How have we come to understand the world around us?

我們如何漸漸了解我們周遭的世界？

One of the most famous maps works because it really isn't a map at all.

最有名的地圖之所以很有用， 是因為它其實根本就不是地圖。

The London Underground came together in 1908, when eight different independent railways merged to create a single system.

倫敦地鐵在 1908 年蓋好，八條不同的獨立鐵路被結合在一起成為單一運輸系統。

They needed a map to represent that system so people would know where to ride.

他們需要一張地圖來呈現這個系統，民眾才能知道要坐到哪裡。

The map they made is complicated.

他們做的地圖很複雜。

You can see rivers, bodies of water, trees and parks...

你可以看到河流、水體、樹木、公園...

The stations were all crammed together at the center of the map.

地鐵站都擠在地圖上的中心區域。

And out in the periphery, there were some that couldn't even fit on the map.

在外圍地區，有些車站位置甚至跟地圖不吻合。

So the map was geographically accurate, but maybe not so useful.

所以，這個地圖在地理上是精確的，但不見得有用。

Enter Harry Beck.

哈利．貝克出場了。

Harry Beck was a 29-year-old engineering draftsman who had been working on and off for the London Underground.

哈利．貝克是二十九歲的工程繪圖員，他偶爾會為倫敦地鐵做些工作。

And he had a key insight, and that was that people riding underground in trains don't really care what's happening above ground.

他提出關鍵性的洞見，那就是「在地下搭火車的人根本不在乎地面上有什麼東西」。

They just want to get from station to station.

他們只想從一站到達另一站。

Where do I get on? Where do I get off?

我要在哪站上車？在哪站下車？

It's the system that's important, not the geography.

重要的是系統，不是地理。

He's taken this complicated mess of spaghetti, and he's simplified it.

他把像義大利麵一樣一團亂的複雜線路加以簡化。

The lines only go in three directions: they're horizontal, they're vertical, or they're 45 degrees.

線只有三個方向：水平、垂直，或 45 度。

Likewise, he spaced the stations equally.

同樣的，他把站間的距離做平分。

He's made every station color correspond to the color of the line.

他把每個站的顏色對應到線的顏色。

And he's fixed it all so that it's not really a map anymore.

他把整張圖修改過後， 其實已經算不上是地圖了。

What it is is a diagram, just like circuitry.

它是一張示意圖，就像電路圖。

Except the circuitry here isn't wires conducting electrons, it's tubes containing trains conducting people from place to place.

差別只是這裡的電路圖不是傳輸電子的線路，而是火車走的地鐵道， 把人從一個地方傳輸到另一個地方。

In 1933, the Underground decided, at last, to give Harry Beck's map a try.

1933 年，倫敦地鐵終於決定， 至少試試看哈利．貝克的地圖。

The Underground did a test run of a thousand of these maps, pocket-size.

地鐵官方做了一千張口袋大小的這種地圖做為測試用。

They were gone in one hour.

一小時就被拿光了。

They realized they were onto something; they printed 750,000 more.

他們發現這個點子好像有搞頭，於是又多印了七十五萬份。

And this is the map that you see today.

這就是你們現今看到的地圖。

Beck's design really became the template for the way we think of metro maps today.

貝克的設計變成了樣板，我們現今的捷運地圖都是參考它。

Tokyo, Paris, Berlin, São Paulo, Sydney, Washington, D.C.

東京、巴黎、柏林、 聖保羅、雪黎、華盛頓特區...

All of them convert complex geography into crisp geometry.

它們都把複雜的地理轉變成清爽的幾何。

All of them use different colors to distinguish between lines.

它們都用不同的顏色來區分不同的線。

All of them use simple symbols to distinguish between types of stations.

它們都用簡單的符號來區別不同類型的站。

They all are part of a universal language, seemingly.

它們似乎都是這個共通語言的一部分。

I bet Harry Beck wouldn't have known what a user interface was, but that's really what he designed.

我打賭哈利貝克．並不知道使用者介面的概念，但他設計的就是使用者介面。

And he really took that challenge and broke it down to three principles that I think can be applied in nearly any design problem.

他接受了那個挑戰， 並將它分解成三條原則，我認為這些原則幾乎可用於所有的設計問題。

First one is focus.

第一：聚焦。

Focus on who you're doing this for.

聚焦在你是為了誰設計的重點上。

The second principle is simplicity.

第二條原則是簡單。

What's the shortest way to deliver that need?

達成目的最簡單的方法是什麼？

Finally, the last thing is: Thinking in a cross-disciplinary way.

最後一項原則：用跨學科的方式來思考。

Who would've thought that an electrical engineer would be the person to hold the key to unlock what was then one of the most complicated systems in the world.

誰也想不到解鎖當時最複雜系統的人會是一名電子工程師。

All started by one guy with a pencil and an idea.

一切都從有一支鉛筆和一個想法的人開始。