Quora让人非常着迷,一方面是它的产品本身给用户带来的价值,另一方面也是这家公司鲜明的设计特征,在这里只有两种角色:Engineer和ProductDesigner,产品设计师从原型制作开始到最终的html+js的交付,而engineer更多关注算法层面,这要求产品设计师有极强的个人能力.
我是丽贝卡·考克斯(Rebekah Cox)。我是Quora的第一名员工,是目前Quora的四个产品设计师中的一个。Quora是一个让你交流专业知识的地方,它覆盖了很多你感兴趣的主题。

It’s an awesome time to be a designer, particularly in the Valley. There’s really a groundswell of support for and interest in design, because again and again it has earned its place as a clear competitive advantage.
设计很重要
现在是成为设计师的好时机,特别是在硅谷,人们非常支持设计,对设计也很感兴趣。因为作为一个明显的竞争优势,设计已经为自己赢得了一席之地。

At Quora we share in that enthusiasm. We care very deeply about design and have from the very beginning. It is very important to us that our culture encourages great design and enable great designers.
Quora爱设计
在Quora,我们对设计充满热情。我们从一开始就非常重视设计。Quora的文化鼓励优秀的设计并培养优秀的设计师,这对我们来说非常重要。

However, it’s not lost on me that Quora appears to be one of the least designed sites on the Internet. It’s dark and red and text-heavy. So, how can we claim to care about design but we create a minimal product?
然而,Quora似乎是互联网上设计最少的网站之一。它使用黑色、红色和大量文字。创建了设计元素如此之少的产品,我们怎么还能声称自己关心设计呢?

Well it’s important to understand that design is a word where people often hold a purely intuitive definition. Some people think design is only the aesthetic, some think it’s the interactions, others think it’s the logo.
设计是什么?
要明白,人们对设计这个词的定义常常是非常直觉化的。有些人认为设计在于审美,有些人认为它意味着互动,有些人则认为它是指logo标志。

Understanding how design can mean many things to many people meant that the most important task I had when I began at Quora didn’t have anything to do with Python or CSS or JavaScript; it was to create a simple definition of what design meant at Quora.
在Quora ,设计是指什么?
理解如何对于不同的人来说设计可以有很多不同的含义,意味着我最开始在Quora工作时,最重要的任务与Python或CSS或JavaScript没有半点关系;这个任务就是确立一个简单的定义:在Quora设计意味着什么?

And this is how we’ve defined design: Design is a set of decisions about a product. It’s not an interface or an aesthetic, it’s not a brand or a color. Design is the actual decisions.
设计就是关于产品的一套决定
我们对设计的定义是:设计就是关于产品的一套决定。它不是一个界面或一种审美观,它不是一个品牌或一种颜色。设计是真正决定。

There’s a lot packed in to this definition and it shapes our approach in a number of ways. And here are the big benefits of thinking about it this way:
好处
这个定义包含了很多内容,它在很多方面塑造了我们的方法。用这种方法思考带来了很大的好处:

First, it imposes a clear relationship between a product and its interface. The ultimate expression of your product isn’t any one big thing; it’s the sum of all the little decisions you’ve made along the way.
明确了产品及其界面之间的关系
首先,它明确了产品及其界面之间的关系。你的产品的最终样子不是突然出现的大结局,而是你做的所有小决定的总和。

So thinking critically about those little decisions means that… it’s not just about the location of a dropdown but also about all the reasons that component has to exist in the first place. How someone uses your product to accomplish a task should be driven by why that person must take an action.
一个下拉组合框的位置,表达了它存在的原因
所以要重视这些小决定……它不只涉及下拉组合框的位置,也涉及它为什么要存在的原因。一个人如何使用你的产品去完成一项任务,其驱动力是这个人为什么必须采取某一步行动。

Second, this definition concentrates attention where it matters most: the goals and purpose for a particular product. There will always be a lot of things you can do. But design should be the process of figuring out what you should do.
把注意力集中到最重要的地方:用途和目标
其次,这个定义让我们把注意力集中到最重要的地方:一个具体产品的用途和目标。你以做的事情有很多。但设计应该是搞清楚你应该做什么的过程。

You can have the coolest looking product in the world, but if there’s no incentive or utility for people, it doesn’t matter. Pay attention to your goals, spend the most time there, and always provide value.
真正酷的事情:创作出有用的东西
你可以做出世界上样子最酷的产品,但是如果它对人们没有用处和吸引力,那它就没有意义。你需要关注你的目标,在目标上花最多的时间,并总是提供价值。

Finally, this definition is the vehicle that empowers designers to have a role within the organization where responsibility and authority are balanced. It inherently requires proactive, early design involvement.
责权平衡的公司中的角色
最后,这个定义是让设计人员在责权平衡的公司里充当一个角色的载体。它提倡了积极的、早期的设计参与。

Designers should have the opportunity to do more than apply a coat of paint at the end on a finished product. We should focus as much energy as possible analyzing where a problem originates and have the authority to ensure the best solution in whatever form it may take.
设计师不是粉刷匠
设计师应该有机会做更多的事,而不只是粉刷成品。我们应该尽量集中精力分析问题的来源,并有威信来确保采取最佳的解决方案,不管解决方案以何种形式出现。

The reason for this is simple: Great design is all the work you don’t ask the people who use your products to do. All the decisions you don’t ask someone to make because you have already spent countless hours determining the best one.
伟大的设计
这样做的理由很简单:伟大的设计就是你不会要求产品使用者来做的事情,你不会要求别人来做的所有决定,因为你已经花了无数小时来确定最佳决定。

And this is our challenge. As designers our job is to make the world better through not only building awesome tools but also through understanding problems. The problems we decide to solve are as important as how we solve them.
选择问题很重要
这是我们的挑战。作为设计师,我们的工作是让世界变得更美好,既通过创建好的工具,也通过理解问题。我们决定要解决哪些问题,跟我们解决它们的方式一样重要。

Design itself can be a lot of things. It can take a lot of forms. Design can be as overwrought as our products can sometimes become. But how you think about design influences every tiny detail that will ultimately comprise your product.
你对设计的想法会影响细节
设计本身可以是很多东西,它也可以采取很多种形式。有时我们的产品会变得“过分装饰”,设计也可能同样如此。但你对设计的想法影响到每一个微小的细节,而这些细节最终将构成你的产品。

That is how we’ve defined design at Quora: Design is a set of decisions about a product. It’s the very decisions that comprise a product because those are what matter most — and those decisions drive everything forward.
设计就是关于产品的一套决定
在Quora我们就是这样定义设计的:设计是关于一个产品的一套决定。这些决定构成了一个产品,因为它们最为重要——这些决定推动一切向前进。

So at Quora designers are driving the product forward. They are working directly with insanely brilliant and talented engineers. They are solving extremely hard problems. And are bringing together people from all backgrounds to share their knowledge openly with the world.
Quora设计师推动产品前进
因此在Quora,设计师们正在推动产品前进。他们直接与工程师合作,解决极为困难的问题,并把来自不同背景的人们聚集在一起,让他们与世界公开分享他们的知识。
原文地址:http://www.quora.com/Rebekah-Cox/Design-Quora-Web2-0-Expo-Presentation