The genius of the London Tube Map | Small Thing Big Idea, a TED series

Translator: Krystian Aparta Reviewer: Camille Martínez

Translator: Júlia Ramírez Reviewer: Elisabet Delgado Mas

The history of civilization, in some ways, is a history of maps:

La història de la civilització és, en certa manera, la història dels mapes:

How have we come to understand the world around us?

Com hem arribat a entendre el món que ens envolta?

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

Un dels mapes més famosos funciona perquè no és realment un mapa.

[Small thing. Big idea.]

[Coses petites, idees grans.]

[Michael Bierut on the London Tube Map]

[Michael Beirut: el Mapa del metro de Londres]

The London Underground came together in 1908,

El metro de Londres es va unificar el 1908,

when eight different independent railways merged

quan vuit línies independents es van fusionar

to create a single system.

per crear un únic sistema.

They needed a map to represent that system

Necessitaven un mapa per representar-lo

so people would know where to ride.

per tal que la gent sabés on anar.

The map they made is complicated.

El mapa que havien fet era molt complicat.

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

Hi havia rius, masses d'aigua, arbres i parcs.

the stations were all crammed together at the center of the map,

Les estacions estaven amuntagades al centre del mapa,

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

i a la perifèria, n'hi havia que en quedaven fora.

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

El mapa era geogràficament precís, però no gaire útil.

Enter Harry Beck.

I va arribar Harry Beck.

Harry Beck was a 29-year-old engineering draftsman

Harry Beck era un enginyer delineant de 29 anys

who had been working on and off for the London Underground.

que ja havia treballat esporàdicament pel metro de Londres.

And he had a key insight,

Tenia una visió clau:

and that was that people riding underground in trains

a la gent que viatja en vagons de metro,

don't really care what's happening aboveground.

no els interessa el que passa a l'exterior.

They just want to get from station to station --

Només volen anar d'una estació a una altra.

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

"On pujo? On baixo?"

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

El sistema és important, no la geografia.

He's taken this complicated mess of spaghetti,

Va agafar aquesta barreja d'espaguetis

and he's simplified it.

i ho va simplificar.

The lines only go in three directions:

Les línies només van en tres direccions:

they're horizontal, they're vertical, or they're 45 degrees.

horitzontal, vertical o en un angle de 45º.

Likewise, he spaced the stations equally,

A més, les estacions estan repartides uniformement,

he's made every station color correspond to the color of the line,

el color de cada estació correspon al color de la línia

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

i tot plegat queda resolt de manera que ja no és un mapa.

What it is is a diagram,

De fet, és un diagrama,

just like circuitry,

com un circuit.

except the circuitry here isn't wires conducting electrons,

Tot i que aquest circuit no està fet de cables,

it's tubes containing trains conducting people from place to place.

sinó de túnels per a trens que duen gent d'un lloc a un altre.

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

El 1933 el Metro va decidir, per fi, donar una oportunitat al mapa de Beck.

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

El Metro va fer una prova: imprimir mil mapes de butxaca.

They were gone in one hour.

Es van acabar en una hora.

They realized they were onto something,

Es van adonar que anaven pel bon camí.

they printed 750,000 more,

En van imprimir 750.000 més

and this is the map that you see today.

i aquest és el mapa que veiem avui dia.

Beck's design really became the template

El disseny de Beck va ser el model

for the way we think of metro maps today.

per la resta de mapes de metro actuals:

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

Tòquio, París, Berlín, São Paulo, Sydney, Washington...

all of them convert complex geography

Tots converteixen una geografia complexa

into crisp geometry.

en geometria definida.

All of them use different colors to distinguish between lines,

Fan servir colors diferents per distingir les línies,

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

utilitzen símbols simples per diferenciar els tipus d'estacions.

They all are part of a universal language, seemingly.

Aparentment, tots formen part d'un llenguatge universal.

I bet Harry Beck wouldn't have known what a user interface was,

Segur que Beck no sabia què era una interfície d'usuari,

but that's really what he designed

però és el que va dissenyar.

and he really took that challenge and broke it down to three principles

Va acceptar el repte i ho va dividir en tres principis bàsics

that I think can be applied in nearly any design problem.

que es poden aplicar a qualsevol problema de disseny.

First one is focus.

El primer és centrar-se.

Focus on who you're doing this for.

Centrar-se en per a qui ho fas.

The second principle is simplicity.

El segon és la simplicitat.

What's the shortest way to deliver that need?

Quina és la manera més senzilla de resoldre-ho?

Finally, the last thing is:

Finalment, l'últim principi és

Thinking in a cross-disciplinary way.

pensar de manera transversal.

Who would've thought that an electrical engineer

Qui hauria dit que un enginyer elèctric

would be the person to hold the key

seria la persona que tindria la clau per desxifrar

to unlock what was then one of the most complicated systems in the world --

un dels sistemes més complicats del món?

Tot va començar amb un home, un llapis i una idea.

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