How the progress bar keeps you sane | Small Thing Big Idea, a TED series

Translator: Camille Martínez Reviewer: Krystian Aparta

譯者: Lilian Chiu 審譯者: Chen Chi-An

How many people are bored at their desk

有多少人在桌前感到無聊，

for how many hours every day

一天有幾個小時、

and how many days a week and how many weeks a year

一週有幾天、一年有幾週、

for how many years in their life?

一生有幾年是感到無聊的？

[Small thing. Big idea.]

〔小東西。大點子。〕

[Daniel Engber on the Progress Bar]

〔丹尼爾恩伯談進度條〕

The progress bar is just an indicator on a computer

進度條只是電腦上的一個指標，

that something's happening inside the device.

表示在該裝置中有事情在發生。

The classic one that's been used for years is a horizontal bar.

多年來最經典的進度條 就是水平的橫條。

I mean, this goes back to pre-computer versions of this

這要追溯回在電腦出現之前的版本，

on ledgers, where people would fill in a horizontal bar from left to right

在帳簿上，人們會由左至右 將水平橫條給塗滿，

to show how much of a task they had completed at a factory.

來顯示在工廠中的一項 工作任務已經完成了多少。

This is just the same thing on a screen.

這和螢幕上的進度條是一樣的。

Something happened in the 70s

七○年代時，

that is sometimes referred to as "the software crisis,"

所謂的「軟體危機」發生了，

where suddenly, computers were getting more complicated

突然間，電腦變得更複雜，

more quickly than anyone had been prepared for,

也更快速，從設計的觀點來說，

from a design perspective.

大家都沒準備好。

People were using percent-done indicators in different ways.

人們會用不同的方式 來使用完成百分比指標。

So you might have a graphical countdown clock,

可能會有圖像式的倒數時鐘，

or they would have a line of asterisks

或是有一排星號

that would fill out from left to right on a screen.

從左向右漸漸填滿螢幕。

But no one had done a systematic survey of these things

但沒有人對這些東西 做過系統性的調查

and tried to figure out:

來試著了解：

How do they actually affect the user's experience

它們究意對電腦前的使用者

有什麼體驗上的影響？

of sitting at the computer?

This graduate student named Brad Myers,

這位研究生布萊德米爾斯

in 1985, decided he would study this.

在 1985 年決定研究這個主題。

He found that it didn't really matter

他發現，完成度百分比指標

if the percent-done indicator was giving you the accurate percent done.

是否有給予你正確的完成度百分比 其實不重要。

What mattered was that it was there at all.

重要的是，是否有這個指標。

Just seeing it there made people feel better,

看到它在那裡， 就能讓人感覺比較好，

and that was the most surprising thing.

那是最讓人驚訝的發現。

He has all these ideas about what this thing could do.

他對這種指標用途有很多想法。

Maybe it could make people relax effectively.

也許，它能很有效地讓人放鬆。

Maybe it would allow people to turn away from their machine

也許，它能讓人離開他們的機器，

and do something else of exactly the right duration.

在這段等候時間內去做些其他的事。

They would look and say, "Oh, the progress bar is half done.

他們會看一眼並說： 「喔，進度條完成了一半。

That took five minutes.

還要花五分鐘。

So now I have five minutes to send this fax,"

所以現在我還有 五分鐘可以去傳真。」

or whatever people were doing in 1985.

或是去做其他 1985 年的人會做的事。

Both of those things are wrong.

以上兩點都不對。

Like, when you see that progress bar,

當你看見進度條時，

it sort of locks your attention in a tractor beam,

它會像牽引波束一樣 鎖住你的注意力，

and it turns the experience of waiting

它會把等候的體驗轉變成

into this exciting narrative that you're seeing unfold in front of you:

你看到你面前有個 讓人興奮的故事正在展開：

that somehow, this time you've spent waiting in frustration

不知怎麼的，那些你很挫折地

for the computer to do something,

花費在等候電腦做事的時間，

has been reconceptualized as:

被重新概念化，成為：

"Progress! Oh! Great stuff is happening!"

「有進度！喔！有大事在發生！」

[Progress...]

〔進度…〕

But once you start thinking about the progress bar

但，一旦你把進度條想成是

as something that's more about dulling the pain of waiting,

用來減輕等候痛苦的東西，

well, then you can start fiddling around with the psychology.

那麼你就可以開始玩些 心理學上的小把戲了。

So if you have a progress bar that just moves at a constant rate --

如果你的進度條是等速的－

let's say, that's really what's happening in the computer --

假設那真的是在電腦中發生的狀況－

that will feel to people like it's slowing down.

人的感受會是：它在變慢。

We get bored.

我們會感到無聊。

Well, now you can start trying to enhance it

現在，你可以開始加快它，

and make it appear to move more quickly than it really is,

讓它顯得比實際上移動得更快，

make it move faster at the beginning, like a burst of speed.

讓它在一開始移動得 比較快，像爆衝的速度。

That's exciting, people feel like, "Oh! Something's really happening!"

那讓人興奮，會覺得： 「喔！真的有什麼事在發生了！」

Then you can move back into a more naturalistic growth of the progress bar

接著在過程中再換回

速度自然增加的進度條，

as you go along.

You're assuming that people are focusing on the passage of time --

你假設人會把焦點放在 時間一分一秒過去－

they're trying to watch grass grow,

他們試圖看著草在生長，

they're trying to watch a pot of water, waiting for it to boil,

他們試圖看著一鍋水，等著水滾，

and you're just trying to make that less boring,

而你只是試著讓那過程 在和以前相比時

less painful and less frustrating

能比較不無聊、比較不痛苦、

than it was before.

比較不讓人挫折。

So the progress bar at least gives you

所以，進度條至少能給予你

the vision of a beginning and an end,

開始與結束的視覺化呈現，

and you're working towards a goal.

表示你在朝一個目標前進。

I think in some ways, it mitigates the fear of death.

我想，在某些意義上， 它減輕了對死亡的恐懼。

Too much?

這樣說太過頭了？