I will always remember my first introduction to the power of good product design. I was newly arrived at Apple, still learning the ways of business, when I was visited by a member of Apple's Industrial Design team. He showed me a foam mockup of a proposed product. "Wow," I said, "I want one! What is it?"
That experience brought home the power of design: I was excited and enthusiastic even before I knew what it was. This type of visceral "wow" response requires creative designers. It is subjective, personal. Uh oh, this is not what engineers like to hear. If you can't put a number to it, it's not important. As a result, there is a trend to eliminate designers. Who needs them when we can simply test our way to success? The excitement of powerful, captivating design is defined as irrelevant. Worse, the nature of design is in danger.
我永遠(yuǎn)也不會(huì)忘記我第一次向人們介紹優(yōu)秀產(chǎn)品設(shè)計(jì)的魅力的經(jīng)歷，那時(shí)候我剛剛到蘋果公司，還在逐漸的學(xué)習(xí)工作上的事務(wù)。有一個(gè)蘋果工業(yè)設(shè)計(jì)小組的成員來我這里，向我展示了一個(gè)即將推出的產(chǎn)品的泡沫模型，“喔！”我說，“這是什么？我也想要個(gè)！”
那次經(jīng)歷讓我體驗(yàn)到了設(shè)計(jì)的原始力量：當(dāng)我還不知道他具體是什么之前我就已經(jīng)興奮不已，充滿熱情了。這種發(fā)自肺腑的回應(yīng)離不開很有創(chuàng)意的設(shè)計(jì)師。這種想法很主觀，也很有個(gè)人感情色彩。哦，不過工程師們可不愿意聽到這些。如果你不能提供和它有關(guān)的數(shù)據(jù)，它就沒什么了不起。這樣的結(jié)果是有一種不再需要設(shè)計(jì)師的趨勢(shì)。當(dāng)我們可以簡(jiǎn)單的測(cè)試我們的成功之路時(shí)，誰還需要設(shè)計(jì)師呢？令人充滿激情興奮無比的設(shè)計(jì)被看得無足輕重。更嚴(yán)重的是設(shè)計(jì)的初衷也岌岌可危了。
不相信吧？看看谷歌。最近谷歌的一位高級(jí)設(shè)計(jì)師有一次在公開場(chǎng)合宣稱，他們對(duì)設(shè)計(jì)不感興趣也不懂設(shè)計(jì)。據(jù)說，谷歌依靠最原始的測(cè)試結(jié)果而不是人類技巧和判斷。怎么知道一個(gè)設(shè)計(jì)是否成功呢？測(cè)試一下就可以了。谷歌會(huì)迅速地把樣品發(fā)送給對(duì)照試驗(yàn)中數(shù)以萬計(jì)的用戶，與其他的設(shè)計(jì)做個(gè)對(duì)比，然后選出優(yōu)勝者。他們可以靠點(diǎn)擊量，銷售量以及其他任何他們想要采用的客觀依據(jù)。什么顏色的制服最好？測(cè)試一下；哪種項(xiàng)目布置最合理？測(cè)試一下；哪種網(wǎng)頁排版最好呢？測(cè)試一下。
這可不是谷歌的專利，亞馬遜早就也這么做了。幾年前我很榮幸的被告知它們不再為哪個(gè)設(shè)計(jì)最好而爭(zhēng)論不休了，他們會(huì)測(cè)試一下然后用數(shù)據(jù)來決定。當(dāng)然，這個(gè)也是以人為本的迭代設(shè)計(jì)法采用的途徑：原型，試驗(yàn)和修改。
這是設(shè)計(jì)的未來嗎？有很多人會(huì)真么認(rèn)為。這是一個(gè)人們談?wù)摵脱芯拷涣鞯臒衢T話題，畢竟，支持者也有理有據(jù)：誰不想靠數(shù)據(jù)來做決定？