设计神话：花式椅子 (The myth of design: Fancy chairs)

The role of design has many interpretations. When we say the word “design,” many images appear in people’s minds. A common one is that of an expensive, perhaps Italian, maybe reductive or ornamental, chair.

设计的作用有多种解释。 当我们说“设计”一词时，人们的脑海中就会出现许多图像。 一种常见的椅子是昂贵的椅子，也许是意大利的，也许是还原性的或装饰性的椅子。

This interpretation of design is the most troubling and far from the truth: That design exists to produce products that are expensive, that are exclusive, that belong in a museum or a rich person’s house to be gazed at. I call this the Fancy Chair Myth, which narrows the purpose and role of design to something so extremely specific, ignoring the broader and much more significant way that design shapes our understanding, beliefs, and world. Apologies to these fancy chairs, as they are just innocent victims of how confused we can be about what design is.

对设计的这种解释是最令人不安的，与事实相去甚远：存在这种设计是为了生产昂贵的，专有的产品，这些产品属于博物馆或有钱人的房子。 我称之为“幻想椅子神话”，它将设计的目的和作用缩小到非常具体的东西，而忽略了设计影响我们的理解，信念和世界的更广泛，更重要的方式。 对这些精美的椅子表示歉意，因为它们只是我们对设计的困惑感到无辜的受害者。

The truth about design is it shapes our understanding of the world and our experience within it. What defines us as humans is our ability to design our world. Design is a man-made phenomenon eclipsing our natural environment. It is a veil we have created, reaching every aspect of our lives. How we wake up in the morning is designed through tools, technologies, furniture. As is the rest of our day—how we prioritize what’s important, how we communicate, how we work. Design informs whom we fall in love with, how we get the best deals on jeans, how we document sunsets. The impact of design extends from the physical world to how we understand ideas and what we identify with. It shapes how we understand our world, how we decide what is important, and, ultimately, what we believe in.

设计的真相在于，它塑造了我们对世界的了解以及我们对世界的了解。 定义我们为人类的是我们设计世界的能力。 设计是一种人为现象，使我们的自然环境黯然失色。 这是我们创造的面纱，触及我们生活的方方面面。 我们早上的起床方式是通过工具，技术和家具来设计的。 就像今天的其余部分一样，我们如何优先考虑重要的事情，如何沟通，如何工作。 设计告诉我们我们爱上谁，如何获得牛仔裤的最佳优惠，如何记录日落。 设计的影响力已从物理世界扩展到我们如何理解想法以及与我们认同的内容。 它决定着我们如何理解我们的世界，如何决定重要的事物以及最终的信念。

设计与理解 (Design and understanding)

We understand our world and the experiences within it through both logic and emotion: The curious mixture of the two creates individual meaning. Each of us responds to our own precise ratio of these two things, unique to our particular personalities. While many of us want to believe logic is the dominant lens through which we see the world, we are much more influenced by what we feel and what moves us — our intuition.

我们通过逻辑和情感来理解我们的世界以及其中的体验：两者的奇特混合创造了个人的意义。 我们每个人都对这两种事物的精确比例做出回应，这是我们特定个性所独有的。 尽管我们中的许多人希望相信逻辑是我们看世界的主要视角，但我们更受我们的感受和感动我们的直觉的影响。

Our emotional world, complex and robust as it is, informs our decisions of what we love and hate, what we want to own, what we want to do, and ultimately who we want to be. The feeling that design triggers in us informs those instinctive responses — whether we notice, act, remember, or forget.

我们的情感世界既复杂又健壮，它可以将我们的爱与恨，想要拥有的东西，想要做的事情以及最终想要成为的人告知我们的决定。 设计触发我们的感觉会告知那些本能的React-无论我们注意到，行动，记住或忘记。

Imagine there is a spectrum with logic on one side and emotion on the other, each person landing on a different point in between. As designers, we must know where our audience falls on the spectrum, for it signifies the best approach to reach them. Their response — attention — is the first step to designing for understanding.

想象一下，存在着一方面具有逻辑性而另一方面具有情感性的频谱，每个人都落在两者之间的不同点上。 作为设计师，我们必须知道我们的受众群体在哪里，因为这是接触他们的最佳途径。 他们的回应-关注-是进行理解设计的第一步。

Design is the gateway to understanding, and this breaks down into three distinct components: what something is (the content of the message), what it looks like (the visual design), and what we think it is (how it is perceived). Designers tend to focus on the visual design without paying attention to how that informs what the audience will think it is. That approach is not enough. Visual design, alone, is not enough.

设计是理解的门户，它分为三个不同的组件： 什么是什么(消息的内容)，它的外观(视觉设计)以及我们的想法(如何感知)。 设计师倾向于专注于视觉设计，而不关注如何告知观众其真实感受。 这种方法还不够。 仅凭视觉设计是远远不够的。

Successful design sends intentional messages to the audience and helps them understand what they are looking at. Likewise, if design is not functioning properly, it can confuse, mislead, or lose the audience’s attention.

成功的设计向受众传达了故意的信息，并帮助他们了解他们在看什么。 同样，如果设计无法正常运行，则可能会造成混乱，误导或失去听众的注意。

一个例子 (An example)

In my work as a creative director at SYPartners, my team and I are often tasked with designing toward a goal of understanding something with our clients (a new strategy, the purpose of an organization, current conditions within their team that need to be addressed). By using design to bring forward diverse ideas, perspectives, data, and stories, we help create a fuller context of their organizations.

在SYPartners担任创意总监的工作中，我和我的团队经常要朝着与客户理解某些东西的目标(新战略，组织的目的，团队中当前需要解决的目标)进行设计。 。 通过使用设计提出各种想法，观点，数据和故事，我们可以帮助创建其组织的更完整上下文。

For our work with a major health retailer, we aimed to broaden the executive team’s understanding of their in-store employees. We wanted to illustrate the challenges these workers face in the hopes of improving their experience. After months of research, we shared our learnings in the form of an exhibition our clients could experience, complete with large-scale images of retail employees, sounds from the stores, and direct audio quotes from on-the-ground interviews. Though our clients were not surprised by our findings, this immersive experience made them think differently. They felt more empathy for their in-store colleagues and solidified their commitment to improving their experience.

在与一家大型保健零售商的合作中，我们旨在扩大执行团队对店内员工的了解。 我们想说明这些工人为了改善他们的经验而面临的挑战。 经过数月的研究，我们以客户可以体验的展览形式分享了我们的经验，并配有零售员工的大型图像，商店的声音以及现场采访的直接音频报价。 尽管我们的客户对我们的发现并不感到惊讶，但这种身临其境的体验却使他们有所不同。 他们对店内同事产生了更多的同情心，并坚定了他们改善经验的承诺。

在设计理解时，请记住以下几点 (When designing for understanding, keep the following in mind)

1. Ensure what is most significant is also most visible. We see before we read. We form first impressions before we examine our judgments. Designers must make sure the most significant part of the message is also most visible.

   确保最重要的内容也是最可见的。 我们先看再看。 在检查我们的判断之前，我们会形成第一印象。 设计人员必须确保消息的最重要部分也最可见。

2. Identify which parts of a design we need people to remember. Is it an emotional condition? Is it an urgency to act? Is it something that is brand new? Ensure those elements are clear.

   确定我们需要人们记住的设计的哪些部分。 这是情绪状态吗？ 紧急采取行动吗？ 这是全新的东西吗？ 确保这些元素清楚。

3. Understand the complexity, or how much cognitive load is carried with the design. Be aware of what your design requires of your audience, and make sure it is appropriate for who they are and how much time they have to spend with the experience or artifact. The more complex it is, the more time your audience will need to understand it.

   了解复杂性，或设计承担了多少认知负荷。 请注意您的设计对听众的要求，并确保它适合他们是谁，以及他们需要花费多少时间来体验或人工制作。 它越复杂，您的听众就需要更多的时间来理解它。

4. Test out your ideas frequently to learn about your audience. This is critical to understand what the people you are designing for will respond to.

   经常测试您的想法，以了解您的受众。 这对于了解您要设计的人员将做出的响应至关重要。

信仰之谜 (The mystery of belief)

Unlike designing for understanding, designing for belief-building is more mercurial and complex in nature. To illustrate this idea, let’s consider one of the most consequential, and fixed, forms of belief: religion. Think of someone you know who is religious, and imagine what it would take to change their belief system to a new one. No one’s mind is changed by stating facts or provoking disagreements. People’s beliefs and their identity are inseparable; we are defined by our beliefs. No one’s nature compels them to say, “I was wrong, I believe something different now.”

与为理解而设计不同，为信仰建立而设计在本质上更加复杂和复杂。 为了说明这个想法，让我们考虑一种最直接，最固定的信仰形式：宗教。 想一想您认识的人是谁，并想象将他们的信仰体系改变为一个新的信仰体系会发生什么。 陈述事实或挑起分歧不会改变任何人的想法。 人们的信仰和身份密不可分； 我们是由我们的信念定义的。 没有人会强迫他们说：“我错了，我相信现在有所不同。”

This makes belief-building even more challenging.

这使建立信念更加具有挑战性。

We live in a world where belief has eroded in the most visceral of ways. Throughout history, belief systems have kept communities together, aligned countries, connected individuals. We currently see a tectonic shift from belief to disbelief, modeled from the top of many governments. Facts and evidence have lost their luster as if they are collecting dust on a forgotten shelf in a corner. Believing something to be true is more informed by our community and identity than what factual evidence is placed in front of us. If anyone has let themselves get into a tangled political fight on Facebook, you probably have experienced this. No minds are changed despite the number of comments posted, despite the number of challenging facts offered. The desire for our beliefs to be true has become more powerful than the truth itself.

我们生活在一个以最内在的方式侵蚀信仰的世界。 纵观历史，信仰体系使社区保持团结，国家团结，个人联系在一起。 当前，我们看到了从信仰向不信任的构造转变，这是根据许多政府高层的榜样进行的。 事实和证据失去了光泽，就好像它们在角落里被遗忘的架子上收集灰尘一样。 相信真实的东西比我们面前的事实证据更能体现我们的社区和身份。 如果有人让自己在Facebook上陷入纠结的政治斗争，那么您可能已经经历过。 尽管发表了评论，尽管提出了许多具有挑战性的事实，但仍然没有改变主意。 渴望我们的信念成为真实的渴望比真理本身更加强大。

To simplify: Many of us either believe fully or believe nothing.

为简化起见：我们许多人要么完全相信，要么什么都不相信。

Even with dedication, conscientiousness, and design rigor, there is still mystery in what moves people toward changing their beliefs. There is no set of ingredients that are universal in opening someone’s mind toward a new point of view. We tend to design to general characteristics of our audience, but the more specific we can get for individuals, the deeper our understanding of their nuances and personalities, the higher the chance we have to help them see in a different way, and maybe believe something different.

即使有奉献精神，尽职尽责和严谨的设计，仍然存在着使人们改变信仰的谜团。 没有任何一套通用的要素可以使人们对新的观点开放。 我们倾向于根据受众群体的总体特征进行设计，但是对于个人而言，我们可以获得的信息越具体，对他们的细微差别和个性的理解就越深，我们有更多机会帮助他们以不同的方式看待并相信某些东西不同。

At our best, if we provide a new approach or way of thinking, our audience will say to themselves, “Yes, I want that, versus what I have today.” Creating the desire for something new is almost more critical than creating a deep sense of understanding. Without the desire, without creating an imaginative space in our audience toward a preferred condition, we will fall short on our ambitions and the success of our work will be diminished.

在最好的情况下，如果我们提供一种新的方法或思维方式，我们的听众会对自己说：“是的，我想要的，与今天相比。” 创造对新事物的渴望比建立深刻的理解感更为关键。 没有欲望，就没有在观众中创造一种朝着理想状态的想象空间，我们将无法实现自己的雄心壮志，工作的成功也将因此而减少。

Much of our work at SYPartners is rooted in the idea of belief-building. We help our clients believe in different futures they could pursue, and we help their companies believe in the potential of organizational change. Each moment of our work is contextual — relating specifically to the moment an organization inhabits and the future in which they hope to be.

我们在SYPartners的许多工作都植根于信念建立的思想。 我们帮助客户相信他们可以追求的不同未来，并且帮助他们的公司相信组织变革的潜力。 我们工作的每个时刻都是与环境相关的-具体来说与组织居住的时刻以及他们希望成为的未来有关。

一个例子 (An example)

For a global technological company, we were tasked with shaping the culture of a large tier of managers toward a new way of coaching the sellers they managed, which we called “challenger coaching.” To encourage them to embrace the change, we knew it was essential to build the belief that challenger coaching was better than their current methods.

对于一家跨国技术公司而言，我们的任务是塑造大批管理人员的文化，以一种新的方式来指导他们所管理的卖方，我们称之为“挑战者辅导”。 为了鼓励他们接受变革，我们知道必须树立这样的信念，即挑战者教练比他们目前的方法更好。

Over the course of a two-day summit, we brought coaching to life through unexpected and memorable experiences. When people first entered the room, music was blaring. At the front were two boxers being coached on sparring in a boxing ring, which we used as our stage. This signaled immediately that the summit would be a different kind of event than they were used to, and the attendees maintained engagement and energy until the end of the two days. A highlight was when our boxing coach talked with the 300 managers about how she coaches her young fighters to win, amplifying the boxing metaphor again. Our audience of corporate managers responded with a standing ovation.

在为期两天的峰会过程中，我们通过意想不到的难忘经历使教练变得栩栩如生。 当人们第一次进入房间时，音乐在燃烧。 在前面，有两名拳击手在拳击台中被陪练，我们以此为舞台。 这立即表明峰会将是与以往不同的活动，与会人员一直保持参与和精力，直到两天结束。 当我们的拳击教练与300名经理交谈时，她谈到了如何指导年轻的战斗机获胜，这再次凸显了拳击的比喻。 我们公司管理人员的听众们起立鼓掌。

Through the event, we built belief by helping people want to do things differently, and by helping them learn how to do things differently. Every part of the agenda — activities, discussions, speeches — was a mixture of emotion, logic, and inspiration.

在整个活动中，我们通过帮助人们想做不同的事情，并帮助他们学习如何做不同的事情来树立信念。 议程的每个部分(活动，讨论，演讲)都是情感，逻辑和灵感的结合。

One manager said the event made him want to be a better manager, but more significantly, a better father. I can only hypothesize what changed inside him, but we must have created a desire to view things differently, an understanding of a better way of leading, and a feeling inside of him that he didn’t want to let go of.

一位经理说，这次活动使他想成为一个更好的经理，但更重要的是，他想成为一个更好的父亲。 我只能假设他内部发生了什么变化，但是我们必须创造出一种希望以不同的方式看待事物，理解更好的领导方式以及他内心中他不想放手的感觉。

There is no one surefire way to design for belief. However, in my experience, some principles have proven successful on a general basis:

没有一种确定信念的可靠方法。 但是，以我的经验，某些原则已被普遍证明是成功的：

1. Show don’t tell. The old annoying cliche, “You have to see it to believe it” is, unfortunately, true. Show through vivid, real, and tangible ways.

   显示不告诉。 不幸的是，古老的烦人陈词滥调“您必须看到它才能相信”。 通过生动，真实和有形的方式进行展示。

2. Belief is about feelings, not just facts. People respond emotionally to different things, so explore what would be most powerful with your audience — anything that helps people understand your content through experience versus factual representation. It could also be impactful to share information in new, unexpected ways. One of these ways is inundation, confronting your audience with large amounts of designed content in order to provoke a new perspective. The scale forces people to pay attention.

   信念是关于感情的，而不仅仅是事实。 人们会对不同的事物产生情感上的React，因此请探索对您的听众最有帮助的事物-可以帮助人们通过经验与事实陈述来理解您的内容的任何事物。 以新的出乎意料的方式共享信息也可能会产生影响。 其中一种方法是淹没，用大量设计的内容面对观众，以激发新的视角。 规模迫使人们注意。

3. Throughout your design process, always ask yourself this question: “What does this mean for your audience?” We all look at the world from our own vantage point. How could we not — it’s our default (as David Foster Wallace explained in his commencement speech, “This Is Water”). Meet them where they are, not where you want them to be. Empathy for your audience is essential to building belief.

   在整个设计过程中，请始终问自己一个问题：“这对您的听众意味着什么？” 我们都从自己的角度审视世界。 我们怎么不能-这是我们的默认设置(正如David Foster Wallace在开幕词“这就是水”中解释的那样)。 在他们所在的地方见他们，而不是在他们想要的地方见他们。 对您的听众同情对建立信念至关重要。

Design is the most powerful way of communicating ideas that we have as a species. It is responsible for so much more than where we sit — apologies again to the fancy chairs that have come to symbolize design — but how we understand ourselves and believe in what is possible.

设计是传达我们作为一个物种的想法的最有效方式。 它不仅对我们所处的位置负责，而且还对象征设计的花式椅子表示歉意，但对我们如何理解自己并相信可能发生的事情却深表歉意。

Being conscious of the infinite ways design shapes our world will expand what we as designers think our work can be.

意识到设计对我们的世界产生无限影响的方式将扩大我们作为设计师认为我们的工作范围的范围。