style - Seeking advice to improve the design of my minimalist calculator

A while ago, I built a count down timer app based on a designer's free giveaway. It turns out users like it and it is even mentioned on beautifulpixels.

This time I'm building a calculator named Minimalist Calculator, on my own, without any help from a designer. Apple link: Minimalist Calculator, I'll share the screen shots here:

　

　

Comments from my friends so far are kind of negative. Something like it looks bare-bone rather than minimalist.

As an app developer, I am looking forward to advice on how I can improve the look and feel of my app, which mainly uses font, color, layout (but specifically little/no images)

Fonts are selectable by user, i.e.:

　

Any reference work I can learn from? A designer for hire who is reputable in minimalism design you could recommend? Thanks!

UPDATE: About options ...

@OghmaOsiris, I did include an option to disable grid lines:

　

　

UPATE 2: Colors

Last night, I added the option to change the colors of:

• keypad button face


• button text, and


• button border

Graphite:

　

Orange:

　

It's now on AppStore. Download link: Minimalist Calculator

Please feel free to send me comments.

Answer

You're delving into a matter of taste here. There are many ways to be minimal. You have done it successfully, in my opinion. I suspect it is the extreme reduction in styling that is bothering your friends.

All critiques are not equal

The first question you should ask is, are your friends representative of your target audience? If not, find some people who are and see how they respond.

Styling minimalism

Just because something is minimal doesn't mean it has to be completely unstyled. Various techniques are still available to you that might add some humanity to your design. A few things to consider:

• Visual hierarchy. You are currently addressing two levels of information: the keypad and formula, and the answer. Are there shades of grey in between that might be worth delineating? Numerals vs operators vs functions (like clear, store, recall) might be valuable categories.



• Color. Black and white is an obvious choice for this aesthetic but so are shades of grey, neutral, or even palettes like jewel and earth tones.


• Texture. Don't limit yourself to flat color in the name of minimalism. Look at Apple's app design, lots of textures there. Subtlety is the key. Take a look at the aptly named SubtlePatterns.com.


• Depth. Texture adds a little realism but the impression of depth will take it up a notch. Drop shadows on the type. Gradients on the buttons to imply surface curvature. The result area could be "recessed" or "elevated".


• User configuration. Allowing the user to change fonts is an excellent idea. What about some additional skins? Maybe a dark, light, and medium. The texture idea could come into play here too. Preselected font options might work well.

style - Choosing character names is a constant difficulty

I find it hard to name my characters. Every normal name sounds funny if applied to a product of my fantasy. If I take a common name, I may get the image of someone I know into my head. And that may influence my vision of the character in a way I didn't intended. If I choose an uncommon name or invent a name (for a fantasy story for example) it sounds silly to me. How do you name the characters of your story?

Answer

So Sméagol, Gandalf and Bilbo Baggins do not sound silly?

Honestly, don't care too much, if they sound silly or not. First, you can change them, second, I've read some great stories with very silly named characters.

If you want make up fantasy names and have no good idea how to start, here is what I do:

• Find out what the profession/status of this character is (Let's say, he is the elder of a village)


• Play with this profession/title. Put it in reverse: elder -> Redle - Would that be a good name?


• Play with the acronym: The elder of the village -> TEOTV -> Teotev? Totav? Teotive? Totiv? Theotrev?


• Put some accent and apostrophes in it. People love that: Téo'tev, The'òtrev


• Translate the profession/title into a different language (I prefer Latin). Play with that word accordingly.


• Well, just play :)

scrolling - Is it good for user to auto-hide scroll?

The scroll bar is hidden on MacBook if the user doesn't move the mouse for some time.

This pattern is also used in other devices too, for example Android devices.

The scroll bar does not take much place but it informs a user of where on page he is.

Is it a good approach hiding the scroll bar when the user is presumed viewing the content?

fiction - Is accurate human nature required for good writing, even in fantasy scenarios, or with fictional species?

I don't know if this is something that is established in the discipline of literature. However, I have found that in any fiction, with all else being equal, the more the characters behave like real humans, the more I enjoy it. Perhaps because I find it easier to feel invested.

What I'm not saying is that I enjoy fiction more if it has more plausible or realistic scenarios in which we would typically find humans. For example, I don't, prima facie, enjoy a scene of humans fighting in the trenches during WW1 more than a scene of humans fighting an army with magic and dragons.

However, I would enjoy a story where characters respond to dragons and magic in a similar manner as I would expect real humans to respond to these things, more than I would enjoy one in which characters respond to these things with unnatural valor or indifference. Even if the characters are some fictional non-human species, like elves.

For example, it was well known that, in WW1, many soldiers had such anxiety in the face of heavy artillery that they would often avoid confrontation if they could get away with it, to the dismay or ignorance of their commanding officers. Live and Let Live is a good illustration of this. I would find it quite jarring and contrary to human nature if, in a battle with wizards that can unleash devastating magic that can kill entire squads in a matter of seconds, every single conscripted soldier was using every opportunity they had to be the best soldier that they could be.

At the same time, I understand that it's entirely plausible for characters in a fictional world to not have similar behavior to us. All of our anxieties, susceptibility to cognitive biases, etc., are a result of a very specific way our brains have evolved. Why should we expect elves, ghost-aliens, or even humans that evolved in a different world, to have those same traits? As long as deviations from human nature are consistent, shouldn't we be just as tolerant of them as we are of the existence of magic and dragons? Yet I find that I'm not.

I should clarify that my preference for human nature is entirely based on psychological and behavioral traits, not on other physical traits. For example, my enjoyment of Animal Farm is in no way diminished by a character's lack of ability to scratch their snout using their front hooves.

Should I expect my readers to share my preference towards characters that accurately portray human nature, even in a fantasy setting or if they're not human? Can unnatural deviations from human nature be useful for the purpose of entertainment in literature?

color - Mass change the colour of 300 .svg files

I have 300 .svg files, all are black, simple vector graphics. Is there any chance to change color from black to white ? Of course mass.

Thanks Ad

What is the equation for Garman-Klass volatility?

I want to calculate realized/historical volatility for the underlying products of various options using the Garman-Klass estimator, but I can't see to find an equation, although I know it involves OHLC data. In the comments there is a link to the equation, but I still am looking for a little explanation. Why does this work? What is the variable "F"?

Answer

In the R TTR package the Garman-Klass volatility is given by

# Historical Open-High-Low-Close Volatility: Garman Klass

# https://web.archive.org/web/20100326172550/http://www.sitmo.com/eq/402
if( calc=="garman.klass" ) {
  s <- sqrt( N/n * runSum( .5 * log(OHLC[,2]/OHLC[,3])^2 -
             (2*log(2)-1) * log(OHLC[,4]/OHLC[,1])^2 , n ) )
}

which corresponds to*

$$ \sigma = \sqrt{ \frac{Z}{n} \sum \left[ \textstyle\frac{1}{2}\displaystyle \left( \log \frac{H_i}{L_i} \right)^2 - (2\log 2-1) \left( \log \frac{C_i}{O_i} \right)^2 \right] }. $$

I think this code is fairly self-explanatory but what's what?

Z = Number of closing prices in a year, n = number of historical prices used for the volatility estimate.

* $\LaTeX$ taken from the vignette.

tree - Cancelling drag-n-drop action before drop

I'm working on sortable tree component. Sorting and moving of leaves and branches is done using drag-n-drop. One of my users has pointed out that once you've started dragging an item you have to drop it somewhere in the tree even if you change you mind and don't actually want to change item's position. The only way to leave things intact is to drop the item exactly on it's former place.

Will it be enough to just "cancel the drop" when the item is dropped outside the tree? Is there any guidelines or examples for such functionality?

To get the idea of how it looks now, you can see this demo: http://dbushell.github.io/Nestable/. My tree works the same way.

Answer

There are a number of options that can ease this, as the onus should not be on the user to feel they have to go and drop it in its original position - assuming they can even remember where that might have been.

Undo/Redo

One is to provide an undo redo capability. This puts users much more at ease in that they know even if they do drop something somewhere where they don't want then they can just undo it right away.

It doesn't have to be a long and complicated undo history - even a simple 'Undo last action' would put users at ease.

Change cursor outside drop area

Another option is to change the cursor when the user moves the mouse somewhere that they can't normally drop.

Typically this is a 'forbidden' style of cursor, but that kind of puts people off dropping outside at all, so you could experiment with different cursors that indicate better that you can let go of the mouse and nothing will happen Something that indicates 'cancel drag'.

Escape

In many mainstream applications, users will be used to being able to press escape to cancel the drag operation.

You should provide that as a way out for users familiar with that. I notice your linked example does not allow escaping of the drop.

Drop safe zone

For users less familiar with drag and drop or who may not discover the undo mechanism, then when the drag operation starts you can show an area at one edge of the region which you can label 'Drop here to cancel the drag'.

This is a great 'just in time' mechanism as it's only displayed when the user has actually started a drag.

It makes it clear to the user without then even having to explore what happens when they go outside the droppable area, although in essence that is exactly what they are doing when they drop in your 'safe-zone'.

Use the original item space as the drop safe zone

An alternative to showing a special drop safe zone in a common location is to leave the space where the original item was dragged from rather than dynamically removing it and shuffling the tree. Typically a dotted line around the source position is enough and you could still label it 'Drop back here to cancel the drag'.

This does have the down side that the tree may have scrolled the original item out of view during the drag.

forms - DD/MM/YYYY - do people know what that means?

Just finished reading Caroline Jarrett and Gerry Gaffney's Forms that Work and I noticed that while the publisher used a screen shot on the front cover with that date format the authors didn't actually tackle the issue of DD/MM/YYYY in the book ... which provoked discussion about it when we reviewed the book at UX bookclub earlier this week.

Has anyone tested the use of the DD/MM/YYYY format string to communicate to users how to enter a date in a single or even triple text field? Or have you found it's easier just to provide year and month drop down lists?

What about for credit card detail forms where the input format must match the card so you have to use numerical dates in MM/YY format?

What are some alternatives that allow quick date input with text fields and also ensure the correct order?

FX Forward pricing with correlation between FX and Zero-Cupon

I would like to extend my question about about FX Forward rates in stochastic interest rate setup: FX forward with stochastic interest rates pricing

We consider a FX process $X_t = X_0 \exp( \int_0^t(r^d_s-r^f_s)ds -\frac{\sigma^2}{2}t+ \sigma W_t^2)$ where $r^d$ and $r^f$ are stochastic processes not independent of the Brownian motion $W$. The domestic risk-neutral measure is denoted by $\mathbb Q^d$.

The domestic and foreign bank accounts are $\beta^d$ and $\beta^f $ respectively. The domestic and foreign zero-coupon bond prices of maturity $T$ at time $t$ are respective $B_d(t,T)$ and $B_f(t,T)$.

The domestic bond follows the SDE

$$ \frac{dB_d(t,T)}{B_d(t,T)} = r^d_t \ dt + \sigma(t,T) \ dW^1_t $$

with deterministic initial conditions $B_d(0,T)$. The drift and volatility functions in the SDEs are all deterministic functions and $W^1$ and $W^2$ are standard Brownian motions such that $\langle W^1, W^2\rangle_t =\rho \ dt$.

Now consider domestic $\tau$-forward measure $\mathbb Q^{d,\tau}$ $$ \left. \frac{d\mathbb Q^{d,\tau}}{d\mathbb Q^d}\right|_{\mathcal F_t} = \frac{B_d(t,\tau)}{\beta_t^dB_d(0,\tau)} = \mathcal E_t \left( \int_0 ^. \sigma(s,\tau) \ dW^1_s\right) $$

and the $\mathbb Q^{\tau}$-Brownian motions $$ W^{1,\tau}_. := W^1_. + \int_0 ^. \sigma(s,\tau) \ ds $$

$$ W^{2,\tau}_. := W^2_. + \rho \int_0 ^. \sigma(s,\tau) \ ds $$

Question

I would like to calculate the non-deliverable FX forward rate. Since the fixing date $t_f$ is such that $t_f< T$, where $T$ is the settlement date, it implies to pass by the calculation following expectation: $$\mathbb E^{\mathbb Q^d} _t \left[ \exp(-\int_t^T r^d_s ~ds)\ X_{t_f}\right]$$

I can get to this point

$$ \mathbb E^{\mathbb Q^d} _t \left[ \exp(-\int_t^T r^d_s ~ds)\ X_{t_f}\right]= B_d(t,t_f)\ \mathbb E^{\mathbb Q^{d,t_f}}_t\left[ B_b(t_f,T)X_{t_f}\right]. $$

From that point I am struggling to get through all the calculations. Is there a smart way to compute the last expectation?

options - What is the formula for beta weighted delta and gamma?

I am trying to calculate the beta weighted delta and gamma for a portfolio of options of different underlying stocks, but I can't seem to find the correct formula.

Can someone point me to it or a book that contains it?

interaction design - Can we use CAPITAL LETTERS to indicate actions?

While designing for the web or the mobile applications, a natural free flowing text can be used for the general content, but when it comes to actions... can we use CAPITAL LETTERS.

Answer

As a general rule of typography using all caps reduces readability for long segments of text. It should never be used for paragraphs especially, and only for short headlines.

You can certainly use all caps in buttons, though, because buttons by nature contain short segments of text. In fact, all caps is the convention for buttons in Google's Material Design. You can see how they specify this at https://www.google.com/design/spec/components/buttons.html#

One thing I notice Google doesn't do is increase the letter-spacing when using all caps. In general it increases readability to add some spacing between all cap letters. See http://practicaltypography.com/all-caps.html

style - Striking the balance between dialogue and narrative

I am participating in National Novel Writing Month this year. I have never in my life written so much of a single story. Although I am supposed to tell my inner editor to shut up this month, she is constantly nagging at me about my structure.

I seem to vary wildly between description/narrative and dialogues. In fact, my entire novel thus far is composed of many scenes of long dialogues which involve a little description of what the characters are doing while they reveal the plot, interspersed with a handful of scenes that are primarily descriptive or perhaps narrative.

It seems to me like I have too much dialogue. Way too much. But I don't know how to find a balance here and help the characters grow and the plot unfold without having people talking all the time.

How to I shift my dialogue into narrative or descriptive text and still maintain the character development, relationship development, and plot movement that I get from writing dialogue? How do I determine whether there is enough dialogue, or too much?

Answer

First, for the purposes of NaNoWriMo I strongly suggest that you shoot your inner editor in the head. Write the most awful dreck that you can imagine, and then go back and fix it.

But as for answering your actual question, you should alternate between description and dialogue in the same scene. That is, instead of doing the following:

[Several long paragraphs of description.]

[Several pages of dialogue.]

[Several long paragraphs of description.]

Try something like this instead:

[A few lines of dialogue.]

[A snippet of description, preferably one which relates to the dialogue on some level.]

[A few more lines of dialogue.]

This may be easier said than done, so here are a few more ideas for how to know how and when to insert your descriptive snippets:

• Use description to control the pacing of the dialogue. Wherever you need a "beat" (a moment of silence or brief lull in the conversation), insert some description.



• Use description to create atmosphere or theme. If your story is dark and foreboding, break the dialog for a moment to have the character notice a crow picking at some roadkill. Use other descriptive techniques as appropriate to the tone of your story.


• Use description when you need to turn the dialog in a particular direction. Have one of the characters be distracted momentarily by something in the environment, but have this distraction serve as the excuse for a change in topic.

Placeholder while loading

I'll appreciate your opinion: Is a visual "placeholder" for an image or ad or text-box give users a better user experience? I've noticed, for example, that while Facebook feed is loaded, there is a placeholder for each post that looks like this: I think that this is the same motivation to declare and (show empty space) image size before we load it.

Thanks in advance!

Answer

If the user’s connection is slow, It can take a while for an app or website to populate content on the screen. However well-designed your user interface may be, at some point or other, the people using it are going to have to wait for something to load. Making the user stare at a loading bar or spinning wheel can increase bounce rates.

Skeleton Screens

Apple have incorporated skeleton screens into their iOS Human Interface Guidelines under the name ‘launch images’. Apple’s guidelines recommend showing an outline of the initial application screen excluding text and any elements that may change.

How Facebook uses it? The Facebook mobile app shows users gray blocks and lines to represent images and text as the app loads. Once it finishes loading, the images and text appear in place of the dummy wireframe content. This is no faster than having a loading screen, but in the user’s mind, it feels like it is.

How fast your app loads is in the mind of the user. When connection speeds are slow, you can still give users a fast mobile app experience by using these tricks. Users don’t want to wait for content. But if you make it seem like they’re never waiting, they’ll always enjoy your app under any connection speed.

Making it Happen

Looking at the examples above, you may have noticed that the images used aren’t drastically different from wireframes. It’s in this observation that a lot of the work may already be done for you. The initial load is taking longer than we’d like so it’s time to add skeleton screens to improve the perceived load time.

Summary Skeleton screens can improve the feel of any action taking longer than a few hundred milliseconds. Applying them to your rendering bottlenecks will make your UI feel faster and make people happier.

SVG optimization practices when drawing in Illustrator

I’ve noticed that when exporting a file from AI to SVG, there is a lot of code created that is not necessary and I realized then that this code can be certainly optimised.

Found this interesting SVG optimizer tool:

http://petercollingridge.appspot.com/svg_optimiser

I also found that the following practices may increase the performance of your final animation:

• 
  

  Using predefined shapes in SVG such as circles, elipses, squares, rectangles and polygons instead of paths.

  
  


• 
  

  Reducing the amount curves and corners when using paths.

  
  
  


• 
  

  When exporting AI to SVG, choose the option “presentation atributtes” so styles will be inside the SVG tag, instead of linking them to an external CSS file.

  
  

My question now is:

What other aspects must be considered WHEN WORKING IN ILLUSTRATOR in order to improve the final performance of an SVG animation?

Thank's.

backtesting - What broker/feed/APIsetup allows for recording the most accurate data (cheaply)?

I'm currently using IB's Java API and getting feeds through them. However the real-time feed is updated only every 250ms and the historical feed only every second.

I'm primarily looking for ES data and other index futures and ETFs. I'm not looking at FX since that data is the most subjective since there is no exchange.

I want a setup that allows me to get the most accurate real-time tick data and market depth. Tick by tick would be ideal, but probably prohibitively expensive.

What setup gives the most accurate data and depth?

website design - Are HTTP error codes user-friendly?

Why do we still have these HTTP error codes?

For me it seems like they are completely useless for the user (not for all but most of them). It says nothing helpful (look at the screenshot above, it even doesn't says it's "an error") and explains nothing so I believe users are confused. And AFAIK it's a common way of representing HTTP error codes.

I believe browsers (for example) could handle these things somehow so original message will still be available for technical purposes but users will got more value.

So why they are still here? Is it possible to handle these codes more gently?

Update: why these errors could not be handled by the browsers? Or maybe there are any limitations? Incompatible design doesn't seems to be a problem for me, and I'm sure that standard views will improve UX because of similarity (errors will look similar for every site). And now I have to parse every cool designed error page to understand that happened.

science fiction - How should I introduce new and complex technologies or tools?

I'm writing a Science Fiction book. While this book doesn't push reality very far, there are some new technologies and tools that I have added. One tool is used more frequently than all the others, and it has a very complex system (although there are other systems just as complex used somewhat less frequently in the story). For the sake of this question, we'll call it MYTO. The protagonist and the other supporting characters use MYTO on a regular basis, and an adequate understanding of it is critical to understanding and enjoying the story due to the frequent use of it. Normally, it wouldn't be a problem for me to introduce it and describe its functions. However, due to the complexity of MYTO and the systems surrounding it, I've found myself in a bit of a predicament.

I've written several drafts and concepts trying to describe MYTO and the systems it uses, and I've ruled out an all-at-once approach - it would take too long, and the reader would get lost and bored. Because MYTO is used in settings with high action, it is very difficult to describe it as I go along.

For a bit of a background, MYTO was a pre-existing technology based on other communication technologies used by the military and special forces in my story. My main character took it and modified it to create an improved version with several more functions and more polished functionality. I've tried to write this out, but it also gets very technical and boring, so I'm put back to square one.

How should I go about introducing the technology and its functions? Some of the functions can and have been explained throughout the story as needed, but they are lesser functions.

If any additional information is needed, please let me know in the comments.

Answer

Lauren gave the single most universal method - let me expand on that.

Note there doesn't have to be a literal character for the cabbagehead - a virtual one will do. Get some quotes from 'MYTO for dummies'. Get a cautionary work safety series series "Accidents resulting from and involving mishandling MYTO". Outright break the fourth wall having the omniscent narrator turn directly to readers (possibly in a condescending manner, for added irony if that's the tone).

If the system is complex, on top of brief summary of its function, if your publisher allows, you can throw a schematics in. A picture is worth 1000 words and things like these add flavor to sci-fi.

Last but not least, one of characters may be tasked with writing an instruction manual for cabbageheads, and we can follow their struggles with the daunting task - say, editor complaining "The readers won't understand complex words like 'shall', this must be changed!".

Including quotes and excerpts doesn't work well in movies, and not at all in TV shows, but it's a well-established technique in novels, so you can use it freely to circumvent the need to introduce another character or lower IQ of any of existing ones.

usability - How to convey set inclusion and exclusion?

We have an application where users perform an action on a large set of things. The user decides which things to perform the action on by selecting to either include or exclude things based on various attributes. First, the user selects from a list of attributes (shown on the left). The selected attributes then get added to a second list where the user needs to decide whether to include or exclude the attribute (shown on the right).

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

The end result is a union of the things with the included attributes and a subtraction of the things with the excluded attributes. Based on feedback from customers, this procedure is very confusing and users constantly make mistakes.

For example, let's say the things are people. If a user wants to perform the action on all people with brown hair, they would simply include the brown hair attribute. If the user wanted only brown-haired males, they would have to include the brown hair attribute and exclude the female attribute (yuck!). A common mistake in this case is to include brown hair and include males. However, this selection would include all people who have brown hair OR who are male (e.g. the result would include brown-haired females). The problem seems to be that sometimes users want a union of attributes (brown-hair OR black-hair) and other times they want an intersection of attributes (brown-hair AND male), but there is no way to make this distinction in the UI.

How can we improve this interface so that it is clear what is actually being chosen? Is there a better approach that still allows both inclusion and exclusion?

_{I found a similar question: Searching for items that include/exclude an attribute, but the accepted answer which suggests to intelligently prioritize results wont work for us. User's aren't selecting attributes to filter search results and then make a choice...the selection of attributes is the choice in itself. The other answers will only work with a small set of attributes (which isn't our case). Also, it isn't feasible to list out all of the things for users to validate that their selection is correct (there could be millions).}

Answer

I think using words like "and" and "or" will be best to ensure your users understand what they are doing. In this example the user would set the first attribute and then they can choose "And" or "Or" for the second attribute to determine if it is a union or an intersection. This can be done for both included and excluded items. You could select "and/or" for each subsequent attribute.

Having this include the words "items which meet" or similar will produce a SQL-like sentence which should help understanding. The user can read "INCLUDE people with Brown Hair AND Male" or "INCLUDE people with Brown Hair OR Male." Even to people unfamiliar with SQL or the concept of data sets, this should make sense.

fiction - Should a flashback be in past tense or past perfect?

Assuming the story itself is in past tense, normally when I go further into the past I'd use past perfect:

He had first met her at the grocery store, six months prior.

However, which is more correct when writing an extended flashback (several pages):

He fondly remembered the day they met.

He had met her at the grocery store, where they had shared a long glance at the checkout line. She had bought sixteen oranges and one single banana, something that had caught his eye at once. He had only been purchasing a pack of gum. He had been about to leave when he had noticed her self-check ding...

versus

He fondly remembered the day they met.

He met her at the grocery store, where they shared a long glance at the checkout line. She was buying sixteen oranges and one single banana, something that caught his eye at once. He was only purchasing a pack of gum. He was about to leave when he noticed her self-check ding...

My instinct is to leave the first sentence as "had met her", then switch to simple past tense. Is that strange?

Answer

It's not strange at all. That's exactly how I would do it. A flashback of two paragraphs can take past perfect. A flashback of several pages can be in the simple past as long as you establish the time shift clearly at the beginning, and use the past perfect in one or two sentences at the beginning.

You should also clearly indicate when the flashback ends: "Now that it was summer, the watermelons took on an entirely new meaning."

vector - How to punch through all the layers in Adobe Illustrator?

So I have this image as vector and a grunge image as vector:

I can easily mask the grunge part from the image in Photoshop:

But when I try to do this on Illustrator with pathfinder always get funky results:

I can use the Pathfinder tool on simple one object at a time, subtract from front etc..

But how can I make this with these all layers and groups?

Vector file

Answer

Pathfinder, while it will work in many cases, is a completely destructive method and once done, it can not be undone or adjusted easily most of the time.

Instead.....

Use an Opacity Mask.

The Opacity Mask method allows you to not only adjust the artwork with the same ease you already have, but also lets you adjust the texture and the amount of knock out the texture has. In addition, Opacity Masks can be used over any number of objects including live text so there's no need to expand anything for an Opacity Mask. Opacity masks can also use raster images (keeping in mind raster images have limitations regarding ppi, scaling, and output).

1. Place the texture above the artwork.


2. Select the art and texture.


3. In the Transparency Panel click the Make button.


4. You may need to then tick the Invert and/or Clip options on the Transparency panel.

To adjust the contrast of the grunge areas, simply change the color of those objects. The darker the color of the texture objects, the more they will mask:

Approaches to criticizing short fiction

What is a reasonable scholarly approach to breaking down short pieces of prose? Is it word choice? Is it structure? Is it themes, and how well they are used? Use of symbolism and its efficacy? Meter, rhythm, style, verbosity? Are these all on topic? Do you have a rigorous guide you use to approach short fiction when providing feedback to other writers?

Answer

You said scholarly, but I'll suggest something a bit less than academic (even if some knowledge of terminology will come in handy).

1. Read the whole story

This first step is applicable both to short stories and short novellas. Read the whole thing and simply enjoy the read.

2. It's about...

Identify the topic in few words (eg.: it's about a man trying overcome his grief) and the message (eg.: shy teenagers must develop the confidence to make friends and integrate themselves)

3. Go through the mechanics

3.1 Action
Identify the main plot and the secondary plots (likely to exist in longer short stories and novellas).

• 
  

  If there is a secondary plot, does it help the main one progress or does it detract from it?

  
  


• 
  

  How are the different scenes organised? Do they follow one after the other, or is there alternance between scenes with one character or another?

  
  


• 
  

  How do the different scenes progress? Is there a steady pace or does it have slow and fast moments? In either case, is the speed appropriate?

  
  

Do note that some stories are meant to have a slow pace, so don't let a personal taste for fast paced stories tinge the slowness as bad per se.

3.2 Time and Space
Go back to the sequence of scenes and see when and where they are set. The evolution of time and place (or lack of it) has meaning.

• 
  

  Do the scenes follow a chronological time or do they jump to the past / future? What effect does it cause?

  
  


• 
  

  How is time perceived by the characters?

  
  



• 
  

  How is space described (private, social, ...)? Is there a difference in the way the narrator presents it and the way the characters perceive it?

  
  


• 
  

  Is there symbolism connected to the places the scenes are set in? Descriptions and even dialogue will hint at it.

  
  


• 
  

  Does the weather play a part in the setting?

  
  

3.3 Characters
Identify all the characters by importance (main, secondary, extras).

• 
  

  How are they characterised physically and psychologically? Is the characterisation done directly or indirectly?

  
  


• 
  

  What are their motivations? Are their ideas, atitudes and actions well aligned?

  
  


• 
  
  

  How to they develop (or not)?

  
  

3.4 Narrators
Identify the type of narrator.

• 
  

  How does it impact the story?

  
  


• 
  
  

  If a 3rd person narator, does it have a strong voice or does it 'hide' under a character's POV?

  
  

3.5 Narration, Description and Dialogue

• 
  

  Are the paragraphs long, short, or a mix?

  
  


• 
  

  How important is the dialogue and how frequent?

  
  
  


• 
  

  How much description is there? Are some things / characters described while others aren't? How is it done?

  
  

3.6 Style
This includes figures of speech, but also sentence size, adjective and adverb use, and pretty much anything that is used to convey a specific effect.

4. Reflection

Think about what you enjoyed and what you disliked. What caused those feelings of like and dislike and why?

---

If you want to break down the text into sections, it depends on both the text and your object of analysis. Typically, a story will be broken down into arcs, but some short stories may instead be broken down into...

• 
  

  places: the story opens on a beach, progresses into a bedroom and ends back on the beach,

  
  


• 
  

  chronological time: the story starts with the morning, there's a change of pace into the afternoon and the conclusion happens in the evening,

  
  


• 
  

  psychological time: time moves slowly during a meeting, but then starts moving quickly once something is said,

  
  
  

... or other options! If you want to analyse a word fight, you may want to break it into moments of attack-defense and control. If the objective is symbols, then you identify all possible symbols and see how they relate to actions and moods (both of the character and of the text), then you break the text into the appropriate sections. One can even divide a single paragraph into moments if need be.

---

While analysing the text as a whole, you will come across both strong and weak points. If you decide to focus your analysis on a specific point (symbols, characters who do not act according to their supposed ideas / ideals, pacing, ...), you're likely to identify more weakness and strengths that are less noticeable at first 'read'.

My suggestion would be to list both the strengths and the weaknesses and present them as 'the setting feels off because ... ' rather than 'you failed to convey the right mood'. You may choose to always give a full analysis or focus on some aspects.

GIMP transparency is not working

I followed this tutorial on GIMP to make an image transparent. Here is a snippet of the original image opened inside Windows Image Viewer (so the grey background is part of Windows Image Viewer, I wanted the white background to show up which was hard to notice if I had just uploaded the original image here rather than a snippet image),

Inside GIMP the image appears to be transparent (again this is a snippet so the grey background is not part of the image),

But when I export the image and open it again in Windows Image Viewer the white background is still present. I need the white background to disappear so that when I add it as an icon in a program it blends in seamlessly.

Update:

Kudos to Volker Siegel!

It turns out I was exporting as a JPG. After exporting as a PNG I got the full transparency shown here in MS Image Viewer again (so MS IV has a greyish background and you can see the image is transparent),

Answer

You do not write which way you export the image, but this is important.

It needs to be exported to an image format that supports saving the transparency information to the file.

Otherwise, the export process has to find a way to save the image without the transparency - asking you, or just pretending the background is white, for example.

The most common image file format supporting transparency is PNG,
and the most common format not supporting it is JPG.

The problem could be that the image was exported to JPG, and lost the transparency while exporting.
If that's right, exporting to PNG instead should help.

---

As a side note, it's interesting that the handling of transparency was not "just left out" from JPEG - it's more like the whole concept of lossy compressing does not go together with the idea of transparency.
The basic idea of lossy compression is to store information that is more visible in a more detailed way, and leave out information that is less visible. But if a pixel can be transparent, we do not know about what is visible - it depends on the background that we do not have.

conventions - Is only having a single unmasked password field (no confirm) on a registration page a bad idea?

Some sites allow you to register and only provide a single password box, which is protected with stars.

Traditionally a "confirm password" box is used when registering which allows you to confirm that the password entered is indeed the password the user wishes to use.

I know that an interface is only complete when there is nothing left to remove from it, however I got caught out this week by registering at a webservice that only asks for 1 password entry. I accidentally hit the wrong key when signing up, and ended up having to go through a password reset process in order to access the service later.

Would it not be advisable to allow password entry without the stars when going with the "single password box upon registration" model?

Answer

I think it's a good idea to have only one password field but I think it should be masked by default, with an option to unmask. There are some users that feel this is not as safe, maybe even just because they're not used to see their password in clear text. The solution should address the concern of these users, too.

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

feedback - Should we tell users that a link or button will open in a new tab or window & how to do so?

I have encountered users (and myself) who feel that at times when clicking on links it can be surprising when things open in a new window or tab and they didn't expect that action.

I believe it would be useful to inform users that you will open that link or that button opens in a new tab or window.

Is providing this feedback generally assumed to be valuable, and if it is what are some novel ways to inform users that the link opens in a new tab or window?

So there are alot of icons for this for buttons like the following

but what about in the scenario for plain text links? A hover icon comes to mind but that wouldnt be provide feedback for most touch devices( mobile, tablets etc).

Answer

Yes, it's good to inform users

...particularly if there are mixed links on the page (some open in new tabs and some don't).

One popular way to denote new-tab links inline is to use an icon as follows:

If you're developing using CSS, this can be done in a way that fails gracefully for text-only or accessibility browsers. You can insert an :after sprite, inline img tag, or render the tag using padding and a background image...depending on what you are trying to accomplish.

Pros/cons of splash-screen with articifial loading delay

My firm has developed a small, domain-specific desktop GUI application. Being small, it loads fast (practically instantly) and initially presents a "home" screen, which in this app, is a kind of graphical menu. It has been suggested we introduce a 2-3 second delay in which we show some logo/splash-screen. The rationale is that this looks more professional.

What is the common wisdom on this?

Note: personally I hate this kind of screen; but I am just an engineer - the suggestion is that real users like them. So I am really looking for evidence about what users do and do not like, not just what the people on this site like.

Update: Like me, most of you dislike the artificial delay. But responses are more mixed about what users will want or accept. The story seems that, (a) people will accept a 1-2 second delay, and (b) users trust some applications better if they take their time.

But what evidence is there about this particular case of a software load-up screen? We cannot be the first company that tried this, it must have been commonplace in the 90s. Was there a backlash? Were there studies to support either view?

Answer

Management is principally seeking brand recognition. The same desire drive Coca-Cola to put their logo on everything they can buy.

If the app, when running, has a visible logo of the product or company, then you should be able to make the case that brand recognition has been served. You could probably make the case that it's better served that way, since the logo remains visible at all times, rather than only 2-3 sec.

---

Alternative splash screen: Call to Action

Consider what workflows are to your application. Microsoft Office applications start you at a screen that displays common templates that you can open, to begin your work. This screen includes brand content that reinforces the company and its product.

Several tabs exist, actually, making this 'splash screen' rich with usability considerations. For power users, who presumably don't like guidance in any form, the bottom of the splash screen has a checkbox to never show again with a like to the preferences window to teach how to turn it back on, too.

---

Generic Compromise

If the CTA option is not possible per time constraints or attitudes, and they will not relent, in the name of user experience argue that the splash screen can be ceased after it was displayed 25 times.

As a generic compromise, the workflow (user behavior) can further drive the decision for how the application behaves. A pattern used sometimes is to display a splash or other call-to-action screen only if the user opens the application via the double-clicking the app icon (or whichever similar metaphor for the OS). Compare this case to the user launching the app via opening a file associated with it.

In the latter case, the user has a directed intention, and does not want something to interrupt their focus (a splash screen). The former case involves less direction, and an intuitive argument can be made for 'trust inducing behaviors,' like a splash screen. In any of the cases, recording first-time events in the history of use can let you display notes that say why screens showed or didn't.

adobe photoshop - How can I represent speed in a graphic?

How can I show speed in this example?

I don't have any vector programs, I'm working in Photoshop.

Any advice will be helpful.

Answer

Create a teardrop shape with the pen tool:

Fill it with white (Command+Delete).

Duplicate, stretch and rotate your copies to match up with some of the lines in the object:

Merge the shapes together by selecting all of them and 1.hit Command+E or 2. right click and choose Merge to Smart Object.

Then add a layer mask and put a slight gradient from the bottom up...

design - How to determine if button looks clickable?

I been making this message box's for my app, and i started thinking about how they presented to the user, if they are dominant enough that the user could easily understand what are the purpose of the button. Example :

What the correct guidelines for this kind of message box's that mostly relays on two main Colors?

Answer

Good affordance is really just mimicking how something would look in the real world.

How do I know what a button looks like?

• Mechanical button normally sticks out a little, so there might be a 3D effect or some shadows.



• Many devices no longer have buttons that stick out, so they rely on an action icon that people recognise (e.g. the power button symbol, a play / pause button, and arrow), and some back-lighting to give the buttons a distinctive colour.


• Usually physical buttons are grouped together, look similar, and are located in the same area for different devices. Make sure that you have a standard way that buttons look in your app / on your site, and don't just dot them around at random. Have consistent look (same colour and shape) and positioning (each screen might for example have a button area). Once they discover that something is clickable they can easily find the other buttons.

trademark - Is there any service where you can check your designed logo against trademarked logos?

Say if I design a logo, there is the chance that it may be to similar to that of a trademarked logo already out there. Are there any services that help with this?

This could be done through research, but this seems a bit too intensive, so I want to know if there is anything better.

Answer

It is an intensive process, takes a while, and is expensive. There are companies that do little else, and will charge you handsomely. The USPTO (Patents and Trademark office) has search facilities on its website that will allow you do search for yourself without a fee but considerable cost in time. I assume that similar facilities exist for other economic regions, but don't have experience with them.

The bottom line is that, like patent search, it takes care and time.

It's not all gloomy, though. The essence of trademark violation is that someone might confuse your brand with some already-registered competitor. In most cases, that means that you can narrow your search to companies in roughly the same line of business and (provided you don't do something egregious like using a nice curvy swoosh for your new line of athletic footwear) not have a problem.

For SMBs (small and medium businesses) with only a local presence, this is seldom much of an issue, but if you're a web startup or have national or international ambitions, it is highly recommended that you invest the time and money up front to avoid marketing embarrassment and/or legal expense later.

terminology - What is the difference between user journey and task flow

I was wondering if you could explain me what is the difference between a user journey and a task flow? I tried to read and look for example images in Google...and I can't find the difference between them. Both of them are presented in flow charts??

Answer

Task flows are a tool to help us think through the design before a feature is actually developed. They allow us to interject the user into the flow of the application and determine if the conceptual model agrees with the user model.

Task flow is in relation to the activity flow within the application.

Customer journey maps are documents that visually illustrate an individual customer’s needs, the series of interactions that are necessary to fulfill those needs, and the resulting emotional states a customer experiences throughout the process.

User Journey encompasses task flow by virtue that it contains information on how the user interaction with the application begins, environmental/situational factors which lead to the usage of the application in the first place and also considers the qualitative factors such as the user's emotions, expectations, behavior, etc.

Further reading on user journey: http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2011/09/the-value-of-customer-journey-maps-a-ux-designers-personal-journey.php

usability testing - Finding out how users respond to look and feel

If you wanted to put designs in front of users and test how they feel about the visual designs look and feel. What questions could you ask to explore how users feel without being leading?

Is it better to use a positive or a negative command for a button, checkbox, etc.?

I have some checkboxes that should include/exclude some content on some reports.

But I am not sure if I should use:

Include all items

or

Exclude unused items

for the text of the checkbox.

What is better/makes more sense, etc.? Positive or negative button explanations?

Answer

Include all items, and here is why: People can compute positive words easier than negative ones.

For example: Do you want a part of my sandwich? or Do you not want most of my sandwich?

What is the best voting system

I'm wondering what is the best voting system for site that have ranking like top 10 / top 100.

Like/dislike

stars rating (from 1 to 5)

single thumb up

thumb up/thumb down

What you think?

Answer

Last year YouTube abandoned its 5 star rating system after research showed that nearly all users only use 1 or 5 stars. See http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2009/09/five-stars-dominate-ratings.html

Now YouTube uses a thumbs up or down system.

So the conclusion is:

1. 
   

   Use thumbs up or down if your users either love or hate the thing that is rated

   
   
   


2. 
   

   Use 5 stars if users have more nuanced opinions (Amazon books, for example)

   
   

Since you asked about ranking the items after they have been rated, remember that you normally don't want items that have a single 5 star rating or one thumb up to outrank items that have 100 ratings and 4.5 stars or 95 out of 100 thumbs up because that gives undue weight to the lone ranker and will mean that unpopular items will always outweigh popular items.

Here's the link that explains how to solve the rating popularity problem: www.evanmiller.org/how-not-to-sort-by-average-rating.html

search - How to combine Suggestions with Filtering in a searchbox?

I got a textfield/combobox for typing a search string (or selecting a recent searchstring). The search results are presented in a list below the box.

I also got a textfield for filtering the list.

The following familiar designs illustrate the problem. The upper example is from Outlook where the list is sorted as you type. The bottom example is from Chrome where suggestions are given in a dropdown box.

How to combine the two? The suggestion area (Chrome) would overlap the list (Outlook).

Does anyone have an example of an application that combines filtering and suggestions in one box, similar to this? Maybe I am way out, because I cannot find any.

Answer

It is possible to combine the two, but you'd need to carefully design the location and size of elements. Google Instant for example provides both suggestions and live filtering, combining the two by judicious spacing, positioning, and sizing. They manage it by having only 4 suggestions on the drop down, and having some non-essential guff take up that minor amount of space between the search box and the first search result.

vector - How do I delete the center of the letter A in Adobe Illustrator CS5?

I need the center of the letter A in Illustrator to be transparent so you can see the background underneath. Same with letter D, B, O, P, R.

I imported a vector version of a word, and I am able to select the letter but if I click delete button it deletes the whole word.

Answer

Select the letter and its counter (hole) and choose Object > Compound Path > Make.

programming - (C++) Monte Carlo pricer for SABR model to test Hagan / Paulot formulas

I'm trying to test the so-called Hagan formula (p.6 of this paper) and the Paulot formula, order 1 only (eq. (43) p.19 of this paper. For this, i'm trying to use both Euler and Milstein scheme described here (p.9, eq. (3.1) and (3.2)) to price a call option, but the results seem not very consistent, so i'm asking myself if my code's right...

That is my C++ function:

double MC_SABR_price(const int& num_sims, const int& num_intervals, const double& F_0, const double& K, const double& alpha, const double& beta, const double& rho, const double& nu, const double& r, const double& T)
{
    double dt = T / num_intervals;
    double F[num_intervals];
    double V[num_intervals];
    F[0] = F_0;
    V[0] = alpha;

    double payoff_sum = 0.0;
    for (int i=1; i
    {
        for (int j=1; j        {
            double Z1 = NormalSimulation();
            double Z2 = NormalSimulation();
            V[j] = V[j-1] * exp((nu * sqrt(dt) * Z1) - (0.5 * nu * nu * dt));
            F[j] = F[j-1] + (V[j-1] * pow(F[j-1], beta) * sqrt(dt) * ((rho * Z1) + (sqrt(1 - (rho * rho)) * Z2)));
            F[j] = max(F[j], 0.0);
        }
        payoff_sum += max(F[num_intervals-1] - K, 0.0);

    }
    return (payoff_sum / num_sims) * exp(-r*T);
}

With those parameters:

double num_sims = 100000;   // Number of simulated asset paths
double num_intervals = 1000;  // Number of intervals for the asset path to be sampled

double F_0 = 5.0;       // Initial forward price
vector K(10);

for (int i=0; i
double r = 0.0;         // Risk-free rate
double T = 2.5;         // One year until expiry

double alpha = 0.3;     // Initial volatility
double beta = 0.7;      // Elasticity
double rho = -0.5;      // Correlation of asset and volatility
double nu = 0.4;        // "Vol of vol"

These are the results I get:

As you can see nothing coincide...

Option prices in Bates SVJ model?

In this [post] discussed the European put and call price formulas under the Heston Stochastic Volatility model.

There exists an important extension of Heston model to include diffusion jumps, known as Bates Stochastic Volatility Jump (SVJ) model, as referred to in this paper.

What are the option price formulas in SVJ model?

Answer

The Bates model is represented by the bivariate system of stochastic differential equations \begin{align} &dS_t=(r-q)S_tdt+\sqrt{v_t}S_tdW_1(t)+S_tdN_t\\ &dv_t=\kappa(\theta-v_t)dt+\sigma\sqrt{v_t}dW_2(t)\\ \end{align} where $$\mathbb{E^Q}[dW_1(t)dW_2(t)]=\rho dt$$ and $N_t$ is a compound Poisson process with intensity $\lambda$ and independent jumps $J$ with $$\ln{(1+J)}\tilde{~} N\left(\ln(1+\beta)-\frac{1}{2}\alpha^2\,\, ,\,\,\alpha^2\right)$$ The parameters $\beta$ and ${\alpha}$ determine the distribution of the jumps and the Poisson process is assumed to be independent of the Wiener processes.By application of delta-hedging argument,we have $$\frac{\partial U}{\partial t}+\frac{1}{2}{{v}_{t}}{{S}_{t}}^{2}\frac{{{\partial }^{2}}U}{\partial {{S}^{2}}}+\frac{1}{2}{{\sigma }^{2}}{{v}_{t}}\frac{{{\partial }^{2}}U}{\partial {{v}^{2}}}+\rho \sigma \,{{v}_{t}}{{S}_{t}}\frac{{{\partial }^{2}}U}{\partial S \partial v}+\,(r-q-\lambda\,\bar{k}){{S}_{t}}\frac{\partial U}{\partial S}+\kappa (\theta -{{v}_{t}})\,\frac{\partial U}{\partial v}-rU+I_U=0\,\,\,(1)$$ where $$I_U=\lambda\int_{0}^{\infty}[U(S\xi,v,t)-U(S,v,t)]\,g(\xi)\,d\xi$$ $$g(\xi)=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi}\alpha\xi}e^{-\frac{1}{2\alpha^2}(\ln{\xi-m})^2}$$ $$m=\ln(1+\beta)-\frac{1}{2\alpha^2}$$ $$\bar{k}=e^{\frac{1}{2}\alpha^2+m}-1$$ It should be noted that closed-form solutions for vanilla-option payoff do exist but PIDE (1) is easily approximated by Numerical Methods.

---

close form solution

I edited my Answer for emcor.

1. Dynamic of $S_t$ under historical measure \begin{align} &\frac{dS_t}{S_t}=(\mu-\lambda\,\bar{J})dt+\sqrt{v_t}dW_1(t)+J\,dN(t)\\ &\hspace{0.3cm}dv_t=\kappa(\theta-v_t)dt+\sigma\sqrt{v_t}dW_2(t),\\ \end{align} where $$\mathbb{E^P}[dW_1(t)dW_2(t)]=\rho dt,$$ $N_t$ is a compound Poisson process with intensity $\lambda$ and independent jumps $J$ with $$\ln{(1+J)}\tilde{~} N\left(\ln(1+\bar{J})-\frac{1}{2}\alpha^2\,\, ,\,\,\alpha^2\right).$$ The parameters $\bar{J}$ and ${\alpha}$ determine the distribution of the jumps and the Poisson process is assumed to be independent of the Wiener processes.


2. Change measure: $\mathbb{P\rightarrow Q}$ \begin{align} &\frac{dS_t}{S_t}=(r-q-\lambda^*\,\bar{J^*})dt+\sqrt{v_t}dW_1^{\mathbb{Q}}(t)+J^*\,dN^*(t)\\ &\hspace{0.3cm}dv_t=\kappa^*(\theta^*-v_t)dt+\sigma\sqrt{v_t}dW_2^{\mathbb{Q}}(t),\\ \end{align} where $$\mathbb{E^Q}[dW_1^{\mathbb{Q}}(t)dW_2^{\mathbb{Q}}(t)]=\rho dt$$ $$\kappa^*=\kappa +\xi$$ $$\hspace{0.3cm}\theta^*=\frac{\kappa\theta}{\kappa+\xi},$$ such that $\xi$ is volatility market price and $$J^*=J+J\,\mathbb{E^P}\left[\frac{\Delta J_w}{J_w}\right]$$ $$\bar{J}^*=\bar{J}+\frac{\mathbb{Cov}\left(J,\frac{\Delta J_w}{J_w}\right)}{1+\mathbb{E^P}\left[\frac{\Delta J_w}{J_w}\right]}.$$ Where $\frac{\Delta J_w}{J_w}$ is random percentage jump conditional on a jump occurring and $\frac{dJ_w}{J_w}$ is percentage shock in the absence of jump.


3. Note that,when $\xi=0$ we have $\kappa^*=\kappa$ and $\theta^*=\theta$. We set $\xi=0$, because when we estimate the risk-neutral parameters to price options we do not need to estimate $\xi$. Also, when $\Delta J_w/J_w\rightarrow0$ thus we have $J^*=J$ and $\bar{J}^*=\bar{J}.$


4. let $x_t=\ln S_t$ then \begin{align} C(t\,,{{S}_{t}},{{v}_{t}},J,K,T)={{S}_{t}}{{P}_{1}}-K\,{{e}^{-r\tau }}{{P}_{2}} \end{align} where,for $j=1,2$ \begin{align} & {{P}_{j}}({{x}_{t}}\,,\,{{v}_{t}}\,;\,\,{{x}_{T}},\ln K)=\frac{1}{2}+\frac{1}{\pi }\int\limits_{0}^{\infty }{\operatorname{Re}\left( \frac{{{e}^{-i\phi \ln K}}{{f}_{j}}(\phi ;t,x,v)}{i\phi } \right)}\,d\phi \\ &\\ &\hspace{1.9cm}{{f}_{j}}(\phi ;{{v}_{t}},{{x}_{t}})=\exp\left[{{C}_{j}}(\tau ,\phi) +{{D}_{j}}(\tau ,\phi ){{v}_{t}}+i\phi{{x}_{t}}+{{\Xi }_{j}}\right]\\ &\\ &\hspace{3.8cm}\Xi_j={{\lambda }^{*}}\tau\,{{(1+{{\kappa }^{*}})}^{{{u}_{j}}+\frac{1}{2}}}\left[ {{(1+{{\kappa }^{*}})}^{\phi }}{{e}^{{{\alpha }^{2}}({{u}_{j}}\phi +0.5{{\phi }^{2}})}}-1 \right],\\ \end{align} such that \begin{align} &C_j(\tau ,\phi)=(r-q-\lambda^*\bar{\kappa}^*)\phi\,\tau-\frac{\kappa^*\theta^*\,\tau}{\sigma^2}(\rho\sigma\phi-\beta_j-\gamma_j)-\frac{2\kappa^*\theta^*\,\tau}{\sigma^2}\ln\left(1+\frac{1}{2}(\rho\sigma\phi-\beta_j-\gamma_j)\frac{1-e^{\gamma_j\tau}}{\gamma_j}\right)\\ &\\ &D_j(\tau ,\phi)=\frac{-2(u_j\phi+\frac{1}{2}\phi^2)}{\rho\sigma\phi-\beta_j+\gamma_j\frac{1+e^{1-\gamma_j\tau}}{1-e^{1-\gamma_j\tau}}}\\ &\\ &\hspace{1.1cm}\gamma_j=\sqrt{(\rho\sigma\phi-\beta_j)^2-2\sigma^2(u_j\phi+0.5\phi^2)}\\ \end{align} and $$u_1=\frac{1}{2}\,,u_2=-\frac{1}{2}\,,\beta_1=\kappa^*-\rho\sigma\,,\beta_2=\kappa^*\,$$

adobe illustrator - How do I use pathfinder on multiple objects?

I have some text. I changed it to outline. Drew a rectangle on it. Selected all and then pathfinder->minus front. I got a weird result. How can get my desired effect in this way?

Answer

The easiest method is to change the color of the rectangle to something other than the type color. I'd choose white.

• Select the (now white) rectangle and the type and use Pathfinder > Merge.


• Select the white rectangle and choose Select > Same > Fill & Stroke


• Hit the delete key.

Merge combines shapes of similar fills and removes any other shape below. So if your rectangle is white, it'll combine with the counters if they touch it (like in the B) and it will delete the underlying black portion of the type shapes. Then selecting similar just lets you select and delete all the white in 2 steps. You are left with only the black top portion of the type shapes.

Another Method

• Select All



• Grab the Shape Builder Tool, hold down the Option/Alt key and then just drag across the rectangle, being certain to hit the areas you want gone.


• If necessary, keep the Option/Alt held down and continue clicking any other areas you want to remove.

Example here

fiction - How do I write numbers in dialogue?

My proofreader recently revealed to me the following, which I was wholly unaware of:

...when a number/code/serial or whatever is said in dialogue, you write the whole thing out...

I had written the designation of a robot as Unit M55/987.3, and he said I would need to sound it out:

...“Unit Em-fifty-five slash nine hundred eighty-seven-point-three has been terminated.”...

Is this true? If it is true, can I still 'ignore' it as one of those grammatical liberties authors sometimes take (in the same class as using fragments)?

Answer

In fiction, there's no rule for this, only differing styles and opinions. However, some editors seem to like using the Chicago Manual of Style's alternative rule for this.

9.3 An alternative rule--zero through nine. Many publications, including those in scientific or journalistic contexts, follow the simple rule of spelling out only single-digit numbers and using numerals for all others [...]

It goes on to reference the exceptions to this. (9.3 is an alternative to the more strict rule 9.2 that requires spelling out all numerals from zero through one hundred.)

Exceptions to these include spelling out round numbers. For example: "seven hundred", "one thousand", "forty-seven thousand", etc. There are also other rules for money, ordinal numbers, decimals, percentages, etc, but these are overkill for fiction.

The number you indicate in your question is more like a serial number. I can't find anything for that, but personally I'd use the abbreviated rule for numerals in general, using numerals and letters and not spelling them out. Unless the character's name were something short like the robots in Star Wars, where (for example) R2-D2 becomes "Artoo" for short.

What would be the benefits of knowing JavaScript as a UI/UX designer?

I'm a UI/UX designer and work for a start-up creating a web-based application serving a specific target audience. Although not required for my job, I'm trying to teach myself JavaScript and would like some of the JS experts out there to tell me how knowing JS could help a UX designer and in what respect. Also, I'm wondering how challenging it would be to get familiar with it given that I have some basic knowledge in jQuery and ActionScript3.

usability - How to display search results for different versions of an item?

The Apache Bloodhound defect tracker I'm working on may show historic results in search in a future version. That means even after an item has been altered (like the description text of a Ticket), when searching for the previous content this would be shown in the search results in some way.

As a practical example: Someone has edited the description of an item and removed a word (Trac) by which I actually remembered the Ticket. When I later search for the word Trac, I'd expect to find it in the results, even if it isn't in the current description anymore.

So my question is: How should you display search results for different versions of something?

Below is a mockup of my first stab at what that may look like.

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

Answer

I'm not sure you need to complicate the results with an in-line revision history (even if it's only showing now and then), but you can indicate that the search result is something that was only in use during a certain time period so that you can determine its relevance.

Since only the older version shows the search term, I think that's the only version you need to display.

If the revision history is something that is useful and not already accessible by following the search result anyway, then you can include a link in the text that allows the user to examine the versions of the text in more detail - just not in-lined with the other results.

Anything that is current of course needs no further markup.

I like the fact that you used a fainter text colour to show the older result - as if the text has aged in some way.

I'm not sure how your Time slider works (assume it's a time-range filter) but I would urge you to consider the usefulness of this version searching functionality as over time, the amount of historical revisions could grow to be quite large and the older search results could overwhelm the more relevant up-to-date results - not to mention performance issues maybe? Consider at least making it optional in some way.

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layers - Automation of repetitive tasks in Photoshop?

Is there a way to automate some highly repetitive tasks in Photoshop?

Example 1

I have a folder of images.

1. For each of them, and I want to import each as its own layer


2. I'd like them to be resized such that each is x% larger than the previous (or some other formula)


3. I'd like them positioned within the canvase such that they form a sequence

Example 2

I have a single layer with an image; and I'd like to make y duplicates of that layer, where

1. Each duplicated layer is z% smaller than the previous layer


2. Each duplicated layer is w% rotated from the previous layer

To be able to achieve these, something more complex than a macro would be required. A scripting language, perhaps, or some form of advance macro?

Is it possible to achieve his in Photoshop?

If not, is it possible in any other image manipulation program (e.g. GIMP)?

Answer

Yes, photoshop has something called actions. To use actions, go to Window -> Actions and create a new action. Then, do ONLY want you want you action to so (resize, duplicate, etc.) Once you have completed what you want your action to do, stop recording your action. Now, whenever you want, you can recall that action, and it will do the same thing, to whatever image you open in photoshop.

(I use CS5, in Windows 7)

In addition to that you can write your own scripts.

Looking for illustrator script to swap all objects with another

I have a map with small circles for over 200 cities. I need to change all of the circles into map pins. Is there a way to do this? I think it's a script maybe.

I know how to select all objects of the same appearance and give them a new graphic style but that will only let me change the color, stroke, etc. not replace with a new shape.

From short fiction to a novel

I write short stories.

However, the more I research, the more I find that people prefer novels over short stories (irrespective of the quality of the work).

This may be partly due to the pricing structure (e.g. Amazon Kindle) where 99 cents can buy a novel (It begs the question as to why would anyone want to pay 99 cents for a short story then).

I want to turn some of my short stories into novels. I am wondering what are some approaches other writers use to extend the length of their work, while at the same time, maintaining the quality.

(I guess this applies from the start when a writer has an idea and then expands it. In my case, the idea is now a story i.e. short story, which I want to take further without losing quality.)

Answer

I share your opinion. I also think readers prefer novels over shorties but not necessarily because of the price. In my case, I don't buy short stories because I always end with that -- it was too short -- felling.

Being a good or a bad shortie, I always end up with that feeling that I could had more. Those rare times I bought a short story, were because it was sold inside a book with a collection of short stories but, even so, I would rather have one of those shorties developed into a novel.

But, back to your question, the easiest and more interesting way to change a short into a novel is to use subplots.

The short story will have only the main plot line, most of the times, because of space. It's all a matter of having the unexploited parallel stories of your short appended to it.

If the short is about a police man that finds out a bomb in a post office and manage to disarm it, saving everybody inside, you could write a parallel plot about the recently fired mailman, who wrongly lost his job when he found out his boss was stealing money from the company, and decided to avenge himself by blowing everything up.

You could also write about the unrequited love the policeman had for the girl who work at the post office, and made him to go there a lot detecting something was not wrong... And even that the girl didn't returned the love because some mob guy blackmail her for some reason.

The main plot line is almost the same as the one in the shortie -- a police man that finds out a bomb in a post office and manage to disarm it, saving everybody inside -- but the subplots will change it into a novel and allow you to develop everything into a more complex web.

Layers with different directional drop shadows in Photoshop

I am wondering how to have 2 different directional drop shadows in the one file with Photoshop. e.g. 2 different type layers — one has a drop shadow at 90 degrees, the other at -45 degrees.

Currently it seems Photoshop only lets me have 1 universal direction for the whole file, which I find really pointless.

I know how to apply different drop shadows and merge down layers to achieve the same thing, but its tedious and not exactly streamlined for making future changes to that layer.

How is this achieved?

Answer

When you are setting the drop shadow effect on an layer, uncheck the "Use Global Light" checkbox.

website design - What objective arguments can be provided to prove that a colour scheme for an app is bad?

We have a design for an app developed by an external agency and our business people seem to be happy with it. But it’s really terrible - the colours are too bright, the text is difficult to read and so on.

How can we persuade our business that it needs to be changed? We can’t just say “We don’t like it, it sucks.” We need to have valid points against this colour scheme.

I understand that colours are subjective. But are there any objective metrics that can show the difference between bad and good app colour scheme?

What sites can I use to crowdsource my writing project?

I have a writing project I'd like to crowdsource. I imagine opening the project definition to an open call, and awarding the work to the most creative writer / thinker based on a sample of their work or on the complete deliverable.

What sites exist that provide a good platform for such a project?

adobe photoshop - Best practices around creating LARGE poster image 24X36

I need to create a large image (for print) at 24X36 inches. It is a seating chart poster for a wedding. What settings in Photoshop would I set for an image this size (DPI, etc.)? I would need it to remain sharp when printing so suggesting some Export options would be great too.

Answer

It will be inkjet printed, so 300 ppi will give you plenty of quality. If the file size on disk gets excessive, 150 ppi would also be fine, but for a seating chart that's unlikely to be an issue.

Export to ("Save As...") PDF using "High Quality Print" as the preset, and you'll be fine for printing at your local FedEx/Kinko, etc., or on a desktop printer if you have one that will print 24" paper. Uncheck "Preserve Photoshop Editing Capabilities" to keep the file size down (but don't save over your PSD, just in case!).

If you're taking it to a digital print shop, ask them if they prefer the PDF in RGB or CMYK. If they say CMYK, use "PDF/X-1a:2001" as your PDF export preset. Otherwise use "High Quality Print."

gui design - How can I highlight errors when bright red is the main color of the brand?

I'm working on a mobile website for a client whose main brand color is red. The website header and headings are all red. CTA buttons are red too. How can I effectively separate errors (mostly in form processes) from the content?

Answer

Just because your brand color is red doesn't make the use of red for errors obsolete, it's just a matter of extent.

Take the Viaplay signup form for example:

Viaplay has red as their main accent color, which is used throughout the website for actions buttons, icons, header, graphic elements etc.. however, in the form they do tone down the use. They don't let the background be red, or having the labels for the input red either for that matter. So in the context the red error messages still stands out.

To put it short, it's a matter of context even within a context. When it comes to user input, eg. a signup form, simply avoid extensive use of red and the typical in-line error messages will still pop against the background.

writers block - The psychology of starting a piece of writing

I have a problem when it comes to writing (blog posts, stories and novels). It might just be me, but maybe other people have experienced it too? When I come to start writing, my ideas before I sit down seem wonderful. But just recently, as soon as I see that blank page, it seems like all my enthusiasm drains out of me and I feel like what I'm going to write is utter rubbish - trite and derivative. Consequently I can't start writing.

I know that these states of mind are built on passing, ephemeral thoughts, but they are pervasive and fill me with alternating enthusiasm and dread.

The irony is - I love to write. I am eager to get to my computer to start on my latest idea. But the blank page stops me dead. It seems to glare at me malevolently. Does anyone else experience this, and if so, have they found a way around it?

publishing - What are the advantages and disadvantages of digital rights management for self-published authors?

DRM (digital rights management) is being used in just about every electronic format, including files used in electronic readers. My question is whether this is a good thing or a bad thing for writers, or does it really matter?

Since an author with a "traditional" publishing contract really has no control, this is really targetted more towards self-published authors who are also responsible for doing their own promotion and marketing.

I would like to know if not using DRM can result in your work being pirated or will it be a non-issue? If people do end up giving away copies, does DRM have the potential to lead to others buying the work out of guilt or possibly buying one of your other books? From a marketing perspective, does this make good business sense?

Answer

This is basically a question of marketing strategy.

The major pro of DRM is that it helps avoid pirating; the major con is that it limits accessibility and portability, and can annoy readers and users.

So it seems to me that the primary consideration should be: "Is pirating going to cost me so much, that I'm better off risking limiting and annoying users?".

For most independent, self-publishing authors, I think publicity is the biggest concern. If you're popular enough that pirated copies are really costing you, that probably means you're doing astoundingly well. Whereas finding readers is tough; you don't want to turn anybody off because of incompatible readers or annoying registration processes - they might easily skip your book entirely. So by default, I'd lean towards DRM free. But here are some additional considerations:

• For publishers, DRM probably makes a lot more sense than it does for a single author. If your own personal titles are being pirated, you might not be losing a lot; if you've got hundreds of titles being pirated, that might be more of a dent.


• You may have certain idealogical preferences - about pirating, or copyright, or current DRM practices - which you'd like to reflect by your choice of whether or not to use DRM.


• You may want to use a publishing platform which does or does not utilize DRM; if you don't have strong preferences on DRM, this issue may be secondary to publishing on the best platform you can.

fiction - Would it be cheating to change the main character's "name" partway through the story?

I'm writing a story written in third-person limited, and the main character has no real name. They simply go by the nickname they're given by the people they hang around at the time, resulting in many different nicknames depending on where they are. Then, they're finally given a normal name that doesn't sound like a title of some sort.

So, what I was thinking of doing was: in the first handful of chapters, third person refers to them as one of their old nicknames, and continues doing so even after they are given a real name in their new environs. Then, at some point, as their character grows attached to the people who call them by that name (and by extension, the name itself), the third person refers to them as their new nickname.

This is meant to mark a point in the story where the character no longer sees themselves as a tool or symbol as they used to in the past, instead seeing themselves as a person as the people surrounding them now see them as. Also, it's meant to mark a point when they'd become comfortable with their new environs, whether they'd like to admit it or not.

Would this seem too jarring for the reader, though? All characters would still refer to them as their new name (outside of flashbacks), and rare changes in PoV before the character's change would still refer to them by their new name.

Answer

Interesting question. Changing a character's name is definitely jarring to the reader (at least it has been to me). The best suggestion I've found to deal with that is to create tension about the name. If the reader spends half the story wondering what the true name is and building up to that, they'll want the name to be revealed, and it won't be jarring at all. However, you are dealing with a slightly different problem.

You say:

Then, they're finally given a normal name [...]

This leads me to conclude that this isn't so much a birth name, as a name selected by people who care about this character. That makes how you refer to the character very important and symbolic, as you seem to have figured out.

I think the same principle as above might apply here, if you change it a bit. Introduce tension surrounding the name. Will the character accept it? If the reader wants the character to adopt this new name, then they will cheer when he starts using it, rather than be surprised or confused. Be sure to keep increasing the tension for awhile; the more the reader anticipates the name change, the better.

I think no matter what you do, referring to this character by their new name in narration will be jarring. I think you can lessen that effect by building tension as I've suggested, and also include a scene or internal monologue where the character actually decides to use his name now. Have him basically say or think, 'never again will I be called [nicknmae]. From now on, I am [name].'

The last thing I would suggest is not to surprise the reader. Don't save using that name for the first time for the next chapter. Once the character says the above, call them that name in narration. Or better yet, acknowledge both names in narration and basically reiterate what the character just said. So for example:

[Nickname] was [nickname] no longer. He was [name]. And [name] would never return to who he used to be.

In those three lines I restate what the character just said, and then use the name in narration myself, just to drill it home. THEN you can end the chapter (because that seems like a good point for a chapter to end to me - totally optional though). The point here is that the first time you use the new name in narration, should not be the opening of a new chapter. I think that could be really jarring, especially if the reader paused between chapters for any good length of time.

Best of luck in your writing!