As in all other fields I'm interested in, I love to have a subscribtion that makes sure some hugely inspirational material gets dropped into my mailbox once in a while. I'm not looking for magazines that prints stories submitted by users, but rather one that focuses on the process of writing and writing technique.
Are there any such out there, or is online the only place to be in these matters?
If you set an alarm to repeat annually starting on 2/29/16, would you expect the next instance on 2/28/17, 3/1/17, or 2/29/20?
Answer
It's overwhelmingly likely that the user who indicates Annually wants the alarm to repeat annually. Allowing the leap-year technicality to prevent the alarm from going off annually is a violation of likely user intent.
The question then becomes, how to deal with the leap year? There are three possibilities:
It's more likely that users will want "annually" to mean every year, so #1 is not a great option. #3 is also not great visually since it involves snapping to another month. So #2 is the remaining reasonable option.
Now, you will need to inform the user since the date will be different in subsequent years. Since you're on Android, a good way to do this is to use a toast which can pop up to inform that user:
I am in the process of creating a web application. I will need some copy written for various pages in the site and some of the marketing marketing material. I am contemplating hiring a copywriter to handle these task for me. What is the best way to find one? Also, since I am a programmer, what are some good attributes to look for when trying to find someone?
Can someone please help me identify the fonts used in these two receipts. I'm looking for downloadable free fonts that I can use to reproduce the same looking results.
The two receipts used different fonts.
Answer
Like DA01 says, finding an exact match isn't happening.
The font in the receipt is a monospaced sans serif, so if you pick one that's close you could rough it up a bit to make it feel right: Monaco, DejaVu Sans Mono, OCR-A, and OCR-B. You'd probably have to rough it up a bit to make it feel more authentic.
If you want to get near the dot-matrix look, you can try FontFont's Dot Matrix.
Or you could give this freebie a go: Merchant Copy. Note the non-commercial license. It's a bit ugly but it's probably the closest I saw to what you want to do!
Is it possible to loop through all layers (there are too many layers) and replace one color with another. Need automated approach, script or simple action.
Loop through all layers{
Change Fill color A to X
Change Text color A to X
}
Is there a way to batch rename a bunch of selected artboards in illustrator?
any script or plug-in appreciated...
Answer
This works (save as .jsx in your script folder)
function artBoardName_serial() {
var doc = app.activeDocument;
for (var i = 0, l = doc.artboards.length; i < l; i++) {
if (doc.artboards[i].active) {
}
// THIS IS WHERE THE RENAMING HAPPENS
doc.artboards[i].name = "a"+(i+1);
}
}
function renameArtBoard_MAIN() {
if (app.documents.length == 0) {
alert("No Open / Active Document Found");
} else {
artBoardName_serial();
}
}
renameArtBoard_MAIN();
What software is useful for designing buildings with accurate measurements?
I originally trained with AutoCAD a long time ago but haven't needed to use any modelling softwares since, I'm wondering if there is anything more suitable nowadays.
I'm looking for open source and paid softwares if possible, to research them a little more before I make my choice.
Thanks in advance.
Answer
There's a wide variety of software out there for working with architectural visualization, with an even wider variety of design goals. What software you ultimately go with is going to depend heavily on what exactly you intend to use it for.
In general, architectural design software sort of falls on a spectrum from purely artistic software (IE: programs for creating realistic images or artwork based on design plans) to strict drafting software (IE: programs for making structural blueprints). I recommend that you look around at all the options before you decide to stick with any one software, but here are a few to get started:
Primarily Artistic:
Core Architectural Software:
Drafting Software:
Any one of these programs will more than likely have all the tools you need to do just about anything for architectural design and modeling, but finding one that matches your particular plans will help ensure that you have the most freedom and power in what matters most to you.
I am working on an application where the user needs to complete their preferences which open in a modal window. There has been a big discussion about what are the best practices in this situation.
Some argue, that the right way is to have:
I'm not sure if that's the best solution since there is lot of information to be inputted and the process takes lot of time so I'd want to be able to save my work from time to time and be able to stay on the modal window to continue.
I believe we need Cancel Save and Close.
What happens if ...
The user enters some information,
Clicks Close without saving?
"Are you sure you want to leave without saving" modal in a modal?
That doesn't sound right.
What are the best practices in this scenario?
When trying out new homepage layouts / styles, is A/B testing the best way to do this?
With typical A/B tests you have a specific conversion measurement (i.e. version X drives significantly more people to click the 'sign-up' button). However with a homepage there isn't a single specific conversion; you're just looking to see if the visitor does anything from the homepage other than abandoning the site (clicks a menu option, clicks to read a news article, selects a featured product...)
What sort of testing should be used for homepage redesign if A/B isn't appropriate? How do you know if one version of your homepage is 'better' than another?
Answer
Without more information about the type of business you're in, it's hard to be specific, so I'll be broad. If your website is selling something in any way, you should be measuring sales by that recipe in aggregate, not individual actions taken from the homepage.
If you sell items directly, then you would measure the average dollar amount sold per unique visitor who was part of that recipe; if you sell display ads that go alongside content then you could use something like the total number of pageviews as a proxy for advertising revenue; if you are selling consulting services and the website generates leads, then you measure the number of qualified leads.
Measuring bounce rates makes a certain amount of sense, and it would certainly be easy to implement, but it's always best to have your metrics be the core aspects of your website's business model. A hypothetical example of where an indirect metric like bounce rate can go wrong is that a confusing or misleading homepage might lead users to get one click further in before they decide they're in the wrong place. The metric would look good, but it might just be getting the wrong customers in further where they end up not converting.
In market making models derived originally from Avellaneda-Stoikov, there is a function lambda that represents the arrival rate of orders. In its prodigy, there are different representations of lambda, some linear, exponential, etc. But, all of these are functions of the difference between the maker's quote and the reference price. How do you calibrate it on initialization?
Also, in a Gueant-Lehalle-Tapia model, how are A and K practically calibrated?
Answer
(First of all, sorry to have taken so much time to see this question...)
For the paper you refer to (Guéant-L-Tapia), there is a report (in French) by Sophie Laruelle about how to do it in practice: Faisabilité de l’apprentissage des paramètres d’un algorithme de trading sur des données réelles, this title translates into "Feasibility of learning parameters of automated trading systems on real data". Fortunately they are a lot of formulas and charts in her report, so you should be able to understand what she does.
In short:
I have a problem. I have 2 main characters, A and B, who have pretty much the exact same personality traits. The trouble is, this is historical fiction and I can't change who they are. The 2 characters are real-world people who lived and died and have biographies, and I don't want to take "artistic liberties" with their character traits.
How can I distinguish these 2 characters in my writing, so they don't come off as clones?
Here's more info that may help you help me:
This is science fiction, involving an alternate history of Earth from the early 1960's onwards.
Person A is the leader of his nation. Person B, also a man, is the leader of a major design/engineering firm working on critical new technology. They regularly meet and deliberate on all sorts of things from logistical planning to funding to what to do about the enemy nations (they have a lot of scenes together; they are the main characters after all).
A and B share the following traits: Sharp, Charismatic/Passionate, Strong-Willed, Busy, Crafty, Paranoid, Persistent, Patriotic.
I selected those traits from this list based on their biographies. And judging from those bios, I honestly could not find any trait that is unique to one and not the other.
There are other characters. There may be 7 to 10 main characters (who recur regularly throughout the whole story). A trivial "solution" I thought of was to increase the share time of the other characters, but I don't think this will really work because A and B would still appear to be clones.
So what can I do? Will I be forced to just apply them to different roles? Give them different friends or different kinds of jokes they like?
Ask for more details if you need them. I'm really in a pickle about this.
EDIT: I forgot about their physical characteristics. Both are somewhat fat, but A is significantly shorter than B. And one of them is bald.
EDIT 2: This is actually partly alternate history, and maybe historical fiction too. Their definitions confuse me.
This morning on twitter there was a tweet with the text "click on this picture". When picture is clicked, it's opened in wider viewer, but looks completely different.
I tried to analyze this picture in ACDSee, and I also tried uploading on Facebook, but it's happening only when embedded on twitter. I don't have much knowledge about graphics so please explain this to me. Why does this PNG image change only when clicked on Twitter?
Screenshots (left = before clicking; right = after clicking):
Here's the original picture.
Answer
The picture doesn't change. The background color of the page does.
It's a transparent PNG. The whites are not visible on a white background. The blacks aren't visible on black background.
The normal post is on white. The modal view is on black.
If you change the background color...
I'm designing a web application which has lots of data tables with business information both as numbers (sales, hours etc) and text (product names, region names etc).
What fonts are great for dense information displays? I've played with usual suspects like Helvetica, Helvetica Neue and Tahoma, but are there others that would add a splash of unique feeling, but still would be an excellent choice for displaying tabular data?
Answer
Typically with lots of data you're looking to do two things:
If you get both, that's ideal.
When it comes to the "safe" web fonts, I think that Tahoma tends to be a little more vertical and thus can get more data squished in. Typically Verdana and Georgia are regarded as the most well-designed of the six or so; Verdana in particular is very readable but takes up a lot of width to do so.
Depending on who's using the site, you should definitely take a look at Calibri. Microsoft's ClearType fonts are well-designed, fairly well-regarded, and not ubiquitous enough to be annoying yet. Calibri is modern, made for the screen, and is pretty narrow - a good compromise. If you need something monospace, look at Consolas over Courier New. ClearType should be pretty well saturated by now; anyone with Vista or a version of Office that's 2007 or later (2008 for Mac) will have them. And apparently you can get them freely as well; Wikipedia has more on this.
If you're looking to buy, check out FF Info. Haven't used it but it has a good pedigree and seems to be well-built for lots of data.
And, as Joonas commented, fonts aren't the only way to make something readable. Watch your line-spacing and cell padding, stuff like that. It can make a world of difference.
Currently looking at a long form with a lot of "yes/no" options presented as radio buttons. Is there any evidence to suggest that displaying radio buttons aligned vertically or horizontally is preferable?
Answer
I'm not a fan of horizontal layouts for radio buttons for four big reasons:
I am writing a novel in which characters do bad things to one another. For example, I have recently been struggling over a scene of domestic violence.
Essentially, a husband hits his wife, after the wife had provoked him, and intentionally tried to make him angry. I feel very strongly that verbal provocation NEVER justifies domestic violence (or any sort of violence, for that matter), and I have been worried that this scene could appear to either make an argument to justify abuse or that I believe that provocation justifies abuse.
I tried to resolve the potentially poor messaging by having a character act as an Author Avatar, and give a long speech about misconceptions about abuse, and strong moral guidance, but this didn't really seem to fit.
I write a lot of characters who do a lot of bad things, in a narrative that can seem morally ambiguous. How can writers ensure that their characters' bad actions, or their structuring of events that lead to bad actions, do not read as endorsements or arguments for bad behavior?
Tech specs: Illustrator CC 19.2.1, Windows 7, HP ZBook 15 w/NVidia graphics. External monitors, mouse etc.
Problem: I want to use the feature "Align new objects to pixel grid". I create a new document, check the appropriate box "Align new..." and add a rectangle to my document. It is not aligned to pixel grid. The checkbox in Transform panel is not checked. Clicking the flyout menu in Transform panel reveals that the checkbox "Align new objects to..." is indeed checked.
However: using say the pen tool, objects are aligned to pixel grid!
Am I missing something? Are there other steps involved in enabling the above feature? Is it not available for rectangle tool? That would be quite hilariuos.
Ok I found some more info (must have been googling the wrong words): https://forums.adobe.com/thread/2031120
Apparently a rectangle is a "live shape" that does not align to pixel grid automatically. Now that's what I call a great feature.
I am looking for to 'grey out' my image entirely - the main purpose is to be able to have high detailed picture and still allow me to read clearly written contents at the top of the image. The grey out filter/effect I am looking for looks like some web or app components background when a pop-up comes out. I am attaching an image showing you an example. I am a Photoshop user but can use something else if necessary. I have tried many filters but none has this disabled/grey mask effect.
Answer
When I'm doing this technique in my designs, I follow these steps. 
Duplicate the layer going to the menu bar and choosing Layer -> Duplicate Layer.
Go to the menu bar and choose Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur and apply a small setting like 2 to 3 pixels. This will make the text appear to be shown in a shallow depth of field. This step is optional but I find it helps to sell the illusion.
Create an adjustment layer by going into the menu and choosing Layer -> New Adjustment Layer -> Hue/Saturation...
With the adjustment layer selected, adjust the 'saturation' property to something low like -40 or -50. This really depends on how bright and colorful your picture is to start.
You may want to adjust the brightness property as well to achieve the desired effect. In this case, I went with -30.
That should be everything you need. There aren't any filters that come with Photoshop to achieve the results here but this process takes less than five minutes and is easily customized based on the desired effect. 
Why has it become an industry standard for logos to redirect a user to a website's homepage?
Where was this first seen?
Answer
This practice dates back at least to the earliest days of image hyperlinks. For example, the Internet Archive's earliest snapshot of Yahoo's home page from October 1996 has a clickable Yahoo! logo.
1. Convention
2. Semantics
Originally, hyperlinks were used primarily to denote semantic content elements which a user could follow to a related page. The logo for a company is similar to the name of the company or a person: it has semantic meaning. So for the same reason it would make sense to hyperlink a key person's name or a company's name, it would make sense to hyperlink a logo.
Why hyperlink to the home page rather than a page about the company? Because the user is already on the Company's site so there is a need to figure out what the likely intent of a user is. Since the user could be visiting any page on the site with any context, the most reasonable destination for clicking the semantic logo element is the company's home page: by design, a default starting point for any visitor to the company.
3. Design
Going "back to home" is a very common interaction for users browsing a corporate website. At the same time, an extra home button may be undesirable or awkward to place on a site for various reasons. Since it's usually desirable to keep the company logo on most pages on a website, it's a common design choice to use #1 and #2 above to use the logo as the home button for the site.
How should one split up the work between two people? Should one write the even-numbered chapters and the other the odd-numbered? Does each person tell the story from the point of view of a different character or write different story-subarcs? In general, how do one organise the work in a team?
Answer
I've written a few short stories with friends via email, with each person chipping in a section. It yields some interesting and fun results, but not what you'd call a particularly coherent story.
For an example of how one pair of pros did it, take a look at this interview with Sean Williams and Shane Dix. Basically, they worked on a story outline together, Sean did the first draft, Shane rewrote/edited, and Sean did one last pass.
Getting together for the outlining or vision at the start seems like a really important step. I could see something like odd/even chapters by different writers ending up with a conflict in styles...which might work really well in some cases.
I am administering a web application that has male and female users.
Currently, the default user photo is:
I don't like this because it seems rather masculine and gives me the impression that the database has me recorded as a male.
I think changing the default to this makes sense:
This is more of a gender neutral avatar.
Questions:
Note that the application does not know whether the user is male or female and so having two separate default photos, one male and the other female, is not possible.
Edit: I have been asked to define the characteristics that make an avatar gender neutral. I am not sure I can do this objectively and that is why I choose to pick an avatar that has a very slight representation of a human head and shoulders. In other words, I prefer to solve the problem by not having a man-like or woman-like shadow at all.
Answer
Another alternative to consider is the initials of the user. This is done by the collaborative card site Trello, and many others.
So if your name was John Smith, you would see for example a gray square like you had for that first image, with the two centered letters 'JS'. A simple sans-serif and readable font like Helvetica would be great for that (you want readability to be a top priority for various sizes).
For example:
That would be the easiest catch-all solution. But to answer your two questions:
We have a long-established application which has, over the years, included more and more commands (some of which are contradictory) with the consequence that users now find it very hard to create the required input command file. There are separate PDF Help manuals for the umpteen variants of the app's use, but these show commands listed alphabetically, rather than by purpose.
To address this, I am designing a knowledge-based tool to help users create this command file through a Q&A dialogue - sort of like a Wizard, but more of an Expert System. Here you can see that as the user has chosen the 'Blah blah' from the dropdown, the tool has entered the command on his behalf on the right:
Alongside each question is a Help icon - this brings up relevant Help extracted from the manuals for each command (the Lorem ipsum text as shown).
You can see that within that text, links to other commands may be embedded; some of which may refer to points in the dialogue which have already been covered, but - and this is the problem - some may refer to places ahead (i.e. we're at Stage 1, but there's a reference to Stage 55).
So the problem I'd appreciate some advice on is, how should this 'future' Help be shown? Should I display a popup with that future Help in it (but of course that itself may include links)? Or should I allow the user to visit that future place so that he can just read its Help (even follow its links), and then somehow be brought back?
Answer
This is a tough one simply because you don't want the users getting thrown all over the place, and navigating to unnecessary areas that may not be related. The system itself seems like it is a really good idea. The solution I have may be something you have thought of, but make sure you are making keywords a big part of the help and "future" help. I see no reason to stop a user from looking ahead and reading but only if it has relevant material to what they currently need help with. So in turn, let them go on to the future help (even follow the links). Just make sure you constantly have a link available to take them back to where they were and make sure that the future material appearing is related to the help that they require. Hope this helped.
What reasons might a website not use the entire width of the browser, like Gmail does?
For example, StackOverflow does not use the entire width — it has left and right margins. This means the entire contents of a page are presented in a column, with white space on the left and right.
Is it a technical reason in most cases, such as to accommodate the display in all types of browsers, or are there design reasons for this decision?
Answer
The difference you're talking about is often referred to as "fixed width" versus "liquid" or "fluid" layout.
Fixed width layouts are MUCH easier to design than liquid ones. When you design a liquid layout, you need to control many more aspects of the display. What happens when windows shrink beyond a minimum width? What parts of the window can stretch, and what should be fixed-width columns? Is there a maximum for "body" after which layout will look bad? (I've seen liquid layouts that were almost unreadable on a 1920x1080 display.)
A second reason, vying for the position of most-important, is that fixed width layouts are predictable. In a largish company with a "creative director" or "graphics designer" who is different from the person implementing a web site, the wireframe or example site will likely be done in Photoshop, approved by a manager, and handed off to a web programmer to implement in a CMS (for example). The web programmer doesn't care about fixed width vs liquid, he just wants to get the site implemented the way it was approved by his manager. And variations will require additional approvals, and it becomes impossible to improve a layout that will be different for each browser.
And a third less-important factor... There are a number of web site analytics tools that measure a "heat map", and heat maps are virtually impossible to implement in liquid layouts, since links do not appear in predictable locations on the page.
The following is from a story I'm writing:
"Goodbye Choco," my mother said, to end the prayer, “may your soul rest in peace,” and crossed herself.
“Sorry I couldn’t come earlier,” I said. “I’ve been busy.”
“That’s alright, sweetheart. You selected more courses this year?”
“Actually joined a club.”
“Oh, that’s great. You’ve never joined a club before, right? What’s its name?”
“Animal Self-Destruction Observation Group.”
“That’s good. A club that’s not from your department. A completely different experience.”
“Yeah, I like variety.” Luckily my mother wasn’t ‘attentive’ enough to catch the meaning of complicated names.
“Is it fun?” Mom asked. “What do you do there?”
“Well, I don’t know yet—but I’ll find out tomorrow.”
"Please take care in the camping. Did you pack your clothes, sun blocker, your Hello Kitty doll?"
"Mom, I'm nineteen."
"You're right, honey. Sorry. Sometimes I forget you’ve grown up."
"I've noticed that."
“I know sometimes you think I worry too much. But all parents are like that. All we want is for our children to grow healthy and happy. Especially happy. I hope you understand that.”
I nodded. To grow happy. I wondered how Mom would have felt if she’d known I almost committed suicide. How she would have felt if she’d learned I’d been unhappy most of my adult life. The thought stabbed right into my heart. But, well, that was a thing of the past—an ancient tomb buried under layers and layers of sand. At least for the time being.
So the MC and her mother are in the backyard performing a burial for their dog. I feel the mother talks too much like a 'mother' from time to time. I can change it. The problem is that what she says is essential to the plot/theme (suicide).
Is there any way I can work this around?
Answer
1) Lengthen it. You're not going to have rat-a-tat-tat patter graveside.
2) Take each phrase you feel is clichéd, determine the meaning, and rewrite it in different words. "All we want is for our children to grow healthy and happy" becomes "That's my biggest responsibility and my biggest hope — that my children are healthy and happy, and we didn't break them too much on the way to adulthood."
3) Try the exercise I recommended in my answer to this question, where you and a friend ad-lib the scene and record it. Play it back and see how real, unscripted dialogue sounds.
I searched here but didn't see an answer. I've gone through the new ICS Android design guidelines but did not see a standard icon or recommended icon for drag and drop in list views.
Is there one? Or is it still up to each developer? I found this link which gave a few different examples but none actually referenced ICS style. http://www.androidpatterns.com/uap_pattern/sort-drag-drop
Basically I have a list view that allows reordering of the items however I'm not sure what is considered best practice to alert the users that this functionality exists
In my style of writing, I often find that I lapse into relating what happens or has happened, usually via short, choppy, dead sentences. As far as I can tell, this is because the scene I am writing cannot be shown - or at least would need to be greatly revised before it could be. My method for fixing this is to simply skip the scene in question, and fast forward to the point where I can begin showing, rather than telling.
Note: This does not mean I believe telling is an inherent no-no. See the first comment to what's answer.
Here is an example, from what I am currently writing:
The main protagonist is currently a prisoner. After relating the terrible conditions of the dungeon (which was done through showing, not telling), there is a chapter break. In the next chapter, a guard enters the dungeon and starts ordering everyone up. The protagonist gets in the way, and the guard knocks her out.
Here's the break. While the protagonist is out, the guard gets everyone out of the cell and lines them up for inspection by an individual. None of that is related. The protagonist wakes up during the inspection, at the first point things can be shown again. How she got there is eventually revealed a paragraph or two later, by the guard simply stating that they are being inspected. That's all the reader really needs to know.
This method generally works just fine. I find that the reader doesn't really need to know everything that would have happened in the 'telling' scene, and I can relate the bare minimums in the 'showing' scene, usually through dialogue or action.
Here's my question: Is this a good method, or a bad method? Out of necessity, I can't relate what has transpired right away, and often wait several paragraphs before doing so. Will not knowing what has happened confuse/frustrate a reader? Or will it simply build suspense, and so add to the scene?
I want to learn the RGB (or others like hex, CMYK or HSL) details of a color on a website. Say the background of this very website. I want to recreate that color using the code or a graphics software.
Answer
As per thebodzio's answer, there's plenty of ways to get that colour. No matter what browser you use there will be some sort of colour picker add-on you can get. Alternatively you could take a screen shot and open it in photoshop. Another way is to open developer tools and look at the sites stylesheet, in chrome you could right click the background and hit inspect element then look for where the background colour is being specified...
To save you the trouble though, the background colour on that website is #f9f9f9 - now, if you're not too experienced with CSS, you might want to head over to the site, inspect the background colour and see if you can find where I got that from :)
I have the image shown above where the black colored stroke is the outline of the cloud. I also have a slightly offsetted blue color fill. What should I do to put the blue color fill inside the outline (along with the whitespace)? I tried using the clip option, but it wasn't helpful.
The above picture shows how I would want it. As you can see, the whitespace is still there, but the fill lies inside the stroke.
Answer
Assuming that you are starting from two paths, one filled in cyan without stroke paint and the other with a black stroke and without fill; and assuming that the filled path is at the bottom, we have a similar situation:
You have to perform a few simple steps:
You can tweak a little the cloud:
You can obtain a similar effect (although not flat) starting from a path with border and fill and using Filters->Bevels->Combined lighting or other analogous filter:
In many cases, when creating an A/B choice for a user, there is a clear option that should be the default; if not, the debates can rage... and if the choices are not clearly boolean (Yes or No), it gets sticky.
I am working on an app in which the user can create a new "case" (database record) on the fly. When they create a new case, they are presented with a form, with many of the fields optional. Some of those optional fields are obvious boolean choices, such as "Yes/No"; others are less clear, such as "Delivery/Retrieval," "Imperial/Metric" and "Male/Female."
The first question is this: for fields that have an A/B exclusive option, a toggle seems to be an appropriate control to use (especially when one hates radio buttons). But if the fields are OPTIONAL and should not contain a value, how do you represent them by default when the form first appears?
There is no obvious default choice for Male/Female, and if the user does not select one at all, we don't want to throw a default into the data record. We could not enter the value into the record until they edit it, but if they look at a control and see a value that looks correct by default, they may not touch it, and in that situation it would therefore not be entered into the record at all, though it LOOKS selected.
Is there any best practice around defaulting this sort of non-boolean a/b choice? Anyone?
The second question is this: what is the best way to represent non-boolean values on a toggle switch? I have three possible options I'm playing with now:
There appear to be benefits and drawbacks to each - any thoughts around this from the community at large?
Answer
Well, after much deliberation, we've come up with a solution that I have not seen before, but seems as if it will solve our problem (and we'll see tomorrow if some user tests bear this out).
Stylistically, we decided to go with our third option above, the normal, iOS-style toggle with the labels on each side. However, to deal with the "optional" factor - and the fact that we don't want those optional fields entered into the database unless the user deliberately makes a selection, we've created a third state:
The toggle shows up, but rather than being active, it exists in a null state, with neither option selected, and the thumb sitting squarely in the middle, in the color we are using throughout to indicate a significant action.
If the user does nothing, those toggles remain in the null state. If, however, a user wants to set that value, the orange action color and grayed out options indicates to the user that they need to touch to activate the control.
Once they do, the "null toggle" (which is just a button overlaid on a real toggle, for which we have determined a default value) disappears, the default value of the real toggle is reveled, and that value is entered into the data record:
If they like the default value, they need do nothing more and their selection is recorded. If they touch it again to toggle, the value switches and the new value is recorded.
Clearly there is a certain amount of learning required. But this is a closed audience for a very specific and functional app, and once they have interacted with this control once, I expect that they will easily understand it everywhere else they encounter it.
I'd love to hear people's thoughts, and I'll reply with some results from our tests.
I'm a writer, working on a non-fiction book proposal. Finding public, free sales numbers for comparable titles is nearly impossible. BookScan is a subscriber service run by Nielsen. "Above the Treeline" is a subscriber service that collects sales data from some independent book sellers. But I'm looking for reliable services that I could tap into.
Any suggestions?
Let's assume the usual state-space linear model without constant term for simplicity:
$y_{t}=\beta_{t} X_{t}+\epsilon_{t}$
If we apply Gaussian Kalman filter to estimate $\beta_{t}$ we get $P_{t}$, which is the covariance matrices of predicted states, and $v_{t}$, which is the prediction error.
The following simple R code allows you to download pair of tickers (QQQ and XLK for instance) from Yahoo Finance and estimate $P_{t}$ and $v_{t}$ while plotting them:
# ======================================== #
# Kalman filter errors and states variance #
# ======================================== #
op <- par(no.readonly = TRUE)
Sys.setenv(TZ = 'UTC')
# Contents:
# 1. Installing packages
# 2. Loading packages
# 3. Downloading and plotting data
# 4. Kalman filtering of linear regression Beta
# *********************************
# 1. Installing packages
# *********************************
#install.packages('KFAS')
#install.packages('latticeExtra')
#install.packages('quantmod')
# *********************************
# 2. Loading packages
# *********************************
require(compiler)
require(latticeExtra)
require(KFAS)
require(quantmod)
# *********************************
# 3. Downloading and plotting data
# *********************************
Symbols <- c('QQQ', 'XLK')
getSymbols(Symbols, from = '1950-01-01')
data <- na.omit(merge(Cl(QQQ), Cl(XLK)))
colnames(data) <- Symbols
xyplot(data)
# *********************************
# 4. Kalman filtering of linear regression Beta
# *********************************
y <- na.omit(merge(ClCl(QQQ), ClCl(XLK)))[,1]
X <- na.omit(merge(ClCl(QQQ), ClCl(XLK)))[,2]
model <- regSSM(y = y, X = X, H = NA, Q = NA)
object <- fitSSM(inits = rep(0, 2), model = model)$model
KFAS <- KFS(object = object)
P <- xts(as.vector(KFAS$P)[-1], index(y))
v <- xts(t(KFAS$v), index(y))
Z <- cbind(P, v)
colnames(Z) <- c('Covariance of predicted state', 'Prediction error')
xyplot(tail(Z, 1000))
Now let's iterate this procedure over several pairs of securities to estimate their $\beta_{t}$, $P_{T}$ and $v_{t}$ and you want to sort these pairs by the stability and accuracy of $\beta_{t}$, that is, low variance and low prediction error.
I would like to know suitable criteria to make this ranking system having available $P_{t}$ and $v_{t}$, i.e. how to penalize a linear relationship because of too high variance and prediction errors?
For instance:
Replacing QQQ and XLK in my code with VXX and TLT, you will see greater $P_{t}$ and $v_{t}$, which are linearly related between VXX and TLT and are more volatile and have weaker predictive power than the one between QQQ and XLK.
This is similar to a ranking system and I would like to know how to produce some numeric criteria.
I would like to design maps that include a mix of current cities, historical cities, natural landmarks, roads (current and old). These maps need to be accurate, but I would like to be able to customize them in what I include in them, the labels, orientation etc.. The possibility to change the type of projection (Mercator, Winkel-Tripel..) would be a plus.
I have no experience in graphic design and like to do this to inspire me for my travels. Also, I'd like if possible to use free tools, and don't mind spending time to learn how to use them.
Thank you.
There is certain summary overview in the system that my team is developing. In this summary overview one section is dedicated to displaying active alarms. My team and I had a discussion how to handle the situation when there are no active alarms.
Should we display description "No active alarms" or such or should the alarm area remain empty?
Things of note that alarm section is in upper middle part of the view and it takes about of quarter of width of screen and is about 150px tall. The alarms are communicated using alarm cards with only color, icon and number.
EDIT: I hesitated with mocks since our app is terribly work-in-progress, but here they are: 
Answer
If the user sees an empty area where there is supposed to be a list of elements (whether it is one or more) he could think:
If the user sees a "no items" message the only thing he can think is:
So, in my opinion, it is a good idea to reinforce the state of the element, even if it might sound unnecessary, to prevent make the user think.
My novel has been through multiple drafts and beta reads, and by and large is in good shape. I've learned how to cure a saggy middle, how to stay in point-of-view, how to keep the protagonist driving the action by working toward their want. And so on. The shape of my novel is generally OK, but by the time I reach the end (climax), I'm simply ready for all the ends to be tied up.
So they are, all the contracts are filled, and by and large the ending does what it needs to. It solves the puzzle, neatly and tidily.
But the ending still feels off to me and I can't put my finger on why. Perhaps it is too precipitous of a solution, or too little cost after the solution. The ending 'works,' but I'm wondering if there's something I'm missing.
Example: Maybe the best endings throw one last small but unexpected challenge at the heroes, out of the blue. (Like Darth Vader joining the air fight in SW:ANH, maybe some ratchet up of stakes during the climax needs to happen). Or perhaps one of our heroes should die during the ending, maybe it is an emotional note that's missing.
Q: I'm wondering if there's consensus on what makes a great ending. What are the features. I haven't seen anything online about this, and thought you insightful contributors might have thoughts.
I have a circle and I want it to perfectly kiss two lines of arbitrary angle in Adobe Illustrator:
How would I do that?
Answer
Using Smart Guides (Ctrl/Cmd + U to toggle on/off)
Note. Make sure to turn off Snap to Point, Snap to Grid and Align Objects to Pixel Grid (so that it doesn't interfere with the Smart Guides)
You would also go to Edit→Preferences→Smart Guides and manually add in the angle of your lines, if they aren't already a common angle (90:180)
Use this (free) tool/plugin for Illustrator by Astute Graphics called SubScribe which will accomplish this for other arbitrary angles (non 90° angles)
You use the Tangent Circle option
Select the point where the lines intersect and then drop the anchor based on how large you'd like the circle.
I need to design a form that may consist of 3 or 4 steps, all of them requesting both mandatory and optional data. The overall form contains a lot of data inputs, so I thought it would be better to split the form into pages or steps, to avoid having a too long vertical scrolling.
I can't find any practical example of such a long form in an existing iOS app, since most of them just request few data to create an account, but my app requires collecting more user input.
Would it be a good approach to build a view for each form step, and push them all in a navigation controller?
The idea is to have the back button in the navigation bar to allow going to the previous step, and a "next" button to go forward, I don't know if placing it in the navigation bar as well, or at the bottom edge of the current view. Or maybe could I use a stepper with arrows similar to the Mail app? I couldn't find anything about it in iOS Human Interface Guidelines, only a stepper with +/- buttons. Or a segmented control, with a segment per step?
However, in iOS Human Interface Guidelines, in navigation bar section I've read that it is intended for "navigation through an information hierarchy" (iOS Human Interface Guidelines). I don't know how strict is Apple when applying the guidelines in the document when submitting to the App Store, and if using this approach for peer views, as in this case, would be rejected. Another option I thought, it was using instead a page control and a scroll view... but here comes into play input validation. I suppose that for a long multistep form it should be better to validate each step's inputs before allowing continue, shouldn't it? I find easier to handle this in the first approach (navigation controller and bar), simply enabling the "next" button when the inputs correctly fulfilled, than in the page control approach (where I actually don't know if it is possible to momentarily disable forward page scrolling).
Answer
Regarding the Next button on top or bottom: Do both!
Sounds like a great idea to split it into multiple steps, especially if you need to validate some parts before continuing to others. In that case, you will have to disable the Next button in the stepper, or in your custom navigation bar.
Starting from iOS, the Back button should be found in the top left corner. Now, where to put the corresponding "Forward" or "Next" button?
Keeping both of the buttons on top, in the navigation bar, will make it easier to flip between pages. I would place them there, if you expect users to navigate back and forth between the pages.
Working through the form from top, downwards, though, will make it natural to place the next button in the bottom. If you expect users to focus on each input field, one by one, from top to bottom, I would definitely put the next button in the bottom. If any of the pages are higher than what fits on screen, then even more so.
Also, if you need to clarify your validation before continuing, informative text fits better by the bottom Next button, than on top by the navigation bar.
Examples: Left: Scrollview with navigation in top and bottom of scrollable view. Middle: Clear Next button, waiting in the end of the page, as a complement. Right: Validation.
download bmml source – Wireframes created with Balsamiq Mockups
I am a high school student with an interest for drawing tablets for some hobby. I went to check on a store that sell Intuos, a sales representative (or something) of Wacom told me that most students buy the medium sized tablets. Even the staff said that since it is always bought the supplies of the medium size are a lot more than the small size.
I am on a tight budget (which is why I am buying the Intuos), and the small size seems small to me (when my hands are open, my thumb and my pinky would reach the sides). But then, why would Wacom sell the Manga variant in small? Is the staff just saying that so I would buy the more expensive one?
I have enough savings from my small allowance to buy the small size right now, should I wait for another month so that I can buy the medium size?
I'm toying with the jQuery plugin SmartWizard to implement a branching wizard for a web application. The problem I'm struggling with right now is how to deal with user choices that affect the subsequent workflow and the content and re-ordering of the progress meter of the wizard.
As for now I can think of 3 alternatives.
Static solution:
Lay out all possible steps in advance. Though some steps will only be activated if the user makes the appropriate choice. Otherwise, the wizard continues with the next valid step. As an example: If someone doesn't need the "flight transfer option" the wizard simply leaves out all steps concerned with that choice.
Fluid solution:
Lay out only the default or required steps (happy path scenario). If for instance at some point the user chooses to branch away from the visible path (I need the transfer option) the wizard gets a visual update and also its progress meter. Now, showing all the additional steps. (I'm not sure though if this is visually appealing.)
A combination of 1 and 2:
This is meant as an extension to 1) and 2) where all the choices are made up-front like in a short enquiry (1st step). Based upon these choices the wizard gets a visual update with the corresponding workflow. If the user wants to change the choice she made she has to re-visit the first step (which creates the potential complexity of not loosing already entered data)
Answer
I believe the static solution usually works best and can usually be broken down in such a way that any branching can be done within well defined static steps.
One of the key elements in a wizard is its indication of progress and location within. If steps are added or removed based on user actions, that element of predictability and "confidence" is lost.
As an example, think of a wizard step asking the user to add a profile photo.
The step itself is just that - "Add Profile Photo", but the user can choose from different options that represent different levels of effort and time spent:
The user might also be offered the option to edit the photo in the same step and perhaps skip and use a default.
Nonetheless, all these choices and "inner" paths still reside in that well defined step.
Now I know, that this question could be tagged too broad or opinion based, and that it might even be closed down. But I have been struggling over this for quite some time now and I want to get an answer to it. Please read the entire question before taking any action.
So my question is -
What is difference between screenplay and novel?
I know that both might be completely different fields. I know that screenplay has some standard rules that are to be followed, and same applies for novel writing too. But say I have a story, a story with the main plot, all the characters and the story line. Now consider one starting from scratch, in both the fields.
So what suits better - progressing the story into a screenplay? Or developing it into a novel?
What I am looking for is brief differentiation between both. Any key points and links would be highly appreciated.
How to get Rid of Banding in illustrator while using Gradient
My Illustrator is acting a bit buggy; more precisely, no selection is actually visible. Selected text isn't highlighted, looking for an anchor is like looking for a needle in a haystack, and finding a handle is a futile effort from the beginning. My thinking is that this could be resolved by resetting Illustrator's preferences; where some blogs and fora suggest that it's under Home Folder > Libraries > Application Support > Adobe > Adobe Illustrator CS6, I haven't found the preferences folder in that directory. Is there any other way to reset it, or fix the problem?
Answer
Hold down Cmd+Option+Shift on launch.
You won't get any dialog or any visible sign prefs have been reset, but they have. The logic is, the AI team felt if you hold those keys down on launch, you know what you are doing and therefore didn't provide any direct feedback.
If you want to manually delete the prefs, you've got the wrong location. You need:[home folder]/Library/Preferences/Adobe Illustrator CS6/
Depending upon what OS you are running, that Library folder may not be visible. So, choose Go > Go To Folder... from the Finder Menu. Type in ~/Library (that's tilde, forward-slash, Library) and the Library folder should open.
I'm trying to refine my ability to emulate a technique I see quite often on Dribbble and throughout the internet really. I think in some cases this is done via actual printing (letterpress, engraving etc) but it seems likely that this is often just executed digitally as well.
A few examples are here:
the maroon arrowhead area:
Artist: Matthew Genitempo
the shadow in the chief's neck / ear area:
Artist: Patrick Moore
Basically it's a way to emulate an uneven ink density that would come from printing a large run with a stamp or plate that is running dry. I'm assuming that this is achieved through some combination of texture scans and layer filters, but I'd love to find a tutorial of some sort.
Of course, I've gone through some tutorials that pop up via a quick Google search but they usually utilize grain and noise filters and just end up looking way wayyy less convincing than the above examples.
Answer
It is easily achieved with a simple mask. Imagine a black rubber stamp. Ideally it would be perfectly solid black (the image layer), but for various reasons not all of the black is transferred (the mask).
The reason noise is not acceptable is because it does not "respond" like the paper texture in any way.
A Layer mask is a greyscale image used in such a way that the lightness determines the amount of opacity of the layer to which it is attached.
If you use a modified copy of the paper texture as a mask to simulate the exact "pattern of inconsistent transfer", you will have "marks" in the mask which are the same pattern, scale, and proximity as the marks which define the paper texture: they "respond" to each other.
Experiment with a full copy of the background texture, unlocked from the layer so that the layer can be moved without the mask texture moving. This might give you something where the inconsistencies of the paper texture itself cross through the stamp and heighten the effect.
You will have a base paper layer and then you have the stamped item as a layer of its own with the mask applied to it. The specifics are, as Scott says, dependent on the software package.
Any tutorial which covers "layer masks" will give you the tools you need. The hard part is deciding how to get the mask to have the same style of marks as the base layer.
To "fake" a paper texture: layer difference cloud, noise, grain, dust and specks, etc.
The EU cookie legislation http://www.out-law.com/page-10510 is rightly or wrongly are being introduced, there has been much negative comment from both legal and technical commentators - that said it has implications.
What UX solutions or otherwise have you been working through to resolve the need of 'gaining a user's prior consent' when cookies are used?
You may have read yesterday on the bbc and guardian sites that this legislation has been deferred in the UK for a year so that 'a workable solution' can be found.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13541250
It would be nice to maintain this thread with examples like the ICO one below - however they may prove to be thin on the ground!
I have Adobe Creative Cloud and am switching to a newer Mac. CC says it's saving my preferences (workspace and shortcuts included) but when I sync my settings nothing happens!
I've read that the workspace is saved as an .xml file and should be accessible in my preferences folder (User/Library/Preferences/Adobe InDesign), but my folders don't have this path as a option.
Is there any way for me to import my workspace and shortcuts, or do I have to go through and recreate them?
Let's say I already have a seamless pattern. For example this one: 
I'd like to quickly repeat it 4 times.
So the result would be:
Is there any automated way to do this in Photoshop, instead of resizing the workspace then copying and placing it three more times?
Answer
Well you can actually make it a pattern in Photoshop.
With the tile open, select all and choose Edit > Define Pattern. Then it's a pattern just like all the other built in Photoshop patterns.
If you know the tile size you can create a new document the size of 4 tiles, then just apply a pattern fill layer.
With a 500x500px tile, create a 1000x1000px document and choose Layer > New Fill Layer > Pattern... selecting your pattern.
If you don't know the tile size, and it's already a pattern in Photoshop... You can turn on Tool Tips in the Preferences, then hover your mouse over a pattern and the tip will show you the tile size:
I know about zipline and ultrafinance, but as far as I know, they don't support fx trading. Which libraries do?
I have an application that is sending an email to someone reminding them of an appointment.
What is the best way to display such a stand-alone date?
The reason I have such a question is because (as a developer/engineer) it is my training to want to have dates in 'bigendian' (YYYY-MM-DD) so they're easier to compare in a list. But I realize that when someone sees a data by itself, other psychological rules may apply. So in no particular order
So of those three (or variations, or any others), which would be the least error-prone in readability?
Answer
For a date which is meant to be consumed by a user only, I think it's best to spell out the date as much as is feasible.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Of course, if the purpose is to remind someone of an appointment, I'd argue that the year isn't really necessary, since you won't be reminding them of an appointment more than a year in advance.
I am trying to describe a situation in which you design a product for a company, and they use it to engage with their customers. So from my own perspective, the company would be the primary (or first degree) customer, and the company's customers (or second degree) customer can be unambiguously described. And if the company provides a service to another company that also deals with their own customers then you can call it a third degree customer (and so on and so forth). Has anyone come across this term, and is it easy enough to understand or do people use other terminologies?
Often these days people talk about a B2B versus a B2C software/application. In this case a B2B software is designed for a business that have customers, and you would refer to the company as your client/customer and that company's customer as their clients/customers but it seems a little awkward to use this term.
A long time ago, I dropped by a session of a creative writing course where the teacher brought a lot of reference books. One of them was a lovely picture/sketch-based identification dictionary. There were vivid drawings of a Regency ballroom, and each of the items in the room had a tag that showed their name. There were also lots of other things -- wardrobe and coats with all their parts named, obscure house parts, etc. No idea what it's called.
I've been trying to find a good subject-based visual dictionary like that. I often don't know how to describe a particular furniture or clothing item exactly, and it would be lovely to just be able to look up a picture, then read the tag that points to the name of the item in the picture!
Often I'll see a website, especially when registering or filling out a form that says something like "Please only use letters and numbers in this field" or "Please try again."
Please is a pleasantry and I suppose it could make wording sound more "natural" but in this context I don't find it helpful at all. In fact often when I see "please" in a validation message it's not an optional requirement. In that case even in spoken English the "please" is misleading and incorrect as it indicates that you should do something, while omitting the please turns the same phrase ("Use only letters and numbers in this field") turns it into a command, which is correct.
Is there a reason to use statements like these? Are some situations more appropriate than others? It seems fairly prevalent but strikes me as inappropriate interaction.
Answer
"Please" is common in short instructions, because the alternative sounds too brisk and bossy ("Save the file", "Click the button").
However, I don't like either form of instruction because they don't make clear how the action fits into the user's aims. Rather than an instruction like 'Choose a filename' or even 'Please choose a filename', I'm drawn instead to a third style of suggestion, like 'To save your file, provide a filename'.
I can think of two advantages to this:
Users who decide the action isn't worth the hassle can be sure they're not ignoring an unrelated task
Users feel compelled to perform the action because it's aligned with their goals
That said, I'm aware this third style can be a lot wordier than the other two. It also runs the risk of burying the vital command 'provide a filename' in a larger sentence. Still, I think it's always worth giving the user a reason to proceed, rather than barking out arbitrary commands.
After reading this question about Big Bad Red buttons, where it was generally agreed upon that red buttons draw the user to click, I was left thinking: then when are they good affordance and interaction design?
Red buttons usually mean something negative, so I suppose users will be expecting that of a red button.
Red buttons draw users to click instead of avert from it.
The two statements above seem to work against each other. So is the red color "out" for buttons? When is it a good idea to use it, if at all?
Answer
Red buttons are appropriate when a primary action is negative in nature.
That is, the user is very likely to want to hit the button anyways, and the action triggered is canceling, ending, deleting, or some other "negative" action. Here are a few examples from iOS:
Note that in the image on the right, the user has already indicated they would like to leave the current page, so they are likely to want to hit that "Delete Draft" button. If that action had been of secondary importance in this context, I would not go with red (and that location and size on the screen).
This pattern reinforces the nature of the action while also calling attention to the place you are likely to want to click/touch given the context.
Occasionally, in my job as an engineer, I write process descriptions of the technology we are selling. Those are part of commercial offers, intended to win the customer. Those are bundled with drawings, technical offers and the like. We are selling complex plants and it is safe to assume that there will be an engineer reading the offer, and maybe other management staff. I write these in German and English. This is not something I do very often, but it crops up.
So far, the procedure has been to take the last document we did that is relevant or similar to the job on hand, and edit or expand it. There's lots of marketing speech in older documents, some of it (I think) is only understandable when one knows the technology. So when I do a session of copy, paste, edit, I change rather a lot.
This answer to another question suggests reading similar documentation and understanding their style. This seems to be good advice, but only partly doable because the exact style of documents I write is one that I hardly get (I write offers for plants and read offers for components).
Now, I'd like to have a few best practices or guides to follow when doing this, because I want to arrive at a consistent style that actually conveys what we are trying to say.
Answer
Okay, let's do a cheat sheet.
Point 3, 4 and 6 become even more important if your audience includes people for whom English/German is a second language.
I've been happily employed for awhile now, so I've not kept up on various trends and changes in the online portfolio field. I would like to remedy this knowledge gap.
I can do a search for "best online portfolio sites" but a search like that is a little tainted by people who want you to buy their solution.
If you've made a portfolio site for yourself or a client, what are you using?
It seems to me that you can use a service like Behance (but are there other services that are equal or better in terms of features, ease of use, ads, etc.?), adapt a theme to a blog/CMS WordPress or Tumblr, or build something from scratch.
If it's necessary to narrow the scope of the question a bit, I'd say that the ideal portfolio site looks modern but not trendy, has a great user experience, and is easy to update. Preferably, it can be self-hosted, unless people have found that going on a dedicated social network is better.
It'd be interesting to hear answers from graphic designers who don't code a lot as well as web designers who do it for a living.
I want to create a T-shirt to commemorate the tenth edition of a gaming convention and I had the idea to have the names of all the games that were played during the convention form a big roman numeral X.
I'm looking for a free program, app or plugin that allows me to insert chunks of text (the names of the games) and automatically sorts them to fit the shape as nicely as possible, without mixing the words in the same chunk (but if they continue on the same or on the following line it's ok).
Multi-directional words forming the shape is ok too but those usually make some words too small for the t-shirt printer.
Do you know a program that can create such a thing?
I can easily work with the image of an X or even a raster image.
Answer
What you want is
...which would give you the ability to create tag-clouds and word clouds that looks like this:
Obviously a huge part of a positive UX is a fast, responsive design. The software I work with (Electronic Medical Records) is sometimes used on sub-standard devices (e.g. ancient desktop PCs) or in places with overloaded networks preventing data from appearing quickly.
Outside of having an entertaining 'loading' indicator (e.g. pinwheel of death, hourglass, etc...) are there any good UI/UX strategies to plan for or adapt to a situation where the software is handling sluggishly?
Answer
If at all possible, Asynchronous processes can be wonderful depending on what the slow part is. If you can keep the client-side GUI "live" instead of halting all use of the system between actions, your system can feel much faster and less frustrating.
As an example, I recently constructed a data-driven application which needed a responsive UI but needed to complete a slow (~1 second) update process before it the data could be operated on.
However the client side controls didn't really depend on the data; what I did was present the fully working client side GUI while the background process runs. This allows the user to start using the system to construct their query before the query can actually be performed; most of the time the users can't start their query before the background task even finishes; it's instant! In the other cases, the users simply have to wait until the background process finishes.
The system seems faster because I don't inhibit the user's actions while the system is still processing. This is ideal and makes your UI feel much more responsive, but it isn't always possible. Make sure you don't allow the user to begin any conflicting tasks, but if the user wants to perform an unrelated action (like bringing up a Help menu) while waiting for a background process to finish you might as well let them.
This won't work when the user needs the data to be loaded before they can do anything at all, but keep an eye out for things you can load asynchronously. If you're loading 3 views of data, loading them one at a time (with separate loading indicators) can feel much more responsive than loading all three at the same time even if the total execution time is the same.
I want to create intersected curved line like this 
, I use Pen Tool but can not get the same as this , and searched a lot for already built through google , but all I got were curve lines not like this, any tutorial or any idea?
Answer
There are a lot of ways of doing it but the first tool or idea that came into my mind is using the pen tool.
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