一个国王带了六个人到了一个昏暗的建筑物里。他们什么都看不见。国王对他们说：“我从荒野中将这只动物带回到东方。他们称之为大象。”“什么是大象？”六人问。国王说：“你们摸一下这只大象，然后描速给我听。”摸腿的人说大象就像一个柱子，摸尾巴的说大象就像绳子，摸鼻子的说大象就像三个树枝，摸耳朵的说大象就像一把扇子，摸肚子的人说大象就像一面墙，摸象牙的人说大象就像一根硬管子。“你们都对了”，国王说，“你们每个人只摸到了大象的一部分。”
You may have heard this story about an elephant:
你也许听说过这篇关于大象的故事：
A king brings six men into a dark building. They cannot see anything. The king says to them, “I have bought this animal from the wild lands to the East. It is called an elephant.” “What is an elephant?” the men ask. The king says, “Feel the elephant and describe it to me.” The man who feels a leg says the elephant is like a pillar, the one who feels the tail says the elephant is like a rope, the one who feels the trunk says the elephant is like a tree branch, the one who feels the ear says the elephant is like a hand fan, the one who feels the belly says the elephant is like a wall, and the one who feels the tusk says the elephant is like a solid pipe. “You are all correct”, says the king, “You are each feeling just a part of the elephant.”
一个国王带了六个人到了一个昏暗的建筑物里。他们什么都看不见。国王对他们说：“我从荒野中将这只动物带回到东方。他们称之为大象。”“什么是大象？”六人问。国王说：“你们摸一下这只大象，然后描速给我听。”摸腿的人说大象就像一个柱子，摸尾巴的说大象就像绳子，摸鼻子的说大象就像三个树枝，摸耳朵的说大象就像一把扇子，摸肚子的人说大象就像一面墙，摸象牙的人说大象就像一根硬管子。“你们都对了”，国王说，“你们每个人只摸到了大象的一部分。”
The story of the elephant reminds me of the different view of design that people of different backgrounds, education, and experience have. A visual designer approaches UX design from one point of view, the interaction designer from another, and the programmer from yet another. It can be helpful to understand and even experience the part of the elephant that others are experiencing.
大象的故事让我想起了有着不同背景、教育或经验的人对设计的不同的观点。视觉设计师对用户体验设计有着一种观点，交互设计会有另外的观点，而程序员也会有不同的观点。理解甚至体验别人正在体验的大象的那一部分将会有一定的帮助。
I’m a psychologist by training and education. So the part of the elephant I experience applies what we know about people and how we apply that to UX design. I take research and knowledge about the brain, the visual system, memory, and motivation and extrapolate UX design principles from that.
我是一个受教育而成的心理学家。所以，我体验的那部分的大象就是我们对人的了解和我们将我们的了解应用于用户体验设计。我对大脑、视觉系统、记忆和动机做了研究和学习，并从中推断用户体验设计的原则。
This article is a snapshot of the psychologist’s view of the elephant.
这篇文章是一个对大象的心理学家观点的简单描速。
1. People Don’t Want to Work or Think More Than They Have To
1.除非必要，否则人们不想工作或者思考
* People will do the least amount of work possible to get a task done.
只要能完成任务，人们能少做就少做。
* It is better to show people a little bit of information and let them choose if they want more details. The fancy term for this is progressive disclosure, which I wrote a blog post about recently.
最好只展示一小点信息，接着让他们抉择是否需要查看更多。渐进展开是个不错的方法。最近我写了一篇关于“渐进展开”的博文。
* Instead of just describing things, show people an example.
别只是解释，给个例子吧。
* Pay attention to the affordance of objects on the screen, page, or device you are designing. If something is clickable make sure it looks like it is clickable.
注意屏幕、页面或是设备上的对象的启示(Affordance，启示，功能可见性)。如果某个东西可点击，那么就要把它做得像是可点击的。
* Only provide the features that people really need. Don’t rely on your opinion of what you think they need; do user research to actually find out. Giving people more than they need just clutters up the experience.
只提供人们确实需要的功能。别按你自己的想象认为他们需要什么；做些用户研究去确切地发现他们所需。给予他们超过他们的需要的功能只会搞砸体验。
* Provide defaults. Defaults let people do less work to get the job done.
提供默认。默认让人们做更少的事就能完成工作。
2. People Have Limitations
2.人有局限性
* People can only look at so much information or read so much text on a screen without losing interest. Only provide the information that’s needed at the moment (see progressive disclosure above).
人们只能在屏幕上看有限的信息或阅读有限文字而不失兴趣。在当下只提供需要的信息（查看上述的“渐进展开”）。
* Make the information easy to scan.
让信息易于扫描。
* Use headers and short blocks of info or text.
使用标题和小块信息或文字。
* People can’t multi-task. The research is very clear on this, so don’t expect them to.
人们不能同时进行多项任务。这份研究很清楚的表明了这个观点，所以别期望他们能够做到。
* People prefer short line lengths, but they read better with longer ones! It’s a conundrum, so decide whether preference or performance is more important in your case, but know that people are going to ask for things that actually aren’t best for them.
人们喜欢短小的文案，但是长文案又能让他们更好地理解！这是个难题，所以要抉择在你的项目里，是偏好更重要还是性能更重要。但是，要知道人们喊着想要的东西并不是对于他们最好的东西。
3. People Make Mistakes
3.孰能无过
* Assume people will make mistakes. Anticipate what they will be and try to prevent them.
假设人们会犯错。要预见到他们会犯的错误并努力避免发生。
* If the results of an error are severe then use a confirmation before acting on the user’s action.
如果一个错误的结果严重，那么在操作之前提供一个确认。
* Make it easy to “undo.”
提供容易使用的“撤销”。
* Preventing errors from occurring is always better than helping people correct them once they occur. The best error message is no message at all.
