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[1] How to make useful, friendly software for real people. One of the things I love about making software is that it’s a deeply mental exercise; chock full of heady processes, abstractions, and interconnected pathways. You can fill your brain with the practical nuts and bolts side of it—research, strategy, prototyping, programming, UI, operations, and more. Lots more. And if that’s not enough? Indulge yourself in metrics and performance. Every last detail can be tested, quantified and optimized to the fullest. Get high on KPIs and keep your eyes on your ROI! The problem is…with so much to think about, and so many logistics to obsess over, it’s easy to forget the reason you’re doing any of this in the first place:
Words power:
chock full of : full to limit 彻底充满着
abstraction [æbˈstrækʃən] n.: 抽象概念
heady [ˈhɛdi] adj. : 特别开心和兴奋的
nuts and bolts: 细节
indulge [ɪnˈdʌldʒ] v.: 放纵 纵容
原文好句：indulge yourself in metrics and performance. 让自己尽情追求各项指标和性能吧.
logistics [loˈdʒɪstɪks]: 后勤学 杂事
obsess over: 烦扰
YOUR SOFTWARE EXISTS TO HELP PEOPLE!
[2] Designers usually call this notion User Experience or Empathy. I think those names stink. They’re buzzwordy and vague enough to mean different things in different contexts. I think we should call it what it really is: Designing With Heart. This isn’t something that’s the responsibility of one specific team in your company, or one step in a process that you can check off. It’s a core value that informs every decision you make.
Words power:
empathy [ˈɛmpəθi] n. : 同理心
stink [stɪŋk] adj. : 让人感觉烦的
buzzwordy [ˈbʌzwɜ:rdi] 流行术语的
responsibility [rɪˌspɑ:nsəˈbɪləti] : 责任
原文好句：This isn’t something that’s the responsibility of one specific team in your company, or one step in a process that you can check off. It’s a core value that informs every decision you make.
这并不是某个在你的公司里一个特定小组的职责，或者在一个过程当中你可以检查的某一步骤，它是一个会告诉你做每一个决策的核心价值。
[3] Here’s what that means in practice. At the other end of all your strategy and metrics and tech, there are real people. Living, breathing people — who are busy dealing with their weird life, arguing with their kids, try to figure out what’s for dinner. When you build software, you’re painstakingly inventing a machine that stands in your place, feigns sentience, and interacts with these people on your behalf so they can accomplish something meaningful. Your software is not just a bunch of code and UI you smushed together. It’s also a compilation of your best ideas, your best intentions, your desire to help others, your compassion, your feelings, your soul. Your software is YOU. (That is, if you believe in the art of it. And you should, if you give a damn about doing it right.)
Word power:
figure out: 想出 解决 弄明白
painstaking [ˈpenzˌtekɪŋ] adj. : 费尽心思的
feign [fen] v.: 假装
sentience [‘senʃəns] n.: 感觉力
on one’s behalf: 代表某人
原文好句： When you build software, you’re painstakingly inventing a machine that stands in your place, feigns sentience, and interacts with these people on your behalf so they can accomplish something meaningful.
当开发软件的时候，不免你会站在自己的角度发明一种机器，假设用户的感受，并以自己为代表用户模拟人机交互好让它们能有意义地实现某些功能。
[4] When you see things in this light, you’ll notice that a lot of software is dull and lifeless. Consider your bank’s website, or your insurance company’s billing system. They’re probably cold and impersonal. That’s because the designers treated their job as a mechanical sequence: they took a set of requirements, invented imaginary personas, wrote user stories, and sprinted their way through the work until the requirements were met. All head, no heart.
Words power:
mechanical [mɪˈkænɪkəl] adj. : 机械的
sequence [ˈsikwəns] n.: 顺序 次序
persona [pərˈsoʊnə] n.: 人物角色 （虚拟）外表
sprint [sprɪnt] v. : 短跑冲刺
原文好句：
That’s because the designers treated their job as a mechanical sequence: they took a set of requirements, invented imaginary personas, wrote user stories, and sprinted their way through the work until the requirements were met.
那是因为这些设计师都把他们的工作当作了一种机械操作：接受一组需求、创造想象的人物、写用户故事以及在需求到来前混混他们的工作。
[5] Now, you might think it’s fine for a bank site to be plain and transactional. After all, banking is literally a set of transactions. But compare that to the experience you’d have with a nice bank teller (if you can still remember what that was like.) The teller smiles at you, asks how your day is going, double-checks that your math is right, offers to help with something you might have forgotten, and gives you a lollipop! That’s a transaction with a bit of heart.
Words power:
transactional [træn’zækʃənəl] adj. : 交易的 事务的
literally adv. : 实际上 [ˈlɪtərəli]
[6] OK, so let’s say we want our software to take the place of the bank teller. That means it should ideally provide the same humane, helpful service that they did. But how? One option is to anthropomorphize the interface and stick some personality into it, which results in UI that’s funny, folksy, clever, sarcastic, or cartoonish.
Words power:
anthropomorphize [ˌænθrəpə’mɔ:faɪz] v. :赋予任性
interface [ˈɪntərfeɪs] n.:界面
sarcastic [sɑ:rˈkæstɪk] adj. : 挖苦的 尖刻的
原文好句:One option is to anthropomorphize the interface and stick some personality into it, which results in UI that’s funny, folksy, clever, sarcastic, or cartoonish.
选项之一是将对外接口拟人化并为软件赋予一些个性这么做就可以让UI变得有趣、友好、智能、带有批判性或者卡通化。
[7] I think this only works in small doses, because humans have a low tolerance for bullshit. Unless you’re really good at it, jokey and cutesy stuff gets irritating quickly. That’s even worse than just being mechanical, because it’s a waste of time. It’s usually better to cut to the chase. So if mechanical is bad, and excess personality is also bad…Then what’s good? The sweet spot is right in the middle. Good software is friendly, casual, approachable — but also serious, gracious, and respectful. Just like a pleasant real-life experience you’d have at a local business.
Words power:
tolerance [ˈtɑ:lərəns] n. 忍受 忍耐力
cutesy [ˈkjutsi] adj.: 矫揉造作的
irritating [‘ɪrɪteɪtɪŋ] : 气人的
原文好句： Unless you’re really good at it, jokey and cutesy stuff gets irritating quickly.
除非你能真能确保它起到好的作用，否则好玩和有趣的东西将会很快变得让人恼火不已
[8] Achieving this sounds difficult (it is) but there’s an easy trick that helps a lot. When you’re designing something, imagine you’re sitting in a room, helping a real person with the task at hand. What would you say to them? How would you explain this screen or feature? What advice would you give? What would you tell them to do next? Say the answers out loud, and then write down what you said. Now you’re 80% of the way there!
[9] If you were helping someone in person, you wouldn’t be austere or formal. You wouldn’t use buzzwords or jargon or business-speak. You also wouldn’t drop HOT SARCASTIC JOKE BOMBS on them and distract them with goofy asides. You’d watch what they do, see where they get stuck, and walk them through it. You’d speak from the heart.
Words power:
austere [ɔ:ˈstɪr] adj. : simple or plain; not fancy 简单的 朴素的
jargon. [ˈdʒɑ:rgən]: 行话 术语
[10] This common sense technique helps you see the forest for the trees. If you struggle to explain something out loud, it’s probably not clear enough. That insight leads you to ask questions like…
- Can we make this interface simpler or more direct?
- Can we reduce or eliminate the choices someone has to make?
- Are we using natural, casual language to explain things fully?
- Is this design respectful of a person’s time and attention?
- Is this something I would personally enjoy using?
- Did we take any shortcuts that benefit US instead of THEM?
- Did we make any incorrect assumptions?
Words power:
eliminate [ɪˈlɪməˌnet]. v. : 消除
assumption [əˈsʌmpʃən] n.: 猜想
[11] Now your design will inevitably end up clearer and friendlier. That makes your customers happier and more efficient, so they can stop fiddling with software and get back to dinner with their argumentative kids. That should be the underlying motivation for your work. Not tech, not styling, not stats, and not money. Helping people comes first. The rest follows.
Words power:
inevitable [ɪnˈɛvɪtəbəl] adj. : 不可避免的
本文好句：Now your design will inevitably end up clearer and friendlier.
现在你的设计完成后肯定更加清楚和友好
argumentative [ˌɑ:rgjuˈmentətɪv] adj. : 好辩的
underlying [ˌʌndərˈlaɪɪŋ] adj.: 潜在的 根本的
motivation [ˌmotəˈveʃən] n.: 动力
[12] Designing With Heart doesn’t just apply to making a product, either. It can also guide your marketing, advertising, and sales work. For example, let’s say you want to increase the number of paying customers for your product. (Who doesn’t?) That’s a business-first problem, not a people-first problem. If you only think business-first, you might blast out canned promotional emails, or show “BUY NOW” callouts all over the place, or interrupt key workflows with interstitial popup ads.
Words power:
canned [kænd] adj.: 罐装的
promotional adj.: 促销的 增进的
callout[ˌkɒl’aʊt] : 插图的编号
workflow [‘wɜ:kfloʊ] : 工作流
Interstitial [ˌɪntərˈstɪʃl] adj. : 间隙的
popup ads: 弹窗广告
原文好句：If you only think business-first, you might blast out canned promotional emails, or show “BUY NOW” callouts all over the place, or interrupt key workflows with interstitial popup ads.
如果你仅仅考虑商业为先，你可能会发出一大堆促销邮件，或者在页面上到处展示 “BUY NOW” 入口，或者用弹窗广告去打断他们的关键工作流。
[13] These techniques may well be useful for increasing raw business performance, but they can be annoying and smarmy to customers. That’s the opposite of what we want. So how do we reconcile the difference? Easy: think about people again!
Words power:
smarmy[ˈsmɑ:rmi] adj.: behaving in a way that seems polite, kind or pleasing but is not genuine or believable 虚情假意的
reconcile[ˈrɛkənˌsaɪl] v. : 协和 调解
[14] There’s nothing inherently bad about clearly communicating the value of your product, making it easier to buy it, spreading your message to new audiences, or even asking for referrals or reviews — as long as you do so in a way that’s considerate, honest, and at the right moment. Don’t interrupt people when they’re in the middle of something, nag them incessantly, or hard sell them into doing what you want. If you ask for a favor, make it worth their time by thoughtfully explaining why you need their help, and perhaps offering an incentive in trade. Follow this approach and your promotional efforts won’t just benefit you, they’ll benefit people too.
Words power:
inherent [ɪnˈhɪrənt] adj. : 固有的 内在的
referral [rɪ’fɜ:rəl] n.: the act of sending someone to another person or place for treatment, help, advice, etc.
nag v.: 困扰 烦扰
incessant [ɪnˈsɛsənt] adj. : 不断的 不停的.
incentive [ɪnˈsɛntɪv] n. : 动机 刺激
原文好句：
If you ask for a favor, make it worth their time by thoughtfully explaining why you need their help, and perhaps offering an incentive in trade.
如果想要得到青睐，那么就该考虑清楚去解释为什么你需要他们的帮助，从而让他们的时间变得有价值，同时或许应该在交易过程中提出激励。
[15] There’s one more thing you can do to Design With Heart: don’t be afraid to reveal yourself. People develop emotional connections to other people—not machines. When your customers can see who’s behind the curtain, and when you speak to them with honesty and authenticity, they’ll be more likely to identify with your message and approach.
Words power:
reveal [rɪˈvil]. v. : 解释 揭露
原文好句：When your customers can see who’s behind the curtain, and when you speak to them with honesty and authenticity, they’ll be more likely to identify with your message and approach.
当你的消费者可以看到是谁在背后和其交流，并且当你诚实可靠地和他们交流时，他们就将更加可能确认你的信息和入口。
[16] If you built something because you fundamentally care about helping people, and you intend to have their back…say it! Put your name on it, tell your story, show your face, and stand behind your work. Share your real personality rather than trying to graft a fake one onto an inanimate program. Your customers will respond in kind — and that’s the most rewarding thing of all.
Words power:
inanimate. [ɪnˈænəmɪt]. adj. :lifeless 无生命力的.
来源:
[1] How to make useful, friendly software for real people. One of the things I love about making software is that it’s a deeply mental exercise; chock full of heady processes, abstractions, and interconnected pathways. You can fill your brain with the practical nuts and bolts side of it—research, strategy, prototyping, programming, UI, operations, and more. Lots more. And if that’s not enough? Indulge yourself in metrics and performance. Every last detail can be tested, quantified and optimized to the fullest. Get high on KPIs and keep your eyes on your ROI! The problem is…with so much to think about, and so many logistics to obsess over, it’s easy to forget the reason you’re doing any of this in the first place:
YOUR SOFTWARE EXISTS TO HELP PEOPLE!
[2] Designers usually call this notion User Experience or Empathy. I think those names stink. They’re buzzwordy and vague enough to mean different things in different contexts. I think we should call it what it really is: Designing With Heart. This isn’t something that’s the responsibility of one specific team in your company, or one step in a process that you can check off. It’s a core value that informs every decision you make.
[3] Here’s what that means in practice. At the other end of all your strategy and metrics and tech, there are real people. Living, breathing people — who are busy dealing with their weird life, arguing with their kids, try to figure out what’s for dinner. When you build software, you’re painstakingly inventing a machine that stands in your place, feigns sentience, and interacts with these people on your behalf so they can accomplish something meaningful. Your software is not just a bunch of code and UI you smushed together. It’s also a compilation of your best ideas, your best intentions, your desire to help others, your compassion, your feelings, your soul. Your software is YOU. (That is, if you believe in the art of it. And you should, if you give a damn about doing it right.)
[4] When you see things in this light, you’ll notice that a lot of software is dull and lifeless. Consider your bank’s website, or your insurance company’s billing system. They’re probably cold and impersonal. That’s because the designers treated their job as a mechanical sequence: they took a set of requirements, invented imaginary personas, wrote user stories, and sprinted their way through the work until the requirements were met. All head, no heart.
[5] Now, you might think it’s fine for a bank site to be plain and transactional. After all, banking is literally a set of transactions. But compare that to the experience you’d have with a nice bank teller (if you can still remember what that was like.) The teller smiles at you, asks how your day is going, double-checks that your math is right, offers to help with something you might have forgotten, and gives you a lollipop! That’s a transaction with a bit of heart.
[6] OK, so let’s say we want our software to take the place of the bank teller. That means it should ideally provide the same humane, helpful service that they did. But how? One option is to anthropomorphize the interface and stick some personality into it, which results in UI that’s funny, folksy, clever, sarcastic, or cartoonish.
[7] I think this only works in small doses, because humans have a low tolerance for bullshit. Unless you’re really good at it, jokey and cutesy stuff gets irritating quickly. That’s even worse than just being mechanical, because it’s a waste of time. It’s usually better to cut to the chase. So if mechanical is bad, and excess personality is also bad…Then what’s good? The sweet spot is right in the middle. Good software is friendly, casual, approachable — but also serious, gracious, and respectful. Just like a pleasant real-life experience you’d have at a local business.
[8] Achieving this sounds difficult (it is) but there’s an easy trick that helps a lot. When you’re designing something, imagine you’re sitting in a room, helping a real person with the task at hand. What would you say to them? How would you explain this screen or feature? What advice would you give? What would you tell them to do next? Say the answers out loud, and then write down what you said. Now you’re 80% of the way there!
[9] If you were helping someone in person, you wouldn’t be austere or formal. You wouldn’t use buzzwords or jargon or business-speak. You also wouldn’t drop HOT SARCASTIC JOKE BOMBS on them and distract them with goofy asides. You’d watch what they do, see where they get stuck, and walk them through it. You’d speak from the heart.
[10] This common sense technique helps you see the forest for the trees. If you struggle to explain something out loud, it’s probably not clear enough. That insight leads you to ask questions like…
- Can we make this interface simpler or more direct?
- Can we reduce or eliminate the choices someone has to make?
- Are we using natural, casual language to explain things fully?
- Is this design respectful of a person’s time and attention?
- Is this something I would personally enjoy using?
- Did we take any shortcuts that benefit US instead of THEM?
- Did we make any incorrect assumptions?
[11] Now your design will inevitably end up clearer and friendlier. That makes your customers happier and more efficient, so they can stop fiddling with software and get back to dinner with their argumentative kids. That should be the underlying motivation for your work. Not tech, not styling, not stats, and not money. Helping people comes first. The rest follows.
[12] Designing With Heart doesn’t just apply to making a product, either. It can also guide your marketing, advertising, and sales work. For example, let’s say you want to increase the number of paying customers for your product. (Who doesn’t?) That’s a business-first problem, not a people-first problem. If you only think business-first, you might blast out canned promotional emails, or show “BUY NOW” callouts all over the place, or interrupt key workflows with interstitial popup ads.
[13] These techniques may well be useful for increasing raw business performance, but they can be annoying and smarmy to customers. That’s the opposite of what we want. So how do we reconcile the difference? Easy: think about people again!
[14] There’s nothing inherently bad about clearly communicating the value of your product, making it easier to buy it, spreading your message to new audiences, or even asking for referrals or reviews — as long as you do so in a way that’s considerate, honest, and at the right moment. Don’t interrupt people when they’re in the middle of something, nag them incessantly, or hard sell them into doing what you want. If you ask for a favor, make it worth their time by thoughtfully explaining why you need their help, and perhaps offering an incentive in trade. Follow this approach and your promotional efforts won’t just benefit you, they’ll benefit people too.
[15] There’s one more thing you can do to Design With Heart: don’t be afraid to reveal yourself. People develop emotional connections to other people—not machines. When your customers can see who’s behind the curtain, and when you speak to them with honesty and authenticity, they’ll be more likely to identify with your message and approach.
[16] If you built something because you fundamentally care about helping people, and you intend to have their back…say it! Put your name on it, tell your story, show your face, and stand behind your work. Share your real personality rather than trying to graft a fake one onto an inanimate program. Your customers will respond in kind — and that’s the most rewarding thing of all.