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DanielEngber_2018V-_进度条如何让人们保持清醒_
How many people are bored at their desk for how many hours every day and how many days a week and how many weeks a year for how many years in their life? 有多少人对他们的 电脑桌面感到厌烦, 每天烦多少个小时, 每个礼拜烦多少天, 每年烦多少个礼拜, 一辈子烦多少年？
bored:adj.无聊的;厌倦的;烦闷的;v.使厌烦;钻,凿,挖;(bore的过去分词和过去式)
[Small thing. Big idea.] [小东西,大创意]
[Daniel Engber on the Progress Bar] [进度条的故事 ——丹尼尔.恩伯尔]
The progress bar is just an indicator on a computer that something's happening inside the device . 进度条是电脑中的指示工具, 用于显示设备中正在进行的任务。
indicator:n.指示器;[试剂]指示剂;[计]指示符;压力计; device:n.装置;策略;图案;
The classic one that's been used for years is a horizontal bar. 其中最经典的,用了很多年的, 就是水平进度条。
classic:n.名著;优秀的典范;adj.最优秀的;第一流的;有代表性的;典型的; horizontal:n.水平线;水平面;横线;水平位置;adj.水平的;与地面平行的;横的;
I mean, this goes back to pre-computer versions of this on ledgers , where people would fill in a horizontal bar from left to right to show how much of a task they had completed at a factory. 甚至在电脑诞生前就开始用了, 在账簿中,人们将水平条填色, 来显示工厂里已经完成的任务。
ledgers:分类账;
This is just the same thing on a screen. 这跟屏幕上的进度条是一回事。
Something happened in the 70s that is sometimes referred to as "the software crisis ," 在70年代发生了一些事, 后来我们称之为“软件危机”,
referred:v.提到;引用;认为;指示;涉及;(refer的过去式和过去分词) crisis:n.危机;危险期;决定性时刻;adj.危机的;用于处理危机的;
where suddenly, computers were getting more complicated more quickly than anyone had been prepared for, from a design perspective . 突然之间,计算机变得越来越复杂, 发展得越来越快, 超出了所有人的预期, 尤其从设计的角度来看。
complicated:adj.复杂的;难懂的;v.使复杂化;(complicate的过去分词和过去式) perspective:n.观点;远景;透视图;adj.透视的;
People were using percent-done indicators in different ways. 人们用不同的形式 来显示已经完成的百分比。
indicators:n.指示信号;标志;指针;方向灯;(indicator的复数)
So you might have a graphical countdown clock, or they would have a line of asterisks that would fill out from left to right on a screen. 有图形化的倒计时钟, 或者在屏幕上从左至右 显示的一排星号符。
graphical:adj.图解的;绘画的;生动的; countdown:n.倒数计秒; asterisks:[计]星号;
But no one had done a systematic survey of these things and tried to figure out: 但是没有人对此 进行过系统性的调查, 来搞清楚:
systematic:adj.系统的;体系的;有系统的;[图情]分类的;一贯的,惯常的; survey:n.调查;测量;审视;纵览;vt.调查;勘测;俯瞰;vi.测量土地;
How do they actually affect the user's experience of sitting at the computer? 到底这些进度条对电脑用户体验 有什么实际影响？
This graduate student named Brad Myers, in 1985, decided he would study this. 1985年,这位名叫 布拉德·梅耶斯的本科毕业生,
He found that it didn't really matter if the percent-done indicator was giving you the accurate percent done. 他发现进度条 能否准确显示完成百分比 并不十分重要。
accurate:adj.精确的;
What mattered was that it was there at all. 重要的是,要有一个 进度条摆在那里。
Just seeing it there made people feel better, and that was the most surprising thing. 能看到它就会让人们感觉好点, 这结论真让人意外。
He has all these ideas about what this thing could do. 关于进度条到底能做什么, 他得出了一些结论。
Maybe it could make people relax effectively. 比如能够有效地让人放松。
relax:v.放松,休息;松懈,松弛;变从容;休养;
Maybe it would allow people to turn away from their machine and do something else of exactly the right duration . 可能它能让人们在等待的同时 离开电脑去干点别的。
duration:n.持续时间;期间;
They would look and say, "Oh, the progress bar is half done. 他们会看一眼说, “哦,才过了一半,
That took five minutes. 用了5分钟。
So now I have five minutes to send this fax," 所以我还有5分钟可以 去发个传真。”
or whatever people were doing in 1985. 或者干些在1985年的 办公室会干的事。
Both of those things are wrong. 但事实并非如此。
Like, when you see that progress bar, it sort of locks your attention in a tractor beam , and it turns the experience of waiting into this exciting narrative that you're seeing unfold in front of you: 其实,当你看着进度条的时候, 滚动的光束会吸引你的注意力。 它改变了等待的体验, 把它变成了一件 让你兴奋的新鲜事:
beam:n.光线; v.发射(电波); narrative:n.叙述;故事;讲述;adj.叙事的,叙述的;叙事体的; unfold:v.(使)展开;打开;展示;透露;
that somehow , this time you've spent waiting in frustration for the computer to do something, has been reconceptualized as: "Progress! Oh! Great stuff is happening!" 原本你在沮丧的等待 电脑完成某件事, 却被重新解读为: “进行中！啊！ 美妙的事正在进行中呢！”
somehow:adv.以某种方法;莫名其妙地; frustration:n.挫折; stuff:n.东西:物品:基本特征:v.填满:装满:标本:
[Progress...] [进程中……]
But once you start thinking about the progress bar as something that's more about dulling the pain of waiting, well, then you can start fiddling around with the psychology . 但是当你意识到进度条 不仅仅可以降低 等待时的焦虑的时候, 你就可以来运用 一些心理学的技巧了。
dulling:n.发暗;失光;迟钝;v.使变钝;使沉闷;使晦暗(dull的ing形式); fiddling:adj.琐碎的; v.摆弄; (fiddle的现在分词) psychology:n.心理学;心理状态;
So if you have a progress bar that just moves at a constant rate -- let's say, that's really what's happening in the computer -- that will feel to people like it's slowing down. 比如你看到一条匀速运行的进度条, 我们假设它真实反映了 任务的进行情况, 但是人们会觉得它在变慢。
We get bored. 我们会等得有些不耐烦。
Well, now you can start trying to enhance it and make it appear to move more quickly than it really is, make it move faster at the beginning , like a burst of speed. 好吧,那你就尝试改善一下, 让它走得比实际运行得更快一些, 让它在开始的时候快一些, 像在加速一样。
enhance:v.提高;增强;增进; at the beginning:首先;从一开始;起初;从头开始; burst:v.破裂;爆炸;突破;冲进;n.爆发;点射;释放;(情感的)迸发;
That's exciting, people feel like, "Oh! Something's really happening!" 人们会感到激动, “哦！进展的很快嘛！”
Then you can move back into a more naturalistic growth of the progress bar as you go along. 然后再让进度条恢复到真实的速度, 让它继续。
naturalistic:adj.自然的;自然主义的;博物学的;
You're assuming that people are focusing on the passage of time -- they're trying to watch grass grow, they're trying to watch a pot of water, waiting for it to boil, and you're just trying to make that less boring , less painful and less frustrating than it was before. 假定人们会注意到时间的流逝, 他们会尝试观察草的生长, 尝试观察一壶水,等待它烧开, 你所做的就是让过程不那么无聊, 跟以前相比, 不那么痛苦和沮丧。
assuming:conj.假设…为真; adj.傲慢的; v.假定; (assume的现在分词) boring:adj.无聊的;令人厌烦的;n.钻孔;v.使厌烦;钻孔;(bore的现在分词) painful:adj.痛苦的;疼痛的;令人不快的; frustrating:adj.令人沮丧的;v.使沮丧;(frustrate的现在分词)
So the progress bar at least gives you the vision of a beginning and an end, and you're working towards a goal. 所以说进度条至少给我们 一个开始和结束的直观体现, 让你感到自己一直在 朝一个目标努力。
vision:n.视力;美景;幻象;想象力;v.想象;显现;梦见;
I think in some ways, it mitigates the fear of death. 我觉得从某个角度讲, 它减轻了对死亡的恐惧。
mitigates:v.减轻;缓解;缓和;平息;(mitigates是mitigate的第三人称单数);
Too much? 说的太夸张了？