Perhaps you took the shortcut through the bushes instead of staying on the formal brick path,

也許你沒有走在鋪好的磚頭路上，而是走了一條直接穿過灌木叢的捷徑，

or maybe you shook your head at the thoughtless cretins who trampled through the landscaping just to shave a few seconds off of their walk.

或是你是站在磚頭路上，看著這些懶惰的人們只為了減少幾秒的走路時間而踐踏出來的景致。

These rogue paths have been called desire lines, desire paths, cow paths and they've had a surprising influence on the technology we use every day.

這些雜亂的小徑被稱為期望路線、期望路徑、牛道等等，而它出乎意料地對我們每天使用的科技有著重大的影響。

In 1998, Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas won a fiercely competitive bid to design a new building at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

1998 年時，荷蘭建築師雷姆·庫哈斯在激烈的競爭下贏得了為伊利諾理工學院設計一棟新建築的建案。

It would be his first project in the United States.

這會是他在美國的第一個作品。

This is what he designed.

這是他設計出來的結果。

Back in 1997, he had a team go and observe the way students moved across campus: the way they cut to and from residence halls and academic buildings across this lot under the train tracks.

在 1997 年時，他派了一個團隊到大學中觀察學生們是怎麼橫跨校園移動的，查看他們在往來宿舍區與學術建築時，是怎麼橫跨這個在鐵軌下的區域。

He used those desire lines to inform the interior layout of the building, which won wide critical acclaim at its unveiling.

他使用了這些預期路線來規劃出建築物的內部格局，並在揭露的當時獲得了廣泛好評。

Schools from the University of Maryland to UC Berkeley, to Virginia Tech, Ohio state all have some version of this lore.

從馬里蘭大學到柏克萊大學加州分校，再到維吉尼亞理工學院與俄亥俄州立大學都有著類似的設計。

The campus was pathless until students formed their own paths, which were later formalized by bricks.

整個校園的路徑都是學生踩出來之後，才以磚頭鋪設正式的道路。

Weirdly enough, hashtags are another example of desire lines at work.

奇怪的是，井字號標註 (#) 也是期望路線現象的例子之一。

They're everywhere now.

現在每個人都在用這個功能。

But Twitter's designers didn't build that feature, their users did.

但其實這個功能並不是由推特的設計師所打造，而是由用戶訂定下來的。

In early 2007, a Twitter user who also happen to be a developer, Chris Messina suggested that Twitter begin grouping topics using the hash symbol.

在 2007 年初，一名同時也是網頁開發者的推特用戶克里斯·梅席納建議推特可以利用井字號來開始統整網站上的話題。

Twitter kind of shrugged it off.

推特並沒有把他當一回事。

There are fires all along the roadway there.

火焰一路沿著道路擴散到了那邊。

It just came roaring through. In the matter of...

火勢正不斷肆虐。僅在...

In October 2007, San Diego County was besieged by a series of wildfires.

2007 年 10 月，聖地牙哥郡被一連串的野火所圍困。

Fire just seems to be uncontrollable, unpredictable. I... There's just no words.

火勢看起來完無法控制且無法預測。我... 完全無話可說。

For almost a month, the county was engulfed in flames.

在將近一個月的時間裡，整個郡的各處被火勢所吞噬。

Over a half a million people were evacuated and ten people died.

超過 50 萬人被疏散，十人死亡。

During the firestorm, people began using the #sandiegofire at Messina's suggestion to post updates about the rapidly changing situation.

在這場大火之中，人們開始依照梅席納的建議使用了 #sandiegofire 標註，來不斷更新快速變化的火勢。

It was clear that people wanted a way to join specific conversations organized by topic.

很顯然人們想要有一個能夠依照話題分門別類來討論的方式。

The hashtag took off.

井字號標註於是大受歡迎。

By 2009, Twitter had officially incorporated the hashtag into its platform.

到了 2009 年，推特正式地將井字號功能整合到了平台之中。

Desire lines are the unvarnished truth about how people use what you've built.

期望路線是對於人們怎麼使用你所打造的作品，不加掩飾的實際展現。

So, pave the cow paths has emerged as a mantra among the people who build apps and platforms user experience designers.

於是將牛道鋪好來讓使用者踏出路來，變成為了應用程式與平臺使用者體驗設計師的設計哲學。

They think of the Internet as a wide open, grassy plain and they can watch to see what users do and where they go.

他們把網路想像成是個開闊且綠草如茵的大草原，而他們能觀察使用者們的行為以及他們會往哪走去。

Once you see how desire lines work, you'll spot them everywhere.

在了解了期望路線的運作方式之後，你便能到處看到它的影子。

Celebrities from Ariana Grande, to Kim Kardashian, to Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, have all used screenshots of the notes app to get around the limitations of Twitter or Instagram.

從亞莉安娜·格蘭德到金·卡黛珊，再到推特的創始人傑克‧多爾希等等的名人都曾經使用筆記應用程式的螢幕截圖來規避推特或 Instagram 的字數限制。

So, you could think of that as a desire line.

你可以把這個視為一種期望路線的展現。

Google's autocomplete search results are another response to desire lines.

Google 的自動建議搜尋結果也是對期望路線的回應。

So, our job is to watch for these desire paths emerging and where appropriate pave them.

我們的職責是觀察這些期望路線的發生，並且該在哪裡鋪好這些路線。

Designers are using our behaviors and desires to shape the digital worlds we inhabit.

設計師利用我們的行為與期望來塑造出我們身處其中的數位世界。

Now that you know what desire lines are and how they function, you'll probably start seeing and feeling them at work in all of the digital tools you use.

在你了解期望路線是什麼而它們又是如何運作的之後，你現在可能會開始在每個你所使用的數位工具中看到並感覺到它們的運作了。

Thanks so much for watching.

非常感謝你的收看。

Beat a path down with the comments section to chat all these desire lines.

快到留言區聊聊你看過的期望路線吧。

What examples have you noticed in the digital world or the physical world?

你有在數位世界或是現實世界中注意到那些例子？

Like, subscribe and we'll see you next time.

敬請按讚與訂閱，我們下次再見。