keyboard - Is there a logical alternative for the Escape key?

I have a game that can be played in your browser. It's a retro game (multiplayer snake) and the menus and your snake can only be controlled using your keyboard. Mouse input is ignored.

I was using the Esc key to cancel all sorts of actions, like cancelling a confirm popup, going back a step in a menu, exiting a game, cancelling focus on an input field.

The problem is that my game supports html5 fullscreen mode, and browsers will exit fullscreen mode when Esc is pressed. I cannot override that because of browser security.

At first, I thought I would just use both Backspace and Delete to trigger a cancel action, and promote these keys in the initial instructions. Problem is that these keys already have a function when an input field is focused, so I need something else to cancel that.

Also, I'm afraid users will use Esc anyway because they expect it to cancel things. So maybe I should support it when not in fullscreen, and add an alert popup when entering fullscreen that Esc will now exit fullscreen mode and you must use some other key for cancelling. But changing the keyboard layout halfway is not ideal.

I could also skip fullscreen mode entirely because Esc is essential for a good UX of the game and there is no acceptable workaround.

How would you solve this?

Answer

Training users to do something different than in the usual way is extremely hard to do. This might be especially true in a computer game where the actions are less thought-through and often reflex-like.

So you'd run into problems even if you laid the Esc functions on a different key. Users still would expect the confirm popup to close and might get confused if they exit fullscreen instead. This can get really frustrating if this happens multiple times.

As I can't give you implementation hints how to hack around this problem, the only possibility I see is what you have already suggested:

I could also skip fullscreen mode entirely because Esc is essential for a good UX of the game and there is no acceptable workaround.

copyright - Is it safe to use an image when I'm unable to identify its source?

I found a photo on the internet and want to use it in my free Android app.

The problem is that I can't find the source, so I don't know if this photo is legally available for such use or not.

What is a sensible course of action when a designer wants to use a photo / graphic, but is unable to identify its source?

Answer

Try using Google's search by image to find the original.

If you are unable to find it or the copyright about using it, you should not use it in your app to be safe.

mobile - Changing between privacy type of profile attributes

The privacy settings page will list all the user profile attributes like Name, Age, School, Work, Hobbies, Contact Info etc. sans their values. The user can then choose which of the attributes to make Public, Private or Confidential

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While in Read Only mode, the user can see the list of all the attributes categorized according to their privacy settings.

However, I'm unsure of the Edit mode layout. One of the thoughts is to have a drop down with the three privacy setting values. When the dropdown changes (to say Private), a checkbox (or radio) appears to the right of attributes in other categories. The user can then check the attributes and press Submit to make the selected attributes as say Private.

Generally, had there been only two choices, a toggle switch would have been a better idea. How do I handle the three choices? Is there a better way to allow changing (or editing) the privacy settings of individual attributes?

Please edit the tags if inappropriate.

UPDATE: The attributes could number in hundreds

What PPI settings should I use to print a poster from Photoshop?

Recently I needed to make an A3 size poster for my college fest so I opened up a new .psd, set the dimensions to 11.7" x 16.5" 300 PPI under 16-Bit.

As you know the file size ran into 100 MBs and also I my computer lagged while putting text/images over that document. My questions are:

1. 
   

   For printing a poster, should I go for 8-bit or 16-Bit mode?

   
   


2. 
   

   For putting my poster on the web what should be the PPI because I think 300PPI is just too much? Also, should I go for 8-bit or 16-Bit mode?

   
   


3. 
   
   

   My computer lagged while editing, so if I'm designing an A3 size poster for printing, can I lower the quality (e.g. 100PPI, 8-bit) just for the sake of ease of making it prevent lagging once the poster is complete, switch it to optimum quality as before? Will it effect anything provided I'm using high-res images?

   
   

Answer

For printing a poster, should I go for 8 or 16-Bit mode?

16-bit color is usually overkill for most any project. Professional photographers will often use it for the flexibility it provides when editing RAW imagery, but beyond that, it's not usually something you'd need to deal with.

For putting my poster on web, what should be the ppi because I think 300 is just too much?

On the web, PPI is completely irrelevant. PPI settings in PhotoShop are only relevant when a) you are printing and b) the software you are printing from recognizes PhotoShop's PPI setting and automatically sizes your image to match. (This means that most of the time, the PPI setting in PhotoShop isn't really relevant outside of PhotoShop.)

For the web, ignore PPI. All that matters is the pixel dimensions. If you want to display your image 800 pixels wide, make it 800 pixels wide.

Also should I go for 8 or 16-Bit mode?

I'm not aware of any file format on the web that supports 16-bit color.

As you know that my computer lagged while editing, so if I'm designing an A3 size poster for printing, can I lower the quality(e.g. 100ppi, 8-bit) just for the sake of ease of making it/prevent lagging and once the poster is complete, switch it to optimum quality as before?

You can but...

Will it effect anything provided I'm using high-res images?

Yes, you will essentially be working with a 100ppi image. While increasing resolution in PhotoShop can improve the image quality slightly, it can't magically turn low-res imagery into hi-res images very well. So you typically don't ever want to increase the resolution of your image as the gains aren't there.

All that said: Note that posters rarely need to be 300ppi. The 300ppi 'standard' typically refers to quality print work done for hand-held reading. Typical example being decent quality magazines.

A poster is rarely read at the same distance as a magazine. Most people will view a poster from 3-10' away. At that range, 300ppi is overkill. You likely can get away with 150ppi in a lot of cases (if not even lower).

Finally, consider using a vector-based tool in the future such as InDesign or Adobe Illustrator. This is often the best of both worlds. For instance, you may import a background photo at 150ppi, but then set your type in Illustrator on top of it, giving you the maximum resolution for your type that the printer supports.

How to keep text formatting when updating 'Linked' txt files in InDesign?

With the option of 'Create Links When Placing Text and Spreadsheet Files' enabled in InDesign, is it possible having a txt file (plain text) that is continuously updated outside InDesign to keep the formatting inside InDesign?

In InDesign, whenever I update the Link of the text box all formatting is lost.

Tabs design pattern, solving for "N" tabs

I've seen many design patterns that help solve different content presentation issues by leveraging "tabs".

Assuming I do want to display grouped content on a page (complex content or simple) and support multi-device experience.

Assuming I have "N" number of such groups.

Let's also assume, the amount of groups can not be drastically reduced by doing IA revamp

1. What are the pros and cons around the patterns I've listed below?


2. Are there any other design patterns that could offer better UX compared to what I listed below?

I have my own opinion and a list of pros and cons for each, however I wanted to ask here to broaden my knowledge.

Answer

Nice question - I am looking for other answers than mine as well!

@ Version 1:

Android introduced this as a more "standard" element for mobile apps (swiping screens that mimic "tabs"), when iOS still went for the segmented control as the only opportunity to go for tab-like structures. So Android wanted to have more complex architecture, while accepting complexity in usability.

Pro: Learned behavior on the most used mobile OS; Is able to contain very complex structures; Mobile friendly.

Con: For desktop, this is very uncommon behavior (scrolling right-left is harder than up-down); users can not see what is at the end of the tab list; probably not intuitive at all

@ Version 2:

I honestly never used this one. On first sight,

Pro: Visibility of most likely all the options possible (if we are talking about N tabs, this might not be the case)

Con: Position of tab content hardly predictable; Connection of tab to content hard, as soon as we have 2 rows of tabs; possibility of losing overview on responsive sight - can a user grasp all information if the boxes are not of the same width?; possibly inifitely complex

@ Version 3:

Pro: easily readable For european readers; Can be attached to a horizontal top nav; good for desktop usage (e.g. with mega menus that expand from top nav); Possible nice control with mouse wheel

Con: Hardly usable for phones (blocks too much horizontal space, is potentially getting infinitely long); Not all options are visible on first sight; Acroll all devices, vertical space is more limited than horizontal space, so possibly the amount of items visible is lower than horizontally ordered

@ Version 4:

Pro: Smallest space usage;

Con: Cannot contain content as tabs can(if we are not using another box to push the content to); The longer the list the worse the mobile usage;

So if I could, I would use horizontal tabs (again: Depending on context), since the vertical limit is smaller and it is learned Android behavior. If I co not have control over the amount of tab items, I would reconsider using tabs at all, since the flaw of "not having an overview" over all tabs destroys the tab's purpose (which I think is the major flaw of the Android approach).

When writing science fiction, how important is it to provide scientific details for the (fictitious) things you are presenting in the story?

I know there is a difference between 'hard' and 'soft' science fiction. But even then, it can be hard to know what sort of categorization in which to place and treat your story, and it is not really clear how little science 'soft science fiction' is allowed to have.