Over the last year, for reasons that are not related to this article, I had the chance to drive many different cars. My beloved Ford Fiesta, my father’s Volkswagen Fox, my brother’s Peugeot 206, a very battered Chevrolet Cobalt (never trust Hertz), a couple of Mini Cooper, a couple BMW 1 Series, a Citroën C3 Cactus, and a few more that I’m forgetting about.

去年，由于与本文无关的原因，我有机会驾驶了许多不同的汽车。 我心爱的福特嘉年华，父亲的大众福克斯，哥哥的标致206，饱受摧残的雪佛兰Cobalt(永远不信任赫兹)，几个Mini Cooper，几个BMW 1系，雪铁龙C3仙人掌，还有一些我想说的”我忘了。

Every time I sat down behind a wheel, the same feeling struck me like lightning: car design is awesome. I was sitting in a 1-ton machine with the power to kill other people, without reading or listening to one single instruction, and nonetheless, I was able to drive the thing flawlessly in seconds.

每次我坐在方向盘后面时，都会像闪电一样击中我：汽车设计很棒。 我坐在一台重达1吨的机器上，可以杀死其他人，而无需阅读或聆听一条指令，尽管如此，我仍然能够在几秒钟内完美地开车。

I felt envious every time.

每次我都很羡慕。

Imagine designing digital products that don’t require one single line of copy. Imagine the ultimate digital product with zero onboarding.

想象一下设计不需要单行复制的数字产品。 想象一下零加载的终极数字产品。

Of course, this comparison is unfair, because it took me many years of practice to achieve this level of proficiency with cars, and it took the industry many more years to improve the designs.

当然，这种比较是不公平的，因为我花了很多年的实践才能达到这种熟练的汽车水平，并且整个行业花了很多年时间来改进设计。

Nevertheless, as Massimo Vignelli put it in his Canon, Design is one.

不过，正如Massimo Vignelli在他的佳能中所说的那样， 设计就是其中之一 。

“Design is one — it is not many different ones. The discipline of Design is one and can be applied to many different subjects, regardless of style. Design discipline is above and beyond any style. All style requires discipline in order to be expressed.”

“设计是一体的-设计不是很多。 设计学科是一门学科，可以应用于许多不同的主题，而不论其样式如何。 设计纪律超越任何风格。 所有样式都需要纪律才能表达出来。”

So, if the discipline of design is only one, there has to be a way to apply all the magic behind the automotive design in user experience design. Vignelli has an answer to this: the intangibles of design. These guidelines are not intended to stifle creativity or to reduce it to a bunch of rules, but to support creative work with knowledge to be able to perform at its best.

因此，如果设计学科只是一门学科，就必须有一种方法可以将汽车设计背后的所有魔力应用到用户体验设计中。 维格内利对此有一个答案：设计的无形资产。 这些指南的目的不是扼杀创造力或将其简化为一堆规则，而是以知识来支持创造力工作，以使其发挥最佳性能。

Within these intangibles principles, he identified three main aspects: Semantic, Syntactic and Pragmatic.

在这些无形原则中，他确定了三个主要方面：语义，句法和语用。

语义学 (Semantics)

I cannot count how many times I’ve asked a designer “Why did you put this here?” and heard an awkward silence afterward for a few seconds. This is the number one reason I discard designers in interviews.

我无法计算问设计师的次数“为什么把它放在这里？” 然后听到了尴尬的沉默几秒钟。 这是我在采访中丢弃设计师的第一原因。

Like in relationships, designers are always tempted by meaningless beauty. And in the era of the dribbblisation of design, this problem is becoming more and more relevant.

就像在关系中一样，设计师总是被毫无意义的美丽所吸引。 在设计运筹帷era的时代，这个问题变得越来越重要。

To put it simply, semantics is the search for the meaning of whatever we have to design. And no matter how obvious and basic it sounds, is the explanation of why the majority of designs fail.

简而言之，语义就是对我们必须设计的内容的意义的搜索。 无论听起来多么明显和基本，它都是大多数设计失败的原因的解释。

“Semantics, in design, means to understand the subject in all its aspects; to relate the subject to the sender and the receiver in such a way that it makes sense to both. It means to design something that has a meaning, that is not arbitrary, that has a reason for being, something in which every detail carries the meaning or has a precise purpose aimed at a precise target. How often we see design that has no meaning: stripes and swash of color splashed across pages for no reason whatsoever.”

“在设计中，语义学意味着从各个方面理解该主题； 将主题与发送者和接收者联系起来，使两者都有意义。 它意味着设计具有某种意义的东西，该意义不是随心所欲的，而是具有存在的理由的，其中每个细节都具有意义或具有针对特定目标的精确目的的事物。 我们经常看到无意义的设计：无缘无故地在页面上溅出条纹和色点。”

As a UX designer, you are obligated to do some type of research. Not having time or resources is no excuse. If there is no time to do research, there is no time to do design. There are plenty of tools and techniques out there. Pick your favorite and find at least one explanation for each decision.

作为UX设计师，您必须进行某种类型的研究。 没有时间或资源是没有借口的。 如果没有时间进行研究，那么就没有时间进行设计。 有很多工具和技术。 选择您喜欢的事物，并为每个决定至少找到一个解释。

And if you find doing research boring and you prefer to spend your time drawing meaningless shit, then consider a career in doodling but please don’t call yourself a designer. Sorry for the cruelty, but it took me years to understand this and I’ve seen it in hundreds of so-called designers.

而且，如果您觉得做研究很无聊，并且喜欢花时间画毫无意义的东西，那么可以考虑从事涂鸦工作，但请不要称自己为设计师。 很抱歉让您感到残酷，但花了我几年的时间才明白这一点，而且我在数百名所谓的设计师中都看到了。

The same goes for UI design. You should be able to explain every single line, border radius, drop shadow, or whatever thing you put in there.

UI设计也是如此。 您应该能够解释每条线，边界半径，阴影或放置在其中的任何内容。

The main principle that rules every design decision is “Form follows function”.

决定每个设计决策的主要原则是“形式遵循功能”。

“Whether it be the sweeping eagle in his flight, or the open apple-blossom, the toiling work-horse, the blithe swan, the branching oak, the winding stream at its base, the drifting clouds, over all the coursing sun, form ever follows function, and this is the law. Where function does not change, form does not change. The granite rocks, the ever-brooding hills, remain for ages; the lightning lives, comes into shape, and dies, in a twinkling.

“无论是在他的飞行扫鹰，或打开苹果花，劳苦工作的马，的令人愉快的天鹅，分支橡树，在其基础上，飘过的云彩，在所有的窃喜阳光， 形成绕组流始终遵循功能 ，这就是定律。 在功能不变的地方，形式不变。 花岗岩岩石，繁茂的山丘，久存。 闪电瞬间生出生命，成形并消亡。

It is the pervading law of all things organic and inorganic, of all things physical and metaphysical, of all things human and all things superhuman, of all true manifestations of the head, of the heart, of the soul, that the life is recognizable in its expression, that form ever follows function. This is the law.”

生命是可识别的，这是有机的和无机的所有事物，所有物理和形而上的事物，人类的所有事物以及超人类的所有事物，头部，心脏，灵魂的所有真实表现的普遍定律。它的表达形式始终遵循功能。 这是法律。 ”

Louis Sullivan

路易斯·沙利文

句法学 (Syntactics)

In language, the syntax is the discipline that controls the proper use of grammar in the construction of phrases and the articulation of the language.

在语言中，语法是控制在短语的构造和语言的表达中正确使用语法的学科。

“The syntax of design is provided by many components in the nature of the project. In graphic design, for instance, they are the overall structure, the grid, the typefaces the text and headlines, the illustrations, etc. The consistency of a design is provided by the appropriate relationship of the various syntactical elements of the project: how type relates to grids and images from page to page throughout the whole project.”

“设计的语法由项目的性质中的许多组件提供。 例如，在图形设计中，它们是整体结构，网格，文字和标题的字体，插图等。设计的一致性由项目各种语法元素之间的适当关系提供：与整个项目中每一页的网格和图像有关。”

Web design is not that different from graphic design, is in fact, two-dimensional design. Most of the rules -or the syntactics- of graphic design apply to interaction design.

网页设计与图形设计没有什么不同，实际上是二维设计。 图形设计的大多数规则(或语法)都适用于交互设计。

But interaction design adds extra layers of complexity. You can say it’s graphic design on steroids. And some of the most world-famous syntactics are the Don Norman’s principles of interaction design: visibility, feedback, constraints, mapping, consistency, and affordances.

但是交互设计增加了额外的复杂性。 您可以说这是类固醇的图形设计。 Don Norman的交互设计原则是一些世界上最著名的语法：可见性，反馈，约束，映射，一致性和负担能力。

Again, many designs fail at these basic rules. From not respecting a grid to sloppy reading levels. From lacking affordances to no feedback. We all been there.

同样，许多设计都无法遵循这些基本规则。 从不尊重网格到草率的阅读水平。 从缺乏能力到没有反馈。 我们都去过那里。

Understanding and honoring these rules is what makes interfaces usable. There is no much to invent here.

理解并遵守这些规则是使界面可用的原因。 这里没有什么要发明的。

语用学 (Pragmatics)

And last but not least, we need to understand that simply applying all these concepts is not enough.

最后但并非最不重要的一点是，我们需要了解仅应用所有这些概念是不够的。

“We design things which we think are semantically correct and syntactically consistent but if, at the point of fruition, no one understands the result, or the meaning of all that effort, the entire work is useless. (…) Any artifact should stand by itself in all its clarity.”

“我们设计的东西我们认为在语义上是正确的，并且在语法上是一致的，但是如果在实现这一点时，没人能理解结果或所有努力的含义，那么整个工作就毫无用处。 (…)任何文物都应以其全部清晰性自立。”

This is the thick line that divides design, a form of communication, from art.

这是将设计(一种交流形式)与艺术分开的粗线。

I like to measure the pragmatics of an interface in the amount of copy and onboarding flows it needs. The more, the worse. If your interface is not self-explanatory, then something must be wrong.

我喜欢用所需的复制和入门流程来衡量界面的实用性。 愈多愈差。 如果您的界面不言自明，那么一定有问题。

There are many ways of making interfaces usable, but one of the principles I always try to follow is the “MAYA” principle. Loewy formulated his “Most Advanced Yet Acceptable” principle to express that product designs are bound by functional constraints of math and materials and logic, but their acceptance is constrained by social expectations. His advice was that for very new technologies, they should be made as familiar as possible, but for familiar technologies, they should be made surprising.

使接口可用的方法有很多，但是我一直尝试遵循的原则之一是“ MAYA”原则。 洛伊(Loewy)制定了“最先进但可以接受的原则”，以表示产品设计受数学，材料和逻辑的功能约束的约束，但其接受却受到社会期望的约束。 他的建议是，对于非常新的技术，应使其尽可能熟悉，但对于熟悉的技术，应使它们令人惊讶。

In interface design, these “social expectations” are what Jakob Nielsen refers to as mental models. A mental model is what the user believes about the system at hand.

在界面设计中，这些“社会期望”就是雅各布·尼尔森(Jakob Nielsen)所谓的心理模型 。 心智模型是用户对手头系统的看法。

This concept is also within the 10 heuristics from Nielsen for User Interface Design. It is actually number 2:

该概念也属于Nielsen用于用户界面设计的10种启发式方法。 实际上是数字2：

#2: Match between system and the real worldThe system should speak the users’ language, with words, phrases and concepts familiar to the user, rather than system-oriented terms. Follow real-world conventions, making information appear in a natural and logical order.

＃2：系统与现实世界之间的匹配系统应该使用用户熟悉的单词，短语和概念来讲用户的语言，而不是面向系统的术语。 遵循现实世界的惯例，使信息以自然和逻辑的顺序出现。

My golden rule to validate the pragmatics is very simple: don’t write a single line of code if you haven’t tested the design with -at least- one human being.

我验证实用程序的黄金法则很简单：如果您没有(至少)一个人进行过测试，则不要编写任何代码。

So, always remember:

因此，请始终记住：

“Whatever we do, if not understood, fails to communicate and is wasted effort.”

“如果我们不理解，我们所做的任何事情都会沟通失败，浪费时间。”

学科 (Discipline)

Another important intangible of design is the attention to detail that is achieved with discipline. This is probably the thing that I suck at the most, and one thing that I’ve failed to do over and over again.

设计的另一个重要无形要素是对纪律性的关注。 这可能是我最讨厌的事情，也是我一次又一次失败的事情。

Vignelli says that “There is no room for sloppiness, for carelessness,for procrastination”. Well, I have room for all of those, don’t be me.

维格内利说：“没有放纵，粗心，拖延的空间”。 好吧，我有足够的空间容纳所有这些，不是我。

In digital product design, there is always a concept that is misused and that is the concept of “MVP” (Minimum Viable Product). Caught in the fever of fast time to market, we are tempted to cut many things and neglect to pay attention to detail. This is a major mistake.

在数字产品设计中，总是存在被滥用的概念，即“ MVP”(最小可行产品)的概念。 面对快速上市的热潮，我们很想削减很多东西，而忽略了注重细节。 这是一个重大错误。

In his book ‘The Lean Product Playbook’ (or like a call it, “the bible”), Dan Olsen puts it very clear. An MVP has to be functional, reliable, usable and delightful.

丹·奥尔森(Dan Olsen)在他的著作《精益产品手册》(或称其为“圣经”)中说得很清楚。 MVP必须功能，可靠，可用和令人愉悦。

“Every detail is important because the end result is the sum of all the detailsinvolved in the creative process no matter what we are doing. There are no hierarchies when it comes to quality. Quality is there or is not there,and if is not there we have lost our time. It is a commitment and a continuously painstaking effort of the creative process to which we should abide. That is Discipline and without it there is no good design, regardless of its style.”

“每个细节都很重要，因为无论我们在做什么，最终结果都是创意过程涉及的所有细节的总和。 关于质量，没有层次结构。 质量在那里或那里不存在，如果不存在，我们就浪费了时间。 这是我们应该遵守的创造性过程的承诺和不断的艰苦努力。 那就是纪律，没有它，就没有好的设计，无论其风格如何。”

Attention to detail is not a plus, is a must. Again, I learned this the hard way through the years.

注重细节不是加分，是必须的。 多年来，我再次通过艰辛的方式学习了这一点。

I strongly recommend you to read the Canon if you haven’t. You’ll find more tools to support your creative process.

我强烈建议您阅读佳能。 您会发现更多支持创作过程的工具。

And to close, a thought from Vignelli about Responsibility in design:

最后，Vignelli关于设计责任的想法：

“In the end, a design should stand by itself, without excuses, explanations, apologies. It should represent the fulfillment of a successful process in all its beauty. A responsible solution.”

最终，设计应该独立存在，没有任何借口，解释和道歉。 它应该代表成功过程的全部美感。 一个负责任的解决方案。”

Vignelli, Massimo (2009). “The Vignelli Canon”Sullivan, Louis H. (1896). “The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered”Norman, Don (1988). “The Design of Everyday Things”Nielsen, Jakob (2010). “Mental Models”Nielsen, Jakob (1999). “10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design”Olsen, Dan (2015). “The Lean Product Playbook: How to Innovate with Minimum Viable Products and Rapid Customer Feedback”

Vignelli，Massimo(2009年)。 “ 维格涅利佳能 ”，沙利文，路易斯·H(1896)。 “ 从艺术角度考虑了高大的办公楼 ”，诺曼·唐(1988)。 “ 日常事物的设计 ”，尼尔森，雅各布(2010)。 “ 心理模型 ”，尼尔森·雅各布(1999)。 “ 用户界面设计的10种可用性启发式方法 ”，Olsen，Dan(2015年)。 “ 精益产品手册：如何用最少的可行产品和快速的客户反馈进行创新 ”