict the levels of nesting, but perhaps there's a better way of indicating some comments are replies to other comments than simply indenting the comments. After a certain level of nesting, indenting fails.
Some ideas to play with: color, size, progressive disclosure, numbers (1.1, 1.2, 1.2.1, etc), modal windows, a comment reply stream (like Facebook or Twitter), something like SeaDragon, etc.
Has anyone solved this problem? What did you do? Out-of-the-box suggestions and visual examples are welcome too.
Answer
It's not so hard if you treat the "infinite nested comments" as another dimension in your design. Most comment threads just have two dimensions: the comment (X = 1) and the number of comments (Y = N). But now you have nested comments, adding Z = M to the mix.
From a UI design point of view this shouldn't represent much of a challenge as there are plenty of paradigms for dealing with extra dimensions, such as the ones Pam describes, as well as tabs, panels, etc. The problem we run into in the real world is that there isn't infinite screen space or infinite richness available. That's where things become complicated: web user don't want to scroll to the right, and most comment boxes are subjected to the parent page's scroll bar without being self-contained.
Twitter for iPad recently gave me some inspiration in this area. There, the Z dimension is interactively presented as an overlaid pane on top of X,Y:
Because you're using an iPad, you have full control of whether or not to bring that extra pane in for full view or flick it away. So reading tweets (a 2-dimensional X,Y list) is fine: just scroll up and down. Most Twitter apps stumble when trying to add the 3rd dimension, which is zooming into a tweet to see its context.
For instance, a tweet could be a reply to someone else, and in those cases you want to see the full conversation. Most web based twitter clients will load a new page. Most apps won't really support it. But Twitter for iPad just brings over that right-hand pane again and highlights the selected tweet in the original pane. Now you can read through an vertically scrolled list of whatever's in the context. At this point, Z=1. If you click on an item in this list, another pane comes in from the right and you're in Z=2.
This can, theoretically, continue for Z=M, although I'm not sure what the Twitter client itself does (probably crashes!). This model looks inviting, however.
I'm not completely new to developing apps, but I'm at a point where I'm trying to develop something and deploy it on several mobile platforms. To only concentrate on two major ones, suppose I'm developing an app for Android and iPhone and designing UI and the general user interaction architecture. Both platforms give guidelines as to how their UIs should work. For example, most iPhone apps have the Navigation Bar (the one that says Testing 1 and has a Back button)
and an Icon Bar
for navigating a program, while Android uses an Options Menu fetched via a Menu button
and the "back" navigation is handled with the physical Back button on the device.
I've seen many apps that try to force the same UI on every platform. For example, custom-building an iPhone style Icon Bar and putting it in their Android apps, but it just doesn't quite look right to me and it feels like it violates UI design guidelines somewhat.
Are there any good design patters for implementing something sufficiently similar on both platforms, yet still platform-specific enough so that the user would not feel out of their comfort zone? What do people usually do in these situations?
Answer
If a multiplatform app has an iPhone-ish UI because it was first developed to iOS, I see that as a cheap solution and negligence of the other platforms. If a vendor takes the time to develop the application to integrate properly with the OS, have a native UI, use differentiating features (like notifications in Android) etc., that's much more appealing than the convenience of not having to learn a slightly different UI (in the unlikely case I would use the app on both platforms)
For less tech-savvy users, the "alien" platform's features can even be confusing. Why doesn't my menu button work?
It is much better to have different, conforming UIs on each platform than one unified UI.
I don't want to make a PNG sequence, I just want to make a GIF directly from After Effects. Once I checked out an online tutorial there I could see the GIF option while Rendering composition. But I am not able to see the GIF option anymore, so what I did I made lots of PNG sequence for the same then export it to Photoshop but that is to much time-consuming process and my system just hangs.
Answer
When I need to create a GIF from After Effects, I do my animation in After Effects, go to Menu>Composition>Pre-Render and render it out as an uncompressed MOV file. Then you can drag that file onto Photoshop and it will open in the video timeline. From there you can "Save for Web" as an animated GIF file. It's a fairly straight forward process and yields good results. If you need to isolate a small section of the animation for exporting, adjust the working area brackets to that area and that will be the only section exported as a GIF.
This is a rather stupid question so I apologise in advance but I just wanted to be 100% sure! I have a set of photos at 300 ppi that are 800 pixels by 800 pixels and need to convert them in Photoshop to 72 ppi for web use (at the same size: 800px by 800px).
In Photoshop if I use the 'Resize Image' option and uncheck 'Resample Image' and then change the resolution to 72 obviously the pixel size will stay the same (but the physical dimensions in cm/inches will change). Presumably this will cause no quality loss at all compared to the original as all pixels will be retained there will just be less pixels per inch (as many as are required for web)?
I just wanted to make sure as one of my designers told me it would degrade the image quality but I don't think that's right?
The final image file used on the web will be a jpg but presumably in this same scenario TIFs would be the best source file type so as to not save to jpg twice (and suffer the associated image degradation)?
Thanks so much everyone!
Dave
Answer
800 pixels by 800 pixels and need to convert them in Photoshop to 72 ppi for web use (at the same size: 800px by 800px).
There's no conversion to do. If they're 800 pixels by 800 pixels, that's it, they're the size you need. However, 300ppi at 800px by 800px is like a 2.3" by 2.3" picture, so are you sure the files are currently at 800pixels by 800pixels?
There's really no 72 dpi for web. This is an estimated resolution.
The web, and any computer in general, displays pixels with different monitors fitting different amounts of pixels into different amounts of space. 72dpi was an average to go by. If your monitor has a resolution (I really mean size in pixels, which isn't quite the same as resolution) of 1920 x 1050, then there are 1920 pixels across horizontally and 1050 vertically. So if your monitor's this size, and the display is 19" wider, then your screen displays about 100 pixels per inch.
Digital deviced just display the pixels. Physical size of those pixels will vary from device to device. DPI settings in files only affect the printed outcome.
To further explain this: Pixels are the dots, and DPI only comes into play when we're talking about how big to make those dots on paper, or measuring a doc in physical units of distance, like inches.
An 800pixel by 800pixel document at 300dpi settings still has the same amount of information in it as as an 800pixel by 800pixel document at 72dpi settings. The only difference is that when printed, the document at 300dpi will be printed as a square about 2.6" x 2.6". The 72dpi document will be about 11.1" x 11.1". The difference is, th pixels, which are the dots, are stuffed into a physical space according to their DPI.
Now, if we're working with documents that are set up in inches, as in an 8" by 8" doc, things change a bit. All bitmap images have pixels, or dots if you'd like to think of them that way. Every image that's not a vector has a height and width in pixels, and a user setting up and viewing their document in measurement of inches is just a feature for human beings to think of their documents in measuring units they're familiar with. This is dependent on having a DPI, whether it's one, or three hundred.
An 8" by 8" document in 300dpi is equal to a 2400pixel by 2400pixel document, because f or every inch, there are 300 pixels in it.
An 8" by 8" document in 72dpi is equal to a 576pixel by 576pixel document, because there are 72 pixels in every inch.
If you were to set up an 8" by 8" document and draw on it, add rasterized text, etc, and the document was set up in inches, at 72dpi, then you converted it to 300dpi, now we're adding pixels by scaling the document up from 576pixels by 576pixels to 2400pixels by 2400pixels, and any non-vector images will lose some quality (on your screen mostly, but this is a whole other discussion), or at least not truly be the quality of a document originally designed at 300dpi.
But, if you're starting out by setting up the document in pixel measurements, then these wont change. At this point, the only affect changing the DPI settings will have is on the physical size of it when it's printed.
Where on a webpage is the best chance that a visitor will notice an ad and look at it?
Answer
Best chance is always the first part of the page they look at, the header(top). Whether or not you actually want to put an ad there probably depends on the content and design of the page. A lot of the time the logo will be on the upper left and you will have some space for an ad on the upper right. Another higher place would be right below the nav. (I'm not really a huge fan of most of these spots, but if its a commercial site, why not?)
The sidebar is usually a good spot because it is out of the way of the main content and if the content is long enough, you will have plenty of room. It is also pretty common to have an ad below the intro paragraph, or first blog post, on the home page. That way users will spot it while they are reading through.
But when it comes down to it, eye tracking studies have shown that users generally ignore any banner ads. Your best bet(and probably only) is to try and really target the ads to the user. Half the ads out there just look like spam so why pay attention to it? I suggest looking into ads that directly relate to the content of your site whenever possible.
Here's a summary of the plot:
The main character goes to a mountain to visit his half-sister. He hasn't seen her in years.
She went there to undergo a spiritual healing. Later he discovers her wound has something to do with their elder brother, and that she needs him (the protagonist) in order to recover from this affliction.
But that isn't all. While he's in the mountain he meets a girl who (apparently) doesn't possess a soul. She is often seen in the forest near ancient trees. After he meets her she tells him that he didn't only come to the mountain looking for his half-sister, but also looking for her. That he must help her to accomplish something. Something of utter importance.
He's sure he hasn't seen her before, though she looks a lot like a girl he met once when he was a kid.
I'm more or less satisfied with this plot, however, I can't shake off the feeling that the protagonist is more a "spectator" rather than someone who's playing an "active" role in the story.
This isn't happening in another story I'm writing. The story is about a man who tells his wife about a sexual fantasy he has. But that he's OK if she doesn't want to go along with it. However, the wife suddenly stops talking to him, and after that a series of surreal things start to happen to him: he's visited at night by a black bird, and meets a young girl in the forest nearby their house.
Unlike the first story, in this one I feel the main character is deeply rooted in the plot; the story is after all about his relationship with his wife and his sexual desires.
What can I do to solve the problem with the first story? Or should I just drop the entire project (or let it cool down, at least) and focus on the second one?
I've already written 16,000 words for the first one, and 5,000 for the second one (both are second drafts).
(I usually write two stories simultaneously. When I feel I'm "stuck" with one I jump to the other to "relax." Yeah, I don't have many hobbies.)
What do you think to ask the email twice for registration?
The context is this: In the e-commerce checkout/registration process where the email is mandatory to save cart or to proceed to the checkout, it's better to ask just one time the email and the pass twice or it's better ask the email and password twice to be sure the user fill correctly all the fields.
In the first case the risk should be that users can might some mistake and fill the email form wrong, the second case the risk should be to abandon the registration/chechout because is frustrating.
Answer
The second time you are asked to enter your email you may notice it says "confirmation." That's all it is really, just confirmation that you are entering the correct email.
In some instances, asking for an email twice is crucial. Consider signing up for an email list for example. If the user makes a mistake and enters their email incorrectly, they may leave the website and never realize they entered the wrong email.
In a case where a mandatory email confirmation will be sent right after sign up, you can forego the confirmation and instead just provide a link to change the email address they entered if they don't receive the confirmation. In this scenario, you are appealing to the large majority of users (the ones that will enter their email correctly the first time) by providing less resistance to sign up. For the small majority that will make a mistake, you are allowing them to repair their mistake and have thus covered all of your bases.
I'm currently in the process of developing a Windows Application which produces Word Documents.
In the program there is the ability to save your progress (different to the "Save as a Word Document" option). This option "Save Current Progress" saves your progress, there is no user input, except the action of clicking the button (i.e. they don't have to specify a file location).
When designing the functionality for this button I researched other instances of "Save" buttons in programs. Most of them resemble floppy disks, and on clicking them there is no feedback (except the subtle visual cue of mouseover and click on the button itself). i.e. there is no alert window saying "you have saved" nor does the button change to signify a saved state.
The problem is that in my application this could be confusing. In Microsoft Word (for instance) it is the most natural thing to click the save icon and know it has saved, without any positive feedback. However in my application it confuses users and they say that they "don't know" that what they've done has actually saved anything. The icon is different to the Word one. It resembles a hard drive with an arrow pointing down onto it.
However, surely the thought process should be the same. I'm going to change the functionality so that the icon changes to that of a tick momentarily to give positive reinforcement that the status has saved, but I'm interested as to why the two scenarios differ so much.
As per some of the suggestions here I have created this graphic to switch states when the user saves.
Answer
On clicking the save button in almost any application for the first time, you are asked where to save the file. If your application does not do this, it would be understandable that people are unsure as to whether it has worked or not.
My advice would be to grey out the icon and replace the icon with a spinner while the save operation is taking place. Even if saving is near-instantaneous, do it anyway for a minimum of a second or so.
Once this period is over, replace the icon with a tick, and change the button text to Save Complete for a second or so, before reverting back to the normal button. This provides strong visual feedback that the button is doing its job.
Assume I have a "complex" options position like a straddle, strangle, or iron condor. In other words, several options traded together as a single position against one underlying asset (not a basket option).
I know the implied volatility of each of the options within the position. Is there an accepted method of generating an implied volatility for the overall position?
I'm trying to find the best way to match specific colors across different media (print and digital) for doing identity/branding work for a company. From what I've read pantone matching systems is the industry standard?
If so my second question is whether to get the formula guide or the color bridge as I don't really get the difference between the two?
Here are the links to the two items as shown on pantone's site:
http://www.pantone.com/coated-combo
http://www.pantone.com/color-bridge-coated-uncoated
I often have to modify pdf files and show them in stages. Like this:
First:
Second:
Third:
I'm currently doing it by separating each part of the plot into layers and then hiding some of them, and exporting them to as image files. Is there a more convenient way to do this? I don't want to duplicate objects into different layers because if further along I want to make changes, I'd have to them on every layer.
