设计师需要什么 What Designers Need

设计师需要时间和空间来创造，但现代工作往往无法满足这些基本需求。我们的工作日可以通过在9-5中允许更多的时间，空间和孤独来创造新想法。坦率地说，现代作品对设计师不起作用。

Designers need time and space to create but modern work often fails to meet these basic needs. Our working day has the possibility to be much more generative to the creation of new ideas simply by allowing for more time, space and solitude within our 9–5. Put bluntly, modern work does not work for designers.

时间就是经验，而我们缺乏两者

Time is experience, we’re lacking both

      设计师的工作是将事物连接在一起。那些“事物”本质上就是经验。简而言之，新想法是经验的联系。

      设计师面临的问题是，在我们的工作日里很少有时间体验新体验。现代工作的社会规范要求我们在一天中待在办公室，大部分时间都在我们的办公桌上，只留下来参加会议，并确保一旦完成就赶紧回来。在这个例程中哪里有时间进行新的，创意生成体验？

      设计师虽然缺乏经验，但仍必须寻求灵感 - 下一个想法的基石。因此，我们发现它可以符合现代工作所强加的文化规范。基本上，我们辞职与其他人一样访问相同的网站。这种性质的灵感，或二手经验，是通过另一个人的眼睛看世界，而不是我们自己。

      因此，设计师将他们的空闲时间用于追求经验。一个年轻的设计师几乎没有责任，并认为工作是他们身份的重要组成部分，因此没有任何问题。然而，当设计师在他们的9到5之外获得更多的责任时，他们就更难找到这种想法生成经验的时间。

The job of a designer is to connect things together. Those ‘things’ are essentially experience. Put simply, new ideas are new connections of experience.

The problem for designers is that there is rarely time for new experiences in our working day. The social norms of modern work dictate that we stay in the office for the duration of the day, spend the majority of that time at our desks, leave only for meetings and be sure to rush back as soon as they’re finished. Where in this routine is there time for new, idea generative experience?

Designers, starved of experience as they are, must still seek out inspiration — the building blocks of the next idea. So we find it however we can within the cultural norms imposed by modern work. Essentially, we resign to visiting the same websites as everyone else. Inspiration of this nature, or secondhand experience, is to see the world through another’s eye and not our own.

Designers therefore commit their free time in pursuit of experience. A young designer who has few responsibilities and also considers the job an important part of their identity will see no problem with this. However, when designers gain more responsibilities outside of their 9 to 5, it becomes harder for them to find the time for such idea generative experience.

“创意人想要成为一个全知的人。他们想知道各种各样的事物：古代历史，十九世纪的数学，当前的制造技术，插花和生猪未来。因为他们永远不知道这些想法什么时候可以结合在一起形成一个新的想法，它可能发生在六分钟后或六个月，或六年后。但他们相信它会发生。“

“The creative person wants to be a know-it-all. They want to know about all kinds of things: ancient history, nineteenth century mathematics, current manufacturing techniques, flower arranging, and hog futures. Because they never know when these ideas might come together to form a new idea. It may happen six minutes later or six months, or six years down the road. But they have faith that it will happen.”

                                                                                                                      — Carl Ally

      我自己当然是一名设计师，我挣扎于现代工作的文化规范。为什么必须这样？为什么我们不能给设计师更多的自由，并相信他们会因此创造更好的工作？即使在现代工作中，我们仍然更加重视衡量投入而不是产出 - 人们在办公桌上花费的时间比他们工作的结果更重要。

      有很多次我坐在我的办公桌前，由于我不理解的原因，我有一种观看经典电影的冲动。

当然，花一两个小时看我的电影就等于把一个同事拍在脸颊上 - 做任何一个都会导致纪律处分。但是，如果我有自由观看，比如，搞笑的脸呢？乔治格什温的声音伴随着弗雷德阿斯泰尔的优美动作，在我休息和娱乐的心灵中可能形成了什么奇妙的联系？我永远不会知道。

I am of course a designer myself and I struggle with the cultural norms of modern work. Why does it have to be this way? Why aren’t we able to give more freedom to designers and trust that they’ll create better work as a result? Even in modern work we continue to place more importance on measuring inputs rather than outputs — how much time people spend at their desks is more important than the outcome of their work

There have been many times that I’ve sat at my desk and, for reasons I don’t understand, I have felt an urge to watch a classic film. Of course, taking two hours out of my day to watch a film is tantamount to slapping a fellow co-worker across the cheek — doing either will result in disciplinary action. But what if I had had the freedom to watch, say, Funny Face? What wondrous connections might have formed in my resting and entertained mind by the sounds of George Gershwin accompanied by the graceful movements of Fred Astaire? I shall never know.

      我听说广告创意获得了免费的博物馆通行证和电影票。当他们在项目之间时，他们被告知去做那些事情。他们的工作是将文化转化为品牌可以用来说服人们购买更多东西的信息。他们将经验与形象设计相结合。但是，代理商在项目之间的停机时间对设计师做了什么？他们将他们系在书桌上，给他们做猴子的工作，并杀死他们的灵感。

      谷歌有这样的想法，即员工20％的时间应该花在他们认为最有利于公司的任何事情上。一些惊人的项目开始了他们生命中20％的时间。现在，在他们推出它多年之后，据报道，谷歌的人很少以这种方式分配时间。也许他们有太多的工作要做或者不觉得他们得到了管理层的支持？

谷歌人事业务负责人Laszlo Bock和工作规则的作者！他解释说，20％的想法“在某种程度上超出了正式的管理监督范围，而且总会如此，因为最有才华和创造力的人不能被迫工作。”

      我可以证明这一点。在以前的机构中，我们试图复制20％的规则。由于客户的承诺，我们必须提前计划我们的“空闲时间”。但我们发现，当那一天到来时，我们根本没有受到启发。创造力不能被包含和安排，它发生在它想要发生的时候。

I heard that advertising creatives get free museum passes and cinema tickets. When they’re between projects they are told to go do those things. Their job is to translate culture into messages that brands can use to convince people to buy more stuff. They connect experiences to form ideas just like designers. But what do agencies do to designers in the down-time between projects? They tether them to their desks, give them monkey work, and kill their inspiration.

At Google there’s this idea that 20 per cent of an employee’s time should be spent working on whatever they think will most benefit the company. Some amazing projects started their life in that 20 per cent of someone’s time. Now, many years after they introduced it, it’s reported that very few people at Google actually split their time in this way. Perhaps they have too much work to do or don’t feel like they have the support of management? Head of Google’s people operations Laszlo Bock and author of Work Rules! explains that the 20 per cent idea “operates somewhat outside the lines of formal management oversight, and always will, because the most talented and creative people can’t be forced to work.”

I can attest to that. In a previous agency we tried to copy the 20 per cent rule. Due to client commitments we had to plan ahead of time when we’d spend our ‘free time’. But we found that when that day came around we simply weren’t inspired. Creativity cannot be contained and scheduled, it happens when it wants to happen.

现代工作是一种分心

Modern work is a distraction

      感觉有足够的时间是一个问题，但空间和孤独也是关键。在现代工作中，我们每天花费的办公桌拴在一个开放式办公室里。从我们的办公桌上，我们可以看到40个甚至100个人，并且可以在任何时刻听到一些对话。在21世纪的办公室，空间是一种奢侈品，耳机是新的隐私。

      在某一点上，我可以用办公室的嗡嗡声作为我的支持轨道。我主要是因为缺乏孤独而挣扎。

在现代办公室里，被观察的感觉永远存在。无论有多少次我被告知没有人在看我的钟，直到我和同事之间有四道坚固的墙，我才会继续感到某种程度的焦虑。如果我们的老板旁边有一张桌子，我们可能已经经历过这种工作场所的焦虑。我真的可以坐在这里观看这篇20分钟的TED谈论脑组织与心灵之间的联系吗？谁能说它是否与项目相关？我们可能永远不会知道，直到我们花时间。

      通过不断的观察，我们的工作就变得不再那么做我们认为会带来好工作的事情，更多的是保持高生产力的形象。看来我并不孤单。Lila MacLellan写道，“了解其他人正在关注我们，这限制了我们创造性地解决问题的程度，从而提高了工作效率。”这种被称为透明度悖论的现象由Ethan S. Bernstein秘密嵌入五名中国出生的哈佛大学本科生在中国的一家工厂工作，并让他们报告他们的同事在管理层的注意和不注意的情况下表达了什么样的行为。

      伯恩斯坦和他的中国“嵌入”观察到“在这个特殊的环境中，也许还有许多其他人，管理者所看到的并不是真实的。这是一场为观众播放的节目。当观众离开时，真正的节目继续进行，节目效率更高。“

      设计师远离工厂工人，但我所知道的是，当我独自一人时，我最不担心。焦虑是创造力的敌人，它产生了非理性的恐惧，分散了清晰的思想。添加100名同事的嗡嗡声和无数的设备通知，我们开始看到我们有什么机会产生真正伟大的想法。

      我追求自由职业者的部分动机是收回一些失去的孤独，并最终拥有自己的工作空间。我每天都被自己私人绿洲的遥远视野所驱使。一个白色的房间沐浴在自然光线下，每个墙壁都是一块空白的画布，用来展开我的思绪 - 一个沉浸式的思想，想法和经验的拼贴画。我希望可能需要几年才能得到我的白色房间，但这个想法让我继续前行。

Feeling like there is enough time is one problem, but space and solitude are also key. In modern work the desks that we spend each day tethered to reside in an open-plan office. From our desks we may be able to see 40 or even 100 people and hear a handful of conversations at any one moment. In the 21st century office, space is a luxury and headphones are the new privacy.

Up to a certain point I can work fine with the hum of the office as my backing track. I mostly struggle with the lack of solitude. In the modern office the feeling of being observed is ever-present. It doesn’t matter how many times I’m told that no-one is watching my clock, until there are four solid walls between me and my colleagues I will continue to feel some level of anxiety. We may have experienced this workplace anxiety if we’ve ever been assigned a desk next to our boss. Can I really sit here and watch this 20 minute TED talk about the connection between cerebral tissue and the mind? Who’s to say whether it’s relevant to the project? We may never know until we take the time.

With constant observation our job becomes less about doing whatever we feel will result in good work and more about maintaining an image of high productivity. It seems that I’m not alone in this. Lila MacLellan writes, “Knowing that others are watching us limits the degree to which we might creatively solve a problem, and therefore be more productive.” This phenomenon, known as the Transparency Paradox, was revealed by Ethan S. Bernstein as he secretly embedded five Chinese-born Harvard undergraduates in a factory based in China and had them report on what behaviours their colleagues expressed in times with and without the watchful eye of management.

Bernstein and his Chinese ‘embeds’ observed that “In this particular environment, and perhaps many others, what managers were seeing wasn’t real. It was a show being put on for an audience. When the audience was gone, the real show went on, and that show was more productive.”

Designers are far from factory workers but what I know to be true is that when I’m alone I’m least anxious. Anxiety is the enemy of creativity, it creates irrational fears that distract from clear thought. Add the hum of a 100 colleagues and a myriad of device notifications and we begin to see what little chance we have of generating truly great ideas.

Part of my motivation to go freelance was to reclaim some of this lost solitude and eventually have a place of my own to work from. Everyday I’m driven by a distant vision of my own private oasis. A white room bathed in natural light, each wall a blank canvas with which to unroll my mind onto — an immersive collage of thoughts, ideas, and experience. I expect it may be years until I get my white room but the thought keeps me going.

      它真的需要这样的极端措施，比如自由职业者，在我们的工作日获得一定程度的个人空间吗？在我们办公室的哪个地方，我们现在可以去逃避分心和焦虑？我走过走过走廊，楼梯间和火灾逃生的人。我想火灾逃生与任何地方一样好。

Should it really require such extreme measures, such as going freelance, to get even some level of personal space in our working day? Where in our offices can we go now to escape the distractions and anxiety? I walk past people taking personal calls in corridors, stairwells, and fire escapes. I guess the fire escape is as good a place as any.

走开和注意停机

Stepping away and mindful downtime

      James Webb Young的“制作创意技巧”的一个关键部分就是完全不考虑问题。他建议，一旦对问题进行了足够的研究，让潜意识在形成联系方面的工作是很重要的。Young提出了许多方法来实现这一目标，包括做一些无关紧要的事情，激励你并激励你。睡眠和冥想也可以解决问题。我曾经去过一间有冥想室的办公室。我想知道这是不是完成所有好工作的地方。

“这就是想法的方式：在你停止为他们紧张之后，并经历了一段时间的休息和放松的搜索。”

                                                                                              — James Webb Young

      现代工作失败给我们恢复和所需注意时间这个创意的关键部分。同样的,我们将在家做这部分。         

      我经常听到“我想洗澡…”。我的一些最有价值的思想我在淋浴。所以为什么我继续在国内淋浴?在工作中我应该洗澡,三个小时。

      或者我们会听到“我梦想这个疯狂的想法!“但在我们办公室小憩在哪里?有很多研究表明改善创造性问题解决后从快速眼动睡眠中醒来。现在我工作办公室的床垫公司还有没有睡觉。当我得到我自己的工作室,我第一次购买会一天床上。多么美妙的一天床上的声音。

Modern work fails to give us the restorative and mindful time needed for this critical part of idea generation. Again, we’re expected to do that part at home.

I often hear “I was thinking in the shower…”. Some of my most valuable thoughts have come to me in the shower. So why do I continue to shower at home? I should be showering at work, for three hours.

Or we’ll hear “I dreamt this crazy idea!” but where is there to nap in our offices? There have been many studies that show improvements in creative problem solving right after waking from REM sleep. Right now I’m working from the office of a mattress company and there is still nowhere to sleep. When I get my own studio, my first purchase will be a day bed. How wonderful a day bed sounds.

                              只有Don Draper这样的人才敢在上班时间小睡。版权所有AMC。

          Only someone like Don Draper would dare take a nap during work hours. Copyright AMC.

      自然对创造力也很重要但我花了很长时间才意识到为什么。    很容易感觉这一切的中心是正确的地方得到灵感。我发现正好相反。我们城市的噪音,它延伸。一个橡皮筋拉得太远太长时间失去其原始形式和斗争为它的目的服务。在城里呆太久,这就是它的作用。自然帮助我们回到我们最初的形式。自然不拉或拉伸,它只是让我们。当我们从自然回来我们觉得可以实现我们的目的。在现代办公室最近的我们自然是图像的桌面墙纸。

Nature is important for creativity too but it took me a long time to realise why. It’s easy to feel like being at the centre of it all is the right place to get inspiration. I’ve found the opposite is true. The city is noise, it stretches us. An elastic band when pulled too far for too long loses its original form and struggles to serve its purpose thereafter. Stay too long in the city and that’s what it does to us. Nature helps us get back to our original form. Nature doesn’t pull or stretch, it simply lets us be. And when we return from nature we feel ready to fulfil our purpose. In the modern office the closest we get to nature is the image on our desktop wallpaper.

                                                            南海岸,夏天,日出前。重置。

                                                          South Coast, summer, before sunrise. Reset.

只有我们可以知道

Only we can know

      人民有能力改变我们的工作文化和重新定义文化规范的现代工作不知道设计师所需要的东西。看起来,不做那些雇来的建筑师设计每天我们居住的空间。

      我们不能离开别人承认我们需要的手中。我们必须要求,或者为自己设计,一个帮助我们做伟大的工作的环境。一个更有效和更好的环境对我们的创造性思维。

      作为设计师,我们聘请了我们的创造力,我们被录用的方式,因为我们认为别人没有,只有我们可以知道如何培养自己的一部分。

The people with the power to change our work cultures and redefine the cultural norms of modern work don’t know what designers need. Neither, it seems, do the architects who were hired to design the spaces that we inhabit each day.

We can’t leave it in the hands of others to recognise what we need. We must demand, or design for ourselves, an environment that helps us do great work. An environment that’s both more productive and better for our creative minds.

As designers we are hired for our creativity, we are hired because we think in ways that others don’t, only we can know how to nurture that part of ourselves.