drawdown - Expectation of maximum draw down in the Brownian motion case

Let $$ X_t = \mu t + \sigma B_t $$ be a linear Brownian motion with drift. Let $$ S_t = \max(X_u, u \le t) $$ denote the process of the running max, then the draw down is given by $$ DD_t = S_t - X_t, $$ and the maximum draw down over a period $[0,T]$ is $$max_{u \in [0,T]} DD_u.$$ What can we say about $$E[ max_{u \in [0,T]} DD_u ] ?$$ How can we calculate the expected maximum draw down? Are there analytical formulas, approximations, available (R) packages?

Answer

as I mentioned here, this paper provides some theoretical insight (and a way to approximate the true value).

The authors end up with an approximative series for the density. It is implemented in the function maxdd of the R-package fBasics. There are convenient functions dmaxdd, pmaxdd and rmaxdd. Calculating the Expected Drawdown should be easy. (to be honest, I found the paper as a reference provided on the help page of the functions mentioned above)

The function you are asking for would be maxddStats:

require(fBasics)
maxddStats(mu,sigma,t)

information architecture - What is the difference between Categories, Keywords, Labels and Tags?

Is there a standard way of using Categories, Keywords and Tags in the context of blogs, websites and web applications? I am not sure if it is a case of these being equivalent of synonyms in some cases, but I don't recall seeing keywords and tags used together. Also, in terms of usage, it is not common to see the word categories used because these are normally specific to the type of blog or website, whereas keywords and tags seem to be used in a more generic sense. I have also seen the word Label used in a similar way.

I would like to know whether these terms have specific meaning or relate to specific parts of the website content and user interface design. It seems like these terms are concepts for physical and logical grouping of content.

Some suggestions are that there can be fixed (categories) versus user generated (tags), or broad groupings (categories, labels) versus specific groupings (keywords, tags).

Answer

In the context of a blog:

Categories
Categories are predefined and there should not be too many of them. Their use is closer to a folder system where a blog post gets put in one or more folders. They should be visible and easily accessible because they form the secondary organizing principle for the blog (primary being chronology).
E.g. a post about the iPhone 5 on a blog that also covers laptops, tablets and other smartphones, could be filed under the categories "smartphone" and "apple".

Labels and Tags
The idea of "tagging" something is synonymous with "labeling": you put labels on something and all them together describe what it is or what it is about. While re-using tags is encouraged to keep the amount of different-but-similar tags from exploding, tags can usually be created on the fly without restrictions. Because they're not defined they support a more loose and free organization based on association. Tags are presented in or next to a blog post, to link to other posts with the same tag. Tags don't do well as a structural feature, but it's not uncommon to show a tag cloud or list of most popular tags.
E.g. a post about the iPhone 5 could be tagged with "news", "iPhone", "iPhone5", "smartphone", "iOS" and "apple".

Keywords
Keywords generally do the same thing as tags and labels do, but it is not also a verb ("keywording"?). Keywords on the web are also already used for something else than what tags are used for: they sit in the head of a document to describe (primarily to search engines) what the document is about. Therefore they are not interactive and cannot be used by users to find blog posts about specific subjects.

terminology - DesignOps in organizations with high levels of UX maturity

Now that we have moved on from ResearchOps to encompass the entire design process (DesignOps), is this a function that has been successfully implemented in what I assume would be very UX mature organizations?

I am interested to find out how mature design organizations have been able to operationalize their design process to integrate and work with the business and software development arms of the organization, or if this is just a concept that is being described as the next step/trend for design-led/driven organizations.

Has anyone come across organizations that have a DesignOps function? Where does it sit within the organization hierarchy and how are the teams and roles defined?

web app - User and URL friendly object ids

One normal way to serve a list of items in a web app is like this:

http://example.com/clients

Where the clients part of the url, renders a list of all clients

In previous apps clients had simple ids, that looked OK when you wanted to see more details, like:

http://example.com/clients/82

But now, I have an app where the internal ids looks like this:

http://example.com/clients/A6C1BD51-67C3-66C6-E044-00144FD25BA0

and well... that was the drop that spilled the cup. What should I do to provide user friendly ids?

One option could be generating an alias for each client:

http://example.com/clients/john-smith

Conflict?

http://example.com/clients/john-smith-austin-riverdale

But although the name is not likely to change, the address is a whole different story.

The ugly UID is mandatory, cannot be changed. I could only imagine requesting the software to maintain a secondary ID for permalinks. Should that be the best solution?

I could go back to the beginning, just simple numbers. I still do not like having something that is not human friendly, but it seems that any unique everlasting permalink cannot look nicer.

fx - Forex Market Timezones

I need to store OHLC data from the Forex Market. I live in the UK which is presently in British Summer Time +1. The Forex Market EST, which is normally -5 from GMT. I'm not sure how Eastern Daylight time Affects things.

I want to store the data in a format that is consistent across timezones etc and also to know when the daily trading session starts and ends.

This has got me totally confused: http://www.forex-market-hours.net/

There's a two hour difference between the EST times for summer and winter and a one hour difference between the GMT times...

Can anyone explain how I can store the data in a time-zone independent format and work out the session start time?

text - What to use for "other" or "unknown" gender?

We're showing a pie graph that would show something like 53% male, 41% female and 7% unknown.

The "unknown" category includes many reasons we can't tell: we don't know, we can't know for legal reasons, we can't know for self-imposed privacy policy reasons, our data sources don't know, etc. The reasons are quite innumerable.

This seems like a common problem so I wanted to ask if there is a common solution?

Answer

Assuming you have a context where this level of accuracy matters (e.g. an academic or technical audience, or a delicate topic) it's always best to just clearly and simply state what's going on.

This 7% have a gender (male, female, or something else). For some, you know it, for some you don't. In all cases, you're not reporting it. So just say that:

• Not reported


• Not published


• Not shared


• Not publicly available


• Unavailable/confidential


• Unknown/withheld


• Unspecified/other (suggested in a comment by PLL below)

...or if your organisation has a more informal tone of voice:

• Can't say


• Private

...or if your organisation has an [annoyingly] chatty tone of voice:

• ???


• Secret


• Wouldn't you like to know?

black scholes - Expectation of $frac {S_{T_2}} {S_{T_1}}$ at $T_0$

Is my below computation correct (assuming flat volatlity Black Scholes model, flat interest rate curve):

$\mathbb{E}(\frac {S_{T_2}} {S_{T_1}}| \mathcal{F}_{T_0})$

$ = \mathbb{E}{\frac{S_{T_0}e^{(r-\frac{\sigma^2}{2})T_2+\sigma W_{T_2}}}{S_{T_0}e^{(r-\frac{\sigma^2}{2})T_1+\sigma W_{T_1}}}}$

$=\mathbb{E}(e^{r(T_2-T_1)-\frac{1}{2}\sigma^2(T_2-T_1)+\sigma(W_{T_2}-W_{T_1})})$

$=e^{r(T_2-T_1)-\frac{1}{2}\sigma^2(T_2-T_1)+\frac{1}{2}\sigma^2(T_2-T_1)}$

$ = e^{r(T_2-T_1)}$

---

EDIT: Can anyone please re-confirm one of the steps above? $\mathbb{E}(e^{r(T_2-T_1)-\frac{1}{2}\sigma^2(T_2-T_1)+\sigma(W_{T_2}-W_{T_1})})$ $=e^{Mean(.) + \frac{1}{2}Variance(.)}$ $Mean(.) = r(T_2-T_1)-\frac{1}{2}\sigma^2(T_2-T_1)$ $Variance(.) = \mathbb{E}[\{\sigma(W_{T_2}-W_{T_1})\}^2]=\mathbb{E}[\sigma^2\{(W_{T_2})^2 +(W_{T_1})^2 -2W_{T_1}W_{T_2}\}]=\sigma^2(T_2+T_1-2T_1) = \sigma^2(T_2-T_1)$

I think I got it all correct, now! :-)

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Related Question - Do we have an analytical formula (under standard Black Scholes) for -

$\mathbb{E}((\frac {S_{T_2}} {S_{T_1}}-K)^+| \mathcal{F}_{T_0})$ paid at $T_2$

My attempt .. basically using the Black Scholes pricing formula for call option -

$\mathbb{E}((\frac {S_{T_2}} {S_{T_1}}-K)^+| \mathcal{F}_{T_0}) = e^{r(T_2-T_1)}N(d_1)-KN(d2)$

where $d_1= \frac{\ln(\frac{e^{r(T_2-T_1})}{K})+\frac {\sigma^2(T_2-T_1)}{2})}{\sigma \sqrt(T_2-T_1)}$

$d_2= \frac{\ln(\frac{e^{r(T_2-T_1})}{K})-\frac {\sigma^2(T_2-T_1)}{2})}{\sigma \sqrt(T_2-T_1)}$

I would multiple with the discounting factor $e^{-r (T_2-T_0)}$ to the above formula to get the price at $T_0$.

design patterns - Good solutions for boolean filter with sub conditions

I'm looking for a good and a clearly represented solution for a boolean filter with sub conditions (max. 5 Levels). Best, a variant with tables. Many apps use the typical mac osx filter (see screenshot). But it's difficult to get a overview for a large number of conditions.

The filters are often changed. Therefore its possible to save filter setting to a preset. The users have a sufficent computer experience.

android - iPad/iPhone alternative for hover states

I've recently updated my personal portfolio with some CSS3 and jQuery magic. I'm extremely pleased with the results and yes, it's fully responsive. But i have an issue. I've structured my portfolio items so that initially each item box has an overlay on it, when the user hovers over an item, the overlay shoots up and reveals content. This works well on a browser with a mouse.

Now, on an iPhone/iPad, visually the site looks great but obviously the user has no mouse and has no user-friendly hovering state. What is the most user-experienced conventional way to gracefully supply an alternative to "hover to reveal content".

Also, before someone says it, I am aware that the hover effects I have on my site serve no functionality but they just look nice. See here

Answer

There is no hover equivalent on iOS devices. The most conventional gesture to interact with content is 'tap'. You could have the content boxes open a pop-up or overlay on tap (which would work better on iPad than iPhone). Using other gestures which have no strong established convention could just confuse users. But it might just be more graceful and usable to put all of the content in plain sight.

legal - What could happen if a corporation was using a font commercially with out a licence?

This is purely a hypothetical question.

But let's say a large corporation or company was using a font family that was not free to use commercially and the font was published by a high-end font foundry.

More detail on font use: in their logo, stationary and across all printed and digital media.

What could actually happen?

Is there any online legal information that I could refer too?

---

On another note:

If the creative/publishing agency who created the brand on the behalf of the corporation/company, and they purchased the font with a licence. Do these usage rights then get passed onto the company which they created the brand for?

Or does every individual company need to have a licence to use the font family commercially?

Answer

In the fictional case that the font foundry would, in theory, take note of this abstract breach of copyright, they would, presumably, undertake legal action towards this assumed corporation.

Details of such suppositional legal action would possibly be influenced by the severity of the imagined case, as well as the theoretical nationalities of both the foundry and the offending corporation.

I suppose.

adobe illustrator - Logo construction (grid?)

I'm trying to figure out how this logo was constructed but I can't make sense of the highlighted (in pink) circles... Can anyone tell me how that was made? I'm looking for an Adobe Illustrator solution, please!!

Notice that, in fact, what I really want to know is how to align the shapes in the manner of the image shown (left side). I think this could be a particular approach in Design because I've seen it in other logos and icons, but my concern here is with the technical aspect of alignment in Adobe Illustrator.

Answer

Something like this.

1. 
   

   draw line from opposite small circle to line large circle intersection.

   
   


2. 
   
   

   Rotate copy of that line vertical

   
   


3. 
   

   Make a support snapping line horizontal to the rotated lines end

   
   


4. 
   

   draw circle form construction line crossing to support line

   
   


5. 
   

   mirror, cleanup

   
   
   

Alternate construction strategy.

1. Enable grid


2. draw a 3 units wide/high circle


3. draw a 1 unit wide/high circle


4. draw a 2 unit wide circle


5. 
   
   

   move the circles so the t the 3/1 unit circles share center and center of 2 unit circle is on edge of 1 unit circle

   
   

   

   
   

   Image 2: Circle construction

   
   


6. 
   

   Rotate entire thing 45 degrees (this helps you optimize point count)

   
   


7. duplicate a 45 degree turn copy of 2 unit circle.

Sketch: How to get a feathered mask?

How can I make the edge of a mask blurred/feathered like this example in Sketch?

What is this input type or form setup called?

Couple of us arguing about this and none of us can remember what this is or would be called. Commonly seen on forms where you are moving an option from one box on the left to a box on the right and commonly has buttons in between the two boxes to move a singular option or all options. Crude visual example below (since we can't remember it enough to search for an actual example).

------------         -------------------
| Option 1 |         | Selected Option |
| Option 2 |   ->    |                 |
| Option 3 |   -->   |                 |
| Option 4 |   <-    |                 |
| Option 5 |   <--   |                 |
| Option 6 |         |                 |
------------         -------------------

What would this be called?

...and, no, you don't have to tell me how mind-blowingly and award winning my illustration is. I am aware. :)

Answer

While these particular elements are often referred to as "Multi-select menus" that term is ambiguous because it is just as commonly used to refer to standard select menus where you can select multiple options using checkboxes.

Picklist, on the other hand, I have only seen used to refer to this type of element. Here are a few references

Jquery Picklist

Turns an HTML multiple option select box into a side-by-side pick list control https://plugins.jquery.com/picklist/

PrimeFace Picklist

PickList is a dual list input component http://www.primefaces.org/showcase/ui/data/pickList.xhtml

Javascript Kit Picklist

PickList creates two form selection fields, and allows the user to easily transfer items from one field to another via "back" and "forth" buttons. http://www.javascriptkit.com/script/script2/picklist.shtml

forms - Should a search button go on the left or the right of the search box

When considering eye-tracking and the cognitive processes of identifying what an interface element is for, is it better for the button that activates the (often unlabelled) search operation to be on the left or the right of the search field?

Answer

I think the processes are like those. Best interaction requires less cognitive load, assuming left-to-right reading and acting pattern.

finance - Compute the (Net) Present Value

Let's have a project where we invest 1000 at the beginning of year 1 and 1000 at the beginning of year 2. At the end of year 2 the income is 2200 and the project is closed.

Person A discounted with 5%.

Person B discounted with 10%.

Now I want to calculate the present value and net present value for both of them.

Person A: $PV = \frac{2200}{1.05^2} = 1995.46$

Person A: $NPV =$ Present value of the income - investments $= 1995,46 - (1000 + 1000) = -4.54$

Person B: $PV = \frac{2200}{1.10^2} = 1818.18$

Person B: $NPV = 1818.18 - (1000 + 1000) = -181.82$

Is this correct?

This is a part of a multiple choice question where is no option that the (N)PV of both is positive or negative at the same time. So I guess something is wrong.

Answer

No, it's not correct. The 1000 you invest at the beginning of the second year should also be discounted, That 1000 also has a present value. This gives:

$$NPV = \frac{2200}{(1+R)^2} - \frac{1000}{(1+R)} - 1000$$

with $R$ the annual rate.

Remember, you cannot simply add incoming or outgoing cash flows that occur at different times.

page layout - What should I use for filler/placeholder text?

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum?

I tend to think that the classic "Lorem ipsum" text needs explaining to clients who haven't seen it before. But text along the lines of the following seem inelegant:

Copy goes here. Copy goes here. Copy goes here.
Xxxxxx xx x xxx. Xxxxxxxx xx xxx x xx

Are there any alternatives I should consider?

usability - Should you optimize mobile experiences based on individual handedness?

In abbood's question "How to implement a stack exchange style voting for mobile?" he answers his own question with the following mock-up:

My immediate thought was that the up-vote control was on the wrong side. Why? Because my feeling is that up-votes happen more often than down-votes (because something not interesting is not worth wasting a click on) and the primary action on mobile should be on the left.

But that got me thinking. I'm a lefty, so when I hold my phone (in my left hand) it's easier to reach the control on the left, hence my thought to put the primary control on the left side. But for a righty, it would be easier to reach the right-sided control.

This may be a trivial example, but if you have a UI that requires a lot of tap-based input it could make quite a difference on which side the most-used action is located.

My question: should you optimize mobile experiences based on individual handedness? Has there been any research on this and is this practically possible?

Adding a setting which mirrors controls seems possible, but is there a way to detect this and do this automatically? Using the accelerometer perhaps, or maybe by measuring the speed to click depending on distance from either side?

business - Where can I post a job listing to outsource a graphic design project?

I'm on the stage of hiring a graphic designer for my Android app and I was thinking that it will be a better idea to hire the right person for this task. I know about websites as elance, odesk, etc that have sections for graphical design jobs.

Are there any other sites on which to post a graphical designer job?

Photoshop: how to resize a text box without distorting the actual text?

When trying to resize a text box in Photoshop, it is stretching my type instead of just making the box larger. It is a text box and not a bounding box.

It just started doing this out of the blue. How can I fix this?

adobe photoshop - exporting layers to files and applying the background image to all layers

I have a file with about 80 layers that I want to export to png's. That bit I know how to do but what I'm stuck with is how to include the background layer with every layer being exported? Each layer is on a transparent background but I want them all to have a logo which I only have on the base layer. Am I making sense? Any help appreciated!

Thanks

user expectation - Should password field be cleared if Captcha is wrongly entered?

On registration screen there are 3 fields: Email, Password and Captcha.

User has entered valid email and password but has entered wrong Captcha.

Here an error message specific to the wrong Captcha field is displayed and the Captcha is reset.

Should the value in the Password field be reset to blank too?

Answer

If you clear the password field when you have a faulty password, then it should clear the password field on a faulty CAPTCHA too and it should not specifically state that it was the CAPTCHA that was wrong while the rest were valid.

Why?

In case of using CAPTCHA — i.e. you are expecting bots to come knocking on your door and you wish to turn them away — you should not let the bot glean any information from failed login attempts. This is especially important for the case of bots trying out passwords in order to hack into accounts. You do not wish to reveal that the password was actually correct.

In these days where people re-use passwords blatantly, and servers gets hacked, those that gain access to lists of usernames and passwords then feed those lists to bots and have the bots try them out on different sites all over the net.

So even if the bot fails to log in due to the CAPTCHA, it can still tell its hacker "Hey, sites A, B and C seem to work with these username/password combos". The hacker can then manually log in and enter the right CAPTCHA.

narrative - When does something become "torture porn"?

I've heard this term thrown around sometimes in a derisive way (obviously), and usually not just to refer to Saw movies. I don't remember who it was, but I remember someone saying how the movie "Logan" is "dark and depressing, but never truly descends into torture porn", and it made me think about my own stories. I put my characters through a lot of misery, and I kinda fear now that I'm headed into that "territory".

So... how much misery can you put your characters through before it becomes "just" torture porn? Is there a kind of misery you should avoid in story telling to avoid being labelled as such?

Answer

Porn in general shows something for the excitement of it in and of itself.

In a story, authors stray into porn when what we are showing does not advance the story, build character, or have any ramifications or consequences to what happens later in the story. Generally, showing sex (or torture) itself is not that necessary, the specifics of what went where or what got amputated don't make a difference unless that has an effect on that character or another character in a later scene. So a torture scene might be important if it motivates a non-victim (to good or evil), but just showing some guy being tortured to death, if it is only done for the villain's self-gratification and the details of that torture have no consequences for him or anybody else later in the story, then that is torture porn.

I have not had reason to engage in fictional torture, but I may write several pages of a sex scene because the details of the sex cause a major change in the characters; e.g. a casual sexual encounter becomes unexpectedly intense and this becomes love. Or what began consensually becomes a forcible rape, and that has consequences. It isn't enough to "tell" what happened in either of those stories. It must be shown, for my hero, why that sexual encounter was different than any previous sexual encounter in her life, because I (the author) intend to hang some story on it.

The difference is that "porn" of any kind can be cut from the story and "told" without changing the plot.

That said, a little porn can sell; many romance novels contain thinly disguised porn scenes that could be cut without changing the plot. Porn makes $billions, and constitutes nearly HALF of all internet traffic. From a puritan writing standpoint, what is unnecessary to the plot may be the reason some people buy your work! So I wouldn't say prohibit it; but don't overdo it. Don't do it so often that the audience loses track of the plot and characters; I'm thinking perhaps three times in a story. It would be hard for ME to justify more "transformative" sex scenes than that for a MC.

adobe photoshop - Large Format Photograph Printing

I've got a client who wants me to create a large format banner to go hang at the rear of his property. The bulk of this banner is a photograph of his shop, with some text at the top.

For the photograph element, I'm finding that the images he supplied are looking hideously pixelated and noisy when viewed at 100% in photoshop. So I'm thinking I will need to get some more photographs taken.But, I only have a 6mp camera at present, and am not sure if this will be enough.

The photograph will be printed to a size of approximately 189cm(high) * 254cm(wide), and the overall image sent to the printers will be at 150dpi.

This leaves me with two questions:

1) Is there a way to get better results with photos in this scenario than simply 'Place Embedded' and the stretch to size?

2) If I need to take new photos, will a 6MP image be sufficient? If not, what sort of MegaPixels will I need?

I realise this is a bit of newb question, so please let me know if the question can be improved, and what info is needed, etc.

Thanks in advance!

png - Why do people use JPG images?

I see JPG images everywhere. But why?

PNG files have opacity, while JPGs do not. I've tried exporting some images to PNG and JPG to compare size, and they both either match up or the PNG is smaller(depending on the image of course).

This is a 512x512 JPG image that says "JPG"

And this is a 512x512 PNG image that says "PNG".

The JPG was 31.7kb and the PNG was 25.9kb

So what gives?

Answer

Because they are way better at compressing pictures that have lots of colours and irregular shapes, like photographs.

Have you tried the same epxeriment you did, but then with a photograph? The .png is most probably going to be noticeably bigger than any .jpg, regardless of the .jpg's compression factor.

Example:

^{.png picture, 110k}

^{.jpg at 100% quality, 63k}

^{.jpg at 30% quality, a measly 9k}

If you look closely, you will see some artefacts on the 30% quality .jpg, but that's mostly because the hard edge of the lightbulb against the smooth green background doesn't lend itself too well to the compression algorithm. You can have regular pictures reduced to even 10 or 5% quality without any loss you'd notice at a glance.

plagiarism - Using species from another novel, in my novel, copyright infringment?

I would like to start a novel, but it would include Fantasy species such as Dwarves and Elves, etc. I got this idea after reading several of Tolkien's novels. If I write this novel it would have completely different characters, plot, and settings. But the basic concept of the 'time period' and the way they live (Swords, daggers, bow and arrows for weapons, no modern technology included, etc.) would remain the same. Is this considered a copyright infringement? Would it be acceptable if Tolkien was credited for it? Is there even a possibility of publishing a novel that gives credit for ideas to another author? Actually laws and facts to back up answers would be great. All help is appreciated.

website design - Gender considerations in web usage

Are there particular gender differences in web usage/preferences? I'm about to start designing an information-based site with a predominantly female audience. I was wondering what research already exists that might provide any useful insights? Most research tends to focus on gender behaviour differences on e-commerce or social networking sites, but I haven't found much in terms of information sites.

I'm aware of ComScore's article "Women on the Web How Women are Shaping the Internet" and the gender section on Experientia

Answer

Edit: 11 December 2010

http://www.noupe.com/how-tos/are-male-and-female-designers-designed-differently.html

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These 2 articles are good read

According to some recent research by the University of Glamorgan, if you are designing a site primarily aimed at women, it is worth ensuring a female designer is working on it.

Source: http://boagworld.com/design/sugar-and-spice

Usability Study: Men Need Speed

Source http://www.websiteoptimization.com/speed/tweak/usability-criteria/

And this PDF also

Gender Preferences in Web Design: Usability Testing through Eye ...

---

30 June 2012 - I came across to one more good article today

http://www.netmagazine.com/features/designing-experiences-women

layers - How can I convert Point Text to Paragraph and Vice Versa in photoshop

Possible Duplicate:
Turning a text “string” into a text “block” in Photoshop CS6?

Here we know that there are two texting modes in PSE - "single-line" and "paragraph".

The problem is how to convert point text to paragraph in photoshop?

Answer

There is a menu item to convert text.

If you have a layer containing point text highlighted in the Layers Panel, the menu item reads "Convert to Paragraph Text".

If you have a layer containing paragraph text highlighted in the Layers Panel, the menu item reads "Convert to Point Text".

typesetting - Kerning Hebrew diacritics in InDesign

In Hebrew, there are some diacritics which occasionally need to be combined. However, a frequent result is that they will all be centered, leading to a stack of characters which need to be re-kerned. For example, the meteg (אֽ) a vertical line used to indicate syllabic stresses (when not final) often migrates so that it crashes with the vowel diacritics (אַ, אָ, אֶ, and אֵ). (This also occurs with some cantillation marks)

Is there a way to individually kern the meteg to avoid crashing type? For some reason, my attempts to use the kern tool in the character palette invariably do not succeed.

---

An example of text where this may occur:

אֱלֹהִ֑ים (where the esnachto crashes with the chirik)

or possibly

מֶֽלֶךְ (where the meteg crashes with the segol)

Project going on longer than expected - how to bring it up to client?

So I read this but I have different circumstances:

I was contacted to do some freelance design for an ad agency. The project was supposed to be a rush job and finish within the week. It's three weeks later now and the client has basically asked for a totally new design after a million nitpicks from their client (their client is requesting the new design, not the agency).

I've already spent my limit of hours that I estimated for completion of this project (that was not discussed or written down). I foresee another 15+ hours at minimum considering how it's been going so far. Should I request more money? I signed their contract as a "vendor" so there wasn't any room for me to put in details regarding these things as I would have if it was my own contract. We agreed on a flat fee. Now I'll be working for less than minimum wage if this keeps up.

Plus, besides the money aspect, the time aspect is something I want to address. Three weeks (and counting!) for something that they told me was definitely due in one week. I don't want this to go on for months. What's the best way to bring this up? Do I have any way to ask for more money for the additional work?

Answer

I agree with Zach. Go back to them and say "We need to discuss scope creep." This is a great jargon term (which is also entirely legitimate) and should get their attention.

What it means is that there was a scope of work for the original project, which included a time and/or fee estimate for a specific task(s) or deliverable(s). The work which the client is requesting has now gone beyond the original work, task, time, and/or deliverable.

You didn't agree to all the extra stuff. You agreed to do X job for Y money which would take Z amount of time, and planned for ABC rush per the client request. You and the client, because of client work changes, are now looking at Q job which will take N amount of time. There's no reason you have to agree to do Q job for the same Y money for which you agreed to do X job.

Explain, with great politeness and professionalism, that this project has now escalated beyond the original agreed-upon scope of work. If they would like you to continue on the project, you will give them a new scope and time/fee estimate. They can agree or not.

If they agree, great! Write up your new contract. If they disagree, politely submit an invoice for the time you've already spent and give them the deliverable per your contract in whatever condition it's in. (e.g., if they wanted you to design a website, give them whatever sketches you last submitted to them, as a JPG. Not source files.) If your contract includes a kill fee, you can charge it if you plan never to work with them again or make a point of waiving it to "cut them a break."

As a freelancer, you have to schedule your time and refuse other jobs to work on their job. You are not obligated to hold your schedule open for them indefinitely. They are paying for the time slot. That should be part of your explanation of why you can't just go 'round the mulberry bush waiting for them. (Even if you don't have jobs lined up, you should always act as though you do.) If they want to purchase more time slots with you, they are welcome to negotiate this new contract with you, but you are not required to keep your time open for them beyond what you originally agreed to (the one week).

interaction design - How to make irregularly shaped objects / elements look clickable?

On our homepage, we have these irregularly shaped elements that are clickable above the fold (actual images are not cats, just for demo):

http://codepen.io/aguerrero/pen/pgvJoa

And this is how it's laid out in the homepage:

The issue is that the irregularly shaped elements (arrows) look like they're just images and are not clickable. It's not a typical way to navigate content.

How do I make it so that the images look like you can interact with them by clicking on them? They already have hover effects but it's not apparent until you happen to mouseover the images.

Answer

You should NOT rely on hover states.

Even if you’re not developing a responsive website, now that we have touch devices, the days of relying on hover states to imply "interactability" are gone. I think you have 3 options here:

1. As long as you don't have other animations, subtle movement is all you need to draw attention to the UI elements—and a user will likely assume they can interact with them.

Example:

---

2. Instruct the user explicitly they can click/tap on the elements.

Example:

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3. Embrace the reality that your aesthetic taste here may not be the best design choice, and explore alternatives that better suit your goals and user’s expectations.

web app - Showing the number of events per day over a month

On a web app that I am building, one of the screens need to show, for a month period, the number of events on each day.

I've tried the following:

1. 
   

   Showing the information on a calendar. This feels a bit awkward since, for each cell, I'm showing two numbers (the day of the month and the number of events).

   
   


2. 
   

   Removing the day of the month from the calendar. This has the drawback of making it harder for the users in case they want to look at a specific day.

   
   


3. 
   

   Using a bar graph with the days of the month on the X-axis and the number of events on the y-axis. The problem with this approach is that the number of events doesn't change that much across days making the graph look strange.

   
   

Do you have any suggestions?

greeks - Gamma/delta dynamics in the Black Scholes model and it's relation to PnL (Basic of option theory)

If we are in a Black Scholes setup and a I have a Call option and hedged it by shorting delta amount of its underlying.

What does the second derivative of the call with respect to Price of the underlying tells me? Let's look at the graph. What does the terms "break Even", "decay" and "locally hedged mean in my situation?

This graph is a professors handwritten notes that I have copied.

I do this understand why the curvature look the way it does but I can't crack the code of what the break even points and the term "decay" means. And what does this curve tells us about PnL for my delta position. The overtall PnL should be zero, right?

Please provide an explanation of this graph. I do know all the equations so im interested in putting Words to them

Answer

We work in a Black-Scholes world. Consider the following delta-hedged portfolio:

$$ \Pi_t=V_t-\frac{\partial V}{\partial S}S_t$$

We assume the portfolio is self-financing$^{\text{(a)}}$, therefore: $$ \begin{align} \text{d}\Pi_t &= \text{d}V_t-\frac{\partial V}{\partial S}\text{d}S_t \\[3pt] \tag{1} & = \left(\frac{\partial V}{\partial t}\text{d}t+\frac{\partial V}{\partial S}\text{d}S_t+\frac{1}{2}\frac{\partial^2 V}{\partial S^2}(\text{d}S_t)^2\right)-\frac{\partial V}{\partial S}\text{d}S_t \\[3pt] & = \frac{\partial V}{\partial t}\text{d}t+\frac{1}{2}\frac{\partial^2 V}{\partial S^2}(\text{d}S_t)^2 \\[3pt] & = \Theta_t\text{d}t+\frac{\Gamma_t}{2}(\text{d}S_t)^2 \end{align}$$

In Black-Scholes world, theta is negative whereas gamma is positive, thus: $$\begin{align} \Theta_t\text{d}t & \leq 0 \\[6pt] \frac{\Gamma_t}{2}(\text{d}S_t)^2 & \geq 0 \end{align}$$

How does this relate to your graph? Taking discrete steps $\Delta t$ and $\Delta S_t$ (i.e. as in real-life trading), like so:

• If $\Delta S_t=0$ then $\Delta\Pi_t=\Theta_t\Delta t \leq 0$ which corresponds to the decay in your graph: the option loses value as time passes.



• However, because gamma $\Gamma_t$ is positive and the variation of the stock price is squared, you conclude that any stock price move, whether it is downwards or upwards, increases the value of the position. Why? For the sake of clarity let us assume the risk-free rate is null; then your delta-hedged portfolio, whose value grows at the risk-free rate, remains constant and equal to $\pi$. Now:
  
  
  
  • If the stock price rises in the interval $\Delta t$, the value of your call option $V_t$ rises. To keep the value of the portfolio $\Pi_t$ equal to $\pi$, you need to sell more stocks $S_t$: you sell when price is high.
  
  
  • If the stock price falls in the interval $\Delta t$, the value of your call option $V_t$ falls. To keep the value of the portfolio $\Pi_t$ equal to $\pi$, you need to buy back stocks $S_t$: you buy when price is low.
  
  
  
  


• Breakeven is the point where your time decay is offset by your gain on stock rebalancing: $$ \frac{\Gamma_t}{2}(\Delta S_t)^2=-\Theta_t\Delta t$$


• The term locally hedged simply means that the expansion $\text{(1)}$ is only valid locally.

Thus what the graph means is that a delta-hedged portfolio where we are long the call benefits from stock volatility because you buy low and sell high. You can also check the hedging profit/loss formula in the following question: "derivation of the hedging error in a black scholes setup".

$\text{(a): }$ this portfolio is not strictly speaking self-financing but this does not have any impact for the matter in question, see my answer to "Dynamic Delta Hedging And a Self Financing Portfolio" for more details.

terminology - Is the term 'field' too technical when giving messages on a form?

When writing help or validation messages on a form I usually write something along the lines of:

• "This field is required"



• "5 fields need to be corrected on this form"


• etc

Is the term field too technical or is it a widely understood by the general public/users of tinternet?

Are there any better alternatives?

Answer

In short yes - unless you are dealing with a technical audience.

Instead, refer to what is required in this case. If it's name, say 'Your name is required'.

One useful bit of advice that all UX people should stick to is 'decode your language'. That means remove technical jargon and get rid of code names for projects and abbreviations. Many UX people coming from a technical background have a big problem with this as it goes against most of their programming instincts.

world building - How feasible is it to write a story without any worldbuilding?

Is it possible to make a story (with a plot and characters) that has no worldbuilding or explanations for events? Like whenever anything happened in the story there was no background or explanation behind it. It would be similar to things like "The Call of Cthulhu" or "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", except that not only would there be no explanation for many events, but there would also be a very obscure setting.

Answer

"Possible?" sure... sort of. I mean, everything that happens in your story is building the world. The characters themselves are products of whatever that world is, and a lot can and will be inferred by the types of people that they are. I guess the answer depends on why you're asking this question.

If you're asking if you can get away with writing a story in a foreign setting without detailing what makes the setting unique beyond what the characters observe for themselves, then sure! That's easy enough, and the characters serve as an audience insert to exploring the world.

If you're asking if you can write a story where even you haven't considered why these things are happening the way they do... then yeah... but with the caveat that you'll need to pay more attention to the "rules" you're establishing as things do happen, otherwise you'll be in danger of distracting the reader when / if you start breaking those rules.

legal - Can I self-publish a book on the Kindle store when I'm under 18?

I'm wondering if I can publish a comic on the Kindle store! It's because me and my friends made a comic and I've now re-drawn everything on my computer and I've looked into this and it says I need to be like 18 I think! I was wondering if I could still do it even if I need my parents' permission! Also if I need my parents' permission and if they have to sign something. If something bad happened would they get fined? Furthermore, if you know anything they can get fined for! Please tell me.

website design - Multiple choice with Yes, No and 'No answer'

I am working on a Quiz Application for Multiple Choice question. Instead of normal Multiple Choice Questions with the two answers yes and no. I am working on one that allows a user to abstain to a question and to give no answer. It should always be possible to select 'no Answer' even after selecting Yes or No.

I was thinking of a Toggle with 3 states:

• a green tick for Yes/Right


• a red cross for No/Wrong


• a text 'nA' for no Answer

Is it a good idea to mix text with icons?

---

Update

Context

The application is a web based application. The control panel will be available only on computers and will be used by teachers to create a quiz for their students. This test is just for the teacher to see where students may have problem with understanding, and for students to see what they already know and what not. It will be possible to ask Single-Choice questions (radio buttons) and Multiple-Choice Questions. As mentioned the Multiple-Choice questions have three states Yes/Right, No/Wrong and 'no Answer'. The reason for 'no Answer' is that a correct answer leads to +1 points, a wrong to -1 points and 'no Answer' will get 0 points. The students, who answer the questions, will be able to do so on any device like Smartphones, Tablets or even their Laptops.

The thing with just using text like yes, no, and n/A as Nikita Prokopov mentions, is that the teacher has to ask the questions, so that they can logically be answered with Yes and No, so that the students won't get too confused with the question and answer possibilities. For instance:

Which countries border on Switzerland? Yes, Germany borders on Switzerland

When I would just use Yes and No then the teacher, who creates the questions, has to check that they can be answered with Yes or No, which in my opinion should not be the case. The same question could be asked without using the yes/no pattern. For instance:

These countries border on Switzerland. then the answer should be True, Germany borders on Switzerland

So that's why I came up with the icon, text mixture.

Answer

Answering your question, yes, it’s absolutely ok.

But, with such a short labels, you could use text instead of pictures:

[n/a] Yes  No

 n/a [Yes] No

 n/a  Yes [No]

Text is easier to understand than icons, and different understanding are less likely for text. For me, green tick and red cross mean if question was answered correct or not, not the answer itself.

Guessing that [n/a] is a default state, I placed it at the front, so it will be easier to find when revising your answers, looking for “what else should I answer”.

Also remember, that the bigger the button is, the easier it is to click on it, so do not try to save space before it’s really a problem.

usability - Is there any logic when arrows are used before or when after the content

Just wondering if there is any logic defined to use a certain arrow position (left|right or front|back or before|after or whatever ...) in a navigation item or if it's merely a matter of choice and look 'n feel.

This question came to me when someone decided for me to put arrows after navigation items in the design. I'm used to have them in front when dealing with lists or summaries.

live example: a list of interuptions for waterworks:

or

Answer

Chevron before the label: expansion in place

This pattern is similar to a directory tree, and can show various details in place, allowing users to expand multiple rows at once, possibly to compare details across more than one item.

Here's an example for transport line, where the departure time is emphasized, but I can expand to see the stops after I get on, and the final destination. Allowing expansion in place gives me a chance to compare destinations and stops without drilling into only one line.

Chevron after the label: drilldown to separate view

This is common in iOS apps, where space can be limited, and you want the user to focus only on the details (and settings) of one selected item.

plagiarism - Best practice for stories based on other writers' stories

I want to rewrite someone else's novel in a different way.
Just to show the other side of his characters.
My story will be based on these characters, but they will have more "realistic" sides.

What should I do in this situation? (I will study his story and take base tips for my story.)

What kind of consequences I may have?

Answer

The best practice currently is to obtain current copyright holder's permission - a license to use the copyrighted motives; possibly, for a fee or percentage in expected royalties.

This is not always viable or possible. In this case you may either change enough that it doesn't violate copyright (but becomes a different story entirely) or pick more guerrilla solutions.

Going about commercial release is no longer viable. Even if you turn profit, you may expect a cease&desist followed by a lawsuit, and while the copyright holder is not guaranteed to win, your outlook isn't very good. Plus you antagonize the side of author on which you write, not a good marketing move.

Much more viable option is simply entering the fanfiction realm. You release for free, anonymously, and even if it's taken down on one site, you can reupload it on another... while fanfiction is "grey area" with law on the side of the original author, the "cruel reality" is that the author and the law lack technical means from preventing even most unwanted fanfiction from cropping up.

Of course this way you won't make any money, but essentially the moment the author said "no, I won't issue you any license" you lost any chance for them anyway.

fiction - How to create a title

I am at a dilemma, as I cannot title my novel. So I created these questions.

• What creates a good title for a novel?


• What should I include/not include in my title?

At the moment, I have come up with 'The Day Before', however I believe that that's quite generic. On the other hand, it does fit the plot, as the end of the novel begins to revolve around what happened the very day before the day in which the first chapter is set.

So, after writing that paragraph I came up with this addition.

• How can I make my title original?

Answer

1) What I like to do is go to a book store and look at the titles in the genre I am writing in. If you do that, you will notice that books from the same genre often have titles that are similarly structured.

For example, thrillers have short one or two word titles that relate to things hard, cold and dangerous. YA SF also has one word titles, but these words are mysterious and emotional. YA romance has humorous phrases. And so on.

So, get an idea of title conventions in your genre. These exist because they sell, so use them to create a structural frame for your title.

2) Try to write down what your novel is about in a few words. Brainstorm and don't censor yourself yet. What is the moral premise? What is the plot? What is the end? What is the character's handicap? Etc. Collect as many short phrases and words as you can.

Then try to rephrase these ideas, fitting them into the structural frame you deduced from looking at genre titles.

3) While you do that, try to imagine what your target audience wants. Why do they read? How does your book satisfy their desire. Use your intimate familiarity with your readership to further shape and finetune your title.

4) Show a selection of possible titles to your trusted beta readers, your husband/wife, your agent, your writer's group, and ask for their feedback.

5) Select a title and submit your manuscript.

6) Get rich.

Narrative arc in erotica?

Usually a story will have a narrative arc of increasing suspense: obstacles become more and more difficult to overcome, setbacks more painful, complications more confusing, the stakes are raised higher and higher, hopes and fears become almost unbearable, until the plot culminates in a climax and the tension is released in the end. Basically, a good story has the structure of an orgasm.

But how does this work in an erotic novel? How do you increase erotic tension, when your characters already have crazy sex on page three and then once every chapter?

---

For the purpose of this question, I'm using the following definition of "erotic novel":

Something that you read as a mastubatory aid.

And because you don't read a whole novel in one sitting, each evening's amount of reading must provide a means for the reader to achieve orgasm. Which is why innuendo alone will not suffice, and there has to be some good climaxing sex going on regularly all through the novel.

I understand that others have other concepts of what an erotic novel is, but for my question, please respect my definition.

---

I have posted a follow-up question: Conflict and antagonist in an erotic novel

Answer

In this case, recognizing the problem -- recognizing that you want a narrative arc, that something should be intensifying beyond the scope of a single sexual encounter -- is also half the solution. Once you know you want the story to have stakes beyond "when will they have sex," all you really need to do is decide what those stakes are. And the good news is -- you can choose almost anything, and you can make work.

What's most common -- and for good reason -- is the the overall stakes themselves be sexual and/or romantic. So some narrative arcs you might see are:

• Desire to consummation. The story's centeral motivating force is that one character desires another; the story will end when they get their desire. Until then, scenes can include fantasizing, teasing, voyeurism, substitute relationships, etc.


• Sex to romance. The story revolves around a relationship that begins as purely sexual, and concludes with the characters admitting their feelings for each other. What intensifies over time is the emotional component, not the sexual one.


• A sexual awakening. This story might center on a character who begins with no knowledge, experience, or enjoyment of sex, and follows in a series of experiences which amend that situation. A journey of personal sexual empowerment. (This arc can also lend itself naturally to intensification, as the protagonist's interests, sensitivity and tolerance can be shown to intensify from sequence to sequence.)

These are just a few examples (and inexpert ones; I'm largely unfamiliar with erotica as a genre). But I hope they're helpful to demonstrate how a sequence of sex scenes can add up to a narrative arc. Once you've got that -- you can, fairly easily, try out your own ideas.

It is certainly possible to use stakes that are less about sexual climax. Perhaps your stakes are the protagonist coming to terms with their own sexual identity. Perhaps your stakes are whether the protagonist passes the bar exams, especially when all their study partners are so damn sexy. Perhaps your stakes are the daring heists your protagonist pulls off, because their orgasms are magic and literally freeze time itself. Oh, wait, Sex Criminals already did that one:

There is practically nothing you can't make work. (Although do note: putting strong emphasis on something that isn't sex, will obvioualy take some of the focus away from "just" sex. This may or may not be something you're after!)

That's all there is to it! Pick a goal, pick what the story is about. Then, you can figure out how to build up towards that goal -- using erotic scenes as your building blocks.

Icons only vs list with icons

I'm wondering what's the UX point of view of using only icons or a list with text + icons.

Only icons

List with icons

The only icons options provides a faster way to access to the action, as you don't have to click on the arrow to open the menu.

On the other hand, I think the list provides a more clear view of the different actions to do as you can see the text of all of them. The icons only view would only show the text for the hovered icon.

Answer

I'd suggest to go with the option with the labels, because with icons alone it isn't clear what they do in most situations.

http://uxmyths.com/post/715009009/myth-icons-enhance-usability

In your example you also have 2 icons which do 4 different things. It would be much clearer if you used other icons for showing the comments and allocate a truck.

I may be incorrect, but it seems that you're using twitter bootstrap, so you could already use the "glyphicon glyphicon-comment" icon for the comments.

I've also found a truck icon on font-awesome. This webfont is compatible with twitter bootstrap. You have to google this, because I can't post more than 2 links.

As a user as long as it is clear where to click it isn't bad if you have one click more.

http://uxmyths.com/post/654026581/myth-all-pages-should-be-accessible-in-3-clicks

With the arrow for the action list you have the same problem. You should maybe add a label with the text "Actions" so it is clear what hides behind the button.

What are the branches of Graphic Design

Does anyone know what is the full-branch of Graphic Design and the title for the person doing it.

Graphic Design
|- Web Design - Web Designer
|- Illustration - Illustrator
|- Photo Manipulation - Photo Manipulator

...

Answer

There is no official taxonomy for the various species of designers.

UPDATE:

If you want to take a go at creating your own, some various titles that you might see in the graphic design world:

• advertisement specialist


• advertising designer


• animator


• art director


• book setter


• brand manager


• broadcast designer


• cartoonist



• compositing artist


• copywriter


• creative director


• data visualization specialist


• director


• environmental designer


• exhibition designer


• exhibition fabricator


• graphic artist


• graphic designer



• illustrator


• instructor / teacher


• instructional designer


• interaction designer


• interactive designer


• interface designer


• logo designer


• marketing manager


• motion designer


• multimedia designer



• multimedia specialist


• package designer


• photo editor


• photographer


• prepress operator


• presentation designer


• producer


• production artist


• publisher


• senior designer



• sign maker


• sign painter


• signage and way finding designer


• technical illustrator


• type designer


• typesetter


• UX designer


• video designer


• visual artist


• visual communications specialist



• visual designer


• web designer


• web developer

The catch is that none of those are necessarily isolated skill sets. Throughout a career, a designer will often be wearing a variety of those hats, often several at the same time.

On top of that, there's no real rules at to what a title implies in terms of seniority or salary from one company to the next. It's mostly arbitrary.

fiction - What to do if I end up confused by my own plot because of 'trying to be original' or 'trying to make the story more deep'?

Sometimes, I find myself in the dilemma that I come out with a plot that tells exactly what I want to say. But then, I try to modify it in order to make it more original (at least, less similar than current novels).

Sometimes is the the way around (I come out with something original but adding 'more meaning" makes it more similar to other works).

For example,

I'm writing a novel that questions the sanity of some people. At first, I placed these patients in the rooms of a clinic. Then, In order to make it original, I made the doctor himself a patient too (not sure if its very original but I tried). Later, I made the doctor realise this only at the ending, because someone gets affected by his (violent) psychiatric procedures. Now, I'm getting more and more confused by my own plot.

This have been the main reason I never finish a novel.

Any suggestions to deal with this?

Answer

• Finish them anyway. You get good by writing; plotting alone isn't enough. And yeah, your first novel or two will probably be unpublishable. That's fine - those will be your practice novels. If you never write anything because they'll be less than perfect, I'm afraid you're likely not to write anything at all. Not only will finishing your imperfectly-plotted novels help hone a whole bunch of other writing skills, it will give you hands-on experience with translating a plot into a story - which is crucial to understanding how to write a plot to begin with. It will give you the sense of where the originality and freshness might still come in even in a familiar plot, and of how to add extra layers without devolving into cliche. Practice, practice, practice.



• Don't pander to the imagined masses. It sounds like you're saying you've got Plot A that you yourself are perfectly happy with, but you've got the sense that Plot A "should" be more original/more meaningful. Don't bend yourself out of shape over what your novel "should" be like, particularly when you haven't written it yet. If you yourself feel that Plot A is terrific, then changing it in response to perceived criticism that you yourself don't understand and/or agree with is unlikely to be an improvement.


• Most stories aren't very original. They really aren't. This may not be particularly inspiring, but it's kind of comforting to know you don't have to invent a new type of wheel. There's plenty of room for "familiar" stories with new characters, or new twists on old tropes, or just the joy of reading a story done well - even if it is similar to others we've read before.


• Stories don't have to mean things. They really don't. If you've got a cool idea, something that excites you and would be interesting to write about, then why twist it into a "message" or a "meaning"? You're not writing an editorial, you're writing a story. In other words, things happening. What's wrong with letting 'em happen?


• Your writing is more original and meaningful than you think it is. Although not necessarily in the ways you might expect. The unique thing about your writing is that its yours, and nobody else would write the same characters and events in quite the same way. You can bring originality and meaning into your stories, even without intentionally doing something to be deliberately original or meaningful. By pouring your self, your thoughts, your feelings, your observations and understanding of the world, into your work - you'll be doing something unique. By improving your craft - your skill at portrayal, your eye for detail, your intriguing cast, your gripping scenes - you'll be polishing up that unique aspect until, eventually, it shines. Shakespeare wasn't original, but he was damned good at what he did.

I guess my advice here boils down to saying: it sounds like you're worrying about this more than is warranted. I understand your difficulty, because you want your books to be original and meaningful - and isn't that why we read books to begin with? And it's true - your books might be cliche or incoherent enough that they'll be awful. But it's important to understand that these two values are not the be-all and end-all of writing, and they certainly shouldn't stop you from writing entirely. You've staked out where you want to get to - because you know you can write stories that will have everything you want.

Keep going. You'll get there. :)

website design - What shade of light grey can be seen on 99% of monitors?

I'm working from a design where the grey shade F0F0F0 is used as a subtle contrast on list items to lift them from the pure white background, eg:

I have a two monitor setup, and on one monitor, I can see the grey background of the cards, on the other I can't. The problem monitor has no built in or driver based hue/saturation/gamma settings. Playing with contrast and brightness doesn't help

My guess is there is some percentage of users who have a similar monitor, and even more who could configure their monitor but simply don't know that they should, or how to do it.

Now the solution would be to darken the grey - but I want to find the sweet spot where as many users as possible can see the grey without making it too dark to be subtle on well calibrated monitors.

Has anyone dealt with this before and have some suggestions - or are there any statistics on safe shades of grey to use on the web.

---

Here is a blog post talking about the same problem

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I came across the material design color palette. Looking at the grey scale they provide, I see that 50, 100 and 200 look the same on my bad monitor, but the difference between 200 and 300 is noticeable yet subtle on both the calibrated and bad monitor :

Is this the case on anyone else's monitor? Then maybe using a light grey(200) as background instead of white, with a darker grey for items(300). It would be a minimal change for correctly calibrated monitors, but may improve the design's visibility for the average monitor.

Answer

You can not put a safe margin, essentially many monitors suck and some do not even have 8 bit per channel color capability. Essentially peoples monitor should be calibrated but in fact less than 99% of actual monitors have ever been calibrated. Even if the monitor has some hue, saturation and gamma settings having such settings actually make things worse!

But here is the thing, color and contrast depend on not just the hardware but also the surrounding ambient lighting conditions. So even if the hardware is calibrated it does not really help. Mobile devices move about and all that.

The best you can ever do is assume the monitor is a correctly calibrated sRGB device. and your device should be calibrated to sRGB with a hardware calibrator. Beyond that all color your clients ad users get are crap shot, essentially something that way but never hitting the mark.

guidelines - Truncating long text labels - Best Practices?

I was wondering whether there are any studies around truncated labels, in case if they ever get too long and layouts can't fix it? Does it confuse users if a label is truncated with an ellipsis character in the middle of a label like so:

• 
  

  LabelBeginning...LabelEnd

  
  

  or

  
  


• LabelBeginning (...) LabelEnd

If I compare different text style guidelines there are different approaches. Apple e.g truncates long labels with an ellipsis in the middle of a label, which I think is a great solution as I think it reflects how people scan and identify a label (beginning and end).

"An ellipsis character can also show that there is more text than there is room to display in a document title or list item. If, for example, the name of an item is too long to fit in a menu or list box, you should insert an ellipsis character in the middle of the name, preserving the beginning and the end of the name. This ensures that the parts of the name that are most likely to be unique are still visible."

Microsoft suggests to avoid truncating labels wherever possible, but doesn't go into detail in how to implement an ellipsis in long labels.

"Ellipses mean incompleteness. Use ellipses in UI text as follows:

• Commands. Indicate that a command needs additional information. Don't use an ellipsis whenever an action displays another window—only when additional information is required. Commands whose implicit verb is to show another window don't take an ellipsis, such as Advanced, Help, Options, Properties, or Settings.

• Data. Indicate that text is truncated.

• Labels. Indicate that a task is in progress (for example, "Searching...").

Tip: Truncated text in a window or page with unused space indicates poor layout or a default window size that is too small. Strive for layouts and default window sizes that eliminate or reduce the amount of truncated text. "

Answer

Summary: It depends, but default to 'abcdef...' over 'abc...def'

I would choose the method on the basis of whether text at the end or in the middle of the string is more likely to differentiate the item. This would be dependent on the domain (so I don't think isolated studies from particular contexts would be helpful).

On a property website, for instance, an address string will usually end 'Road' or 'Street'. So the form 'abc...def' won't be much use as the final characters will almost always be 'oad' or 'eet', neither of which help the user.

If the answer is not clear, I would then default to the 'abcdef...' form over 'abc...def'. This is because I strongly suspect that partial words will be easier to guess from the initial characters than the end ones. 'Openi...' is much more recognizable than '...ening', for example. This is because many English words have non-unique suffixes and ending patterns.

Should every website have a landing page?

I'm building a job board, but I keep wondering if it needs a landing page? If people surf to the site, they immediately get to the 'job search' page. Should I first explain what the site does and add a CTA or is this self-explanatory?

Answer

You will have a landing page no matter what you choose, as there has to be a default page. Whether you choose to optimise that experience or not is the question.

Even if the main use of the site is the search, you still should have a planned landing page. You can choose to make the search the focus of that page (like hipmunk). If you have content you should use the landing page to provide customers with content that you think they will be interested in, or the content that you would like to promote.

print design - Creating a molecular cloud in Photoshop

I'm currently teaching myself design and have been asked to create a molecular cloud similar to that in the attached image. I'm seeking advice on how one might obtain a similar result/effect in Photoshop. Thanks in advance.

Answer

It is fairly simple. Here are some key points:

STEP 1 - I first drew a random 1px line with the pentool.

STEP 2 - I used mask and brush tool + soft round brush to fade parts of it slightly.

STEP 3 - Then I drew bunch of dots in every corner. They vary in size.

STEP 4 - Then I made a brush out of it.

STEP 5 - Adjusted the brush settings

STEP 58 - Now if you use ellipse tool to make a path and use stroke path + brush tool, you get something like this:

You will want to stroke path multiple times with different brush sizes. Of course for realzies, you'd want to use more than one brush.

STEP 380 - ...and after inverting colors, adding bunch of highlights, duplicating the brush pattern multiple times, using different blend modes and using filters > blur > tilt-shift to blur some of it... this is what you get:

adobe illustrator - How do I use random color script to fill up the circular patterns that I have created using Phantasm version?

I have already expanded the appearance, broken the symbol link of the halftone patterns and ungrouped it. I want to fill up with several colors using random color fill script but it's not working.

Answer

Your paths are all in a clipping mask.

Go to the Layers Panel (F7) and you'll see that;

1. Your paths are in a clipping mask.


2. You have extra paths.

Delete the extra paths, then select the main group and Right Click → Release Clipping Mask (Ctrl+Alt+7)

You now have to delete the extra "clipping path" (it will be a rectangle shape) above all your other shapes.

Now select all and apply your random colors.

alignment - Why are my pixels not aligning to grid in Illustrator?

I have a small Problem that occurs from time to time.

Sometimes, when I copy things or when I put an object from the symbol library on my page, the whole file gets messed up. The screenshot shows it. I make the graphic on the right, Illustrator the ones on the left.

I have pixel snapping checked. Is there a way to tell Illustrator to align everything to pixels no matter what?

Answer

Make certain Align to Pixel Grid is checked in the Symbol Options.

website design - Why choose dark navbars?

Been reading about Google's new dark navbar over at ReadWrite. It's funny that ReadWrite, as well as StackExchange, has chosen a dark navbar as well.

Why this trend to choose dark navbars?

Answer

I'd say it's a fairly common design choice due to the constraints of the media - rather than a trend.

What do you want a navigation bar to do:

1) You want people to find it easily when they need to navigate

2) You want it to get out of the way visually when people are focussing on the content.

3) In the case of sites like Google, where you have a common bar across multiple services, you want something that's not going to clash visually with different brands / colour schemes / etc.

Since most people present content dark-on-light then (1) and (2) will probably drive you to a navigation bar that's more likely to be light-on-dark so it's obvious what's content and what's nav bar.

(3) is probably going to drive you to neutral colours / greys that avoid colour scheme clashes.

Since most browser chrome is grey, you'll probably want to go for a pretty dark background to clearly separate your navigation from browser navigation / bookmark bars / etc due to (1).

So the design constraints drive you towards a dark grey / black bar.

dropdown - Default gender, "Male" or "Female"

Should our default gender when selecting male/female on the dropdown list be based on the local sex ratio (if a country have more female than male then female is the default value)?

Answer

You don't select a default at all

Using a drop down list or a radio group - you let the user decide - and this also prevents accidental submission of a form without the user setting this value (assuming it's gets validated) because there is no other way of validating it - only the user knows their gender so there is no right/wrong validation other than 'is it set'

Here are examples from Windows Live ID sign-up, Facebook sign-up, Yahoo sign-up

In fact in my own survey of over 100 high profile sign-up forms:

Only 20% of those sites asked the gender of which:

• 20 did not pre-select - by using one of the options above.


• 2 forms prefilled with the option 'Female' (bebo and foursquare)



• 0 forms prefilled with 'Male'

Furthermore - of the 20 that did not pre-select:

• 2 sites - TypePad and Etsy, gave options to not provide gender via a third option:

Grooveshark go the extra mile (although I'd at least expect consistency)

• to try and make it clearer by using symbols on their sign up:

• or in their 'edit profile' they use another version in which the wording has clearly been carefully considered and accounts for the gender/sex issue as to how the user identifies themselves:

adobe photoshop - How can I make a 30 degree pattern?

I would like to make a simple line pattern rotated at 30 degrees, but no matter what I try I can't make it repeat itself without the lines being cut. Is this possible to do?

martingale - Intuitive Explanation for Shannon's Demon?

I am reading Fortune's Formula by William Poundstone, and I am puzzled by a phenomenon called "Shannon's Demon", which Claude Shannon allegedly proposed in a series of lectures, and preserved only by mimeographed lecture notes. Basically, Shannon's Demon proposes a way of harvesting volatility even when the underlying is driftless and/or one is agnostic regarding the underlying's drift.

The simplest example starts with a portfolio's allocation is split between two assets which can be represented as (uncorrelated) martingales or semi-martingales. Assume that trading is costless and frictionless. The allocation changes, however, when prices change. After each period, the allocations are rebalanced back to their original “target” allocation. As a result of the costless and frictionless rebalancing, the portfolio's expected logarithmic growth rate is greater than the arithmetic mean of the two assets, while its variance is less than (about ~2/3 of) the mean of the variances.

One can easily simulate such a scenario using GBM (or some simpler martingale property, as this example shows) to demonstrate its veracity. I ran Monte Carlo simulations for two risky assets under ABM and GBM. My results were consistent with Shannon’s.

Mathematically, this phenomenon is due to the assumption that portfolio variance is a quadratic function of asset weights. This is not intuitive to me, however.

I partly wonder whether Shannon’s demon, being an apparent free lunch, is valid only for simulated processes... meaning it will not hold up empirically (because either price processes are not actually martingales or the phenomenon is subsumed by transaction costs and trading frictions).

Anyhow, I am looking for intuitive explanations for the phenomenon and/or evidence which shows that frequent rebalancing outperforms using real world assets.

Good references are also appreciated.

How to draw a color wheel in illustrator?

How to draw a color wheel in illustrator? I am thinking of creating many small arcs with gradient and all hue colors. Any ideas?

Answer

One way would be to apply a linear gradient on the stroke. Create a circle, and stroke it with a gradient pattern. Make sure the gradient has the stops like in the table and picture below. The gradient might not look as smooth in the transitions, but that's all that comes to mind.

+------------+---------------+----------+
| Color Stop |      RGB      | Location |

|------------+---------------+----------|
|      1     | (255, 0, 255) |    0.00% |
|      2     | (0, 0, 255)   |   16.67% |
|      3     | (0, 255, 255) |   33.33% |
|      4     | (0, 255, 0)   |   50.00% |
|      5     | (255, 255, 0) |   66.65% |
|      6     | (255, 0, 0)   |   83.33% |
|      7     | (255, 0, 255) |  100.00% |
+---------------------------------------+