世界简单化之旅: 当简单成为解决之道

At the beginning of 'Walden,' Henry David Thoreau makes a concise case against the complexity of modern life. 'Our life is frittered away by detail. An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or in extreme cases he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!' he writes. '[L]et your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail. . . . Simplify, simplify.'

在《瓦尔登湖》(Walden)一书的开头，梭罗(Henry David Thoreau)用简短的篇幅抨击了现代生活的复杂性。他写道：“我们的生活在琐碎之中消耗掉了。一个老实人除十指之外，便用不着更大的数字了，在特殊情况下也顶多加上十个足趾，其余不妨笼而统之。简单，简单，简单啊！我说，最好你的事只两件或三件，不要一百件或一千件；不必计算一百万，半打不是够计算了吗，总之，账目可以记在大拇指甲上就好了……简单化，简单化！”

That was the 19th century, though, and we live in the 21st. In a typical day, we encounter dozens -- if not dozens upon dozens -- of moments when we are delayed, frustrated or confused by complexity. Our lives are filled with gadgets we can't use (automatic sprinklers, GPS devices, fancy blenders), instructions we can't follow (labels on medicine bottles, directions for assembling toys or furniture) and forms we can't decipher (tax returns, gym membership contracts, wireless phone bills).

然而梭罗所指的还是19世纪，我们现在生活在21世纪。在最平常的一天，都会有数十个甚至更多时刻，生活的复杂性不仅耽误了我们的时间，还会让我们感到失望或困惑。我们的生活中充满了我们不需要的小东西（自动洒水器、全球卫星定位系统设备、花哨的搅拌器）、我们看不懂的说明书（药瓶上的标签，组装玩具或家具的说明书），以及我们无法破译的表格（纳税申报表、健身房会员合同、手机话费单）。

Every facet of our lives, even entertainment and recreation, is complicated by an ever-widening array of choices delivered at a frantic pace. Consider:

我们生活的各个方面，甚至连娱乐和休闲都因为日益拓宽的选择而复杂化。看看这些数字吧：

-- More than 800,000 apps in the Apple App Store

苹果的App Store里有超过80万个应用程序

-- 240-plus selections on the Cheesecake Factory menu, not including lunch or brunch specials

除了为午餐或早午餐临时推出的特色菜之外，Cheesecake Factory的菜单上还有逾240种菜品

-- 135 mascaras, 437 lotions and 1,992 fragrances at Sephora.com

丝芙兰的网站(Sephora.com)上有135种睫毛膏，437种乳液以及1,992款香水

In 1980, the typical credit card contract was about 400 words long. Today, many are 20,000 words. 'Fine print' complexity costs us money in the form of hidden fees (about $900 per year for the average consumer, according to research conducted by the Ponemon Institute), denied claims and unanticipated charges ($2 billion in one year for landline phone customers, according to the Federal Communications Commission).

1980年，信用卡合同的长度一般为400词左右。如今，许多合同长达2万词。附属细则中的隐形费用、拒绝索赔条款和意料之外的收费让我们支付了更多的钱。根据波耐蒙研究所(Ponemon Institute)的研究，普通消费者每年支付的隐形费用大约为900美元（约合5,580元人民币）。根据美国联邦通讯委员会(Federal Communications Commission)提供的数据，针对座机电话的用户，其每年的意料之外的收费总计可达20亿美元（约合124亿人民币）。

Who has 90 minutes to read 20,000 words or the time to select a Medicare Part D prescription plan (a Web search on medicare.gov will return 45 plans for you to consider)? Ponder the fact that a dermatologist must sign his name to forms almost 30,000 times a year, according to a 2008 article in the Southern Medical Journal. We are on autopilot -- blindly signing, agreeing, working and spending.

谁肯花90分钟时间阅读2万个词，或者，谁会有时间去选择一个联邦医疗保险处方药计划(Medicare Part D)（在medicare.gov上搜索会得到45个方案）呢？想想吧，根据《南部医学杂志》(Southern Medical Journal)显示，一名皮肤科医生一年需要在将近3万个表格上签字。我们现在好像坐上了自动驾驶仪，每天盲目地签字、批准、工作和花钱。

How did we get into this mess? Lawyers and technologists are the taproots of complexity. Government regulators make things worse with misguided attempts to require 'disclosure.' Predatory companies with business practices that are onerous for consumers are only too happy to hide behind the cloak of complexity. And virtually all companies and organizations are averse to change and naturally inclined to take the path of least resistance. For them, it is far easier to keep tacking on amendments and exclusions than to take a blank-slate approach that would make things clearer to customers.

我们是怎么惹上这些麻烦的呢？律师和技术人员是复杂生活产生的根源。此外，政府监管机构要求“公开信息”的误导性措施让事情变得更糟。一些公司的商业操作对消费者来说过于繁重，它们非常愿意躲在复杂的外衣掩盖下。事实上，所有公司和机构都不愿意做出改变，它们自然地倾向于最小程度地抵制政府对信息公开的要求。对于他们来说，与其采用让客户更清楚的方式，不如继续使用拐弯抹角的附录和免责条款，因为后者要容易得多。

Do you know anyone who stops to read 'click-through' agreements on websites in the middle of performing a task? One company, PC Pitstop, deliberately buried a clause in its end-user license agreement in 2004, offering $1,000 to the first person who emailed the company at a certain address. It took five months and 3,000 sales until someone claimed the money. The situation hadn't improved by 2010 when Gamestation played an April Fools' Day joke by embedding a clause in their agreement saying that users were selling them their souls.

你认识在网站上注册时读完网站协议再点击“继续”的人吗？2004年，PC Pitstop公司故意在终端用户许可协议中加了一条，称将奖励给第一个按要求向某地址发送邮件的人1,000美元。过了五个月，在公司卖出了3,000台电脑之后，终于有人获得了这1,000美元。2010年的情况也是如此，那年的愚人节，Gamestation公司开玩笑地在协议中加入一句话，说用户正在出卖自己的灵魂。

Complexity is the coward's way out. But there is nothing simple about simplicity, and achieving it requires following three major principles: empathizing (by perceiving others' needs and expectations), distilling (by reducing to its essence the substance of one's offer) and clarifying (by making the offering easier to understand or use).

使事情复杂化是懦夫解决问题的办法。不过要做到简单绝非易事。实现简单需要遵循三大原则：为对方着想（这需要你理解他人的需要和预期），化繁为简（去粗存精，只保留产品或服务的实质），以及清晰的表达（让你的服务更容易理解或使用）。

Why is it so rare for a product or service to be launched with simplicity baked in? The missing ingredient is empathy. Companies tackle simplification as a science rather than as an art. They measure the length of customer service calls down to hundredths of a second, run readability formulas counting syllables and monitor mouse-clicks by the millions. Afraid to let common sense prevail, companies rely on numbers to judge clarity and usefulness -- two attributes that defy quantification. As a result, they send out documents that they tout as being written at a sixth-grade reading level when in fact no college-educated person understands them.

为什么很少出现具有简单之美的产品或服务呢？就是因为人们不会设身处地为对方着想。企业把简化的过程看做是一门科学，而不是艺术。他们以百分之一秒为单位计算客服电话的长度，使用可读性公式来计算音节的多少，以百万为单位监控点击鼠标的次数；但企业却不愿以常识为原则，而是依赖数字来判断清晰度和实用性，而这两个特点是不能被量化的。因此，尽管他们称自己的文件是针对六年级阅读水平写成的，而事实上拥有大学文凭的人都无法理解他们的意思。

Empathy is the only way to truly shorten the distance between an organization providing services and the individual receiving them. Cleveland Clinic (a client, in the mid-90s, of the brand-strategy firm where we work) understands that empathizing with patients is critical, so it doesn't just focus on simplifying medical care but looks at everything the patient experiences: smells, sounds, greetings, hospital gowns, security and appointment scheduling. It wasn't until staff members were wheeled through hallways lying in hospital beds that they realized how disconcerting and dizzying that experience can be. Preparing patients for the 'thrill' ride is a simple gesture that allays fears.

设身处地为对方着想，这是唯一的方式，能真正缩短提供服务的机构和获得服务的个人之间距离。克里夫兰医疗中心(Cleveland Clinic)（是我们工作的品牌战略公司上世纪90年代中期的一个客户）知道，站在病人的角度思考至关重要，因此该中心不仅仅专注于简化医疗保健服务，而且关注病人一切体验：气味、声音、问候、医院制服、安全保障和预约安排。员工们只有亲自躺在病床上被用轮椅推到走廊时，他们才会意识到这个过程是多么令人窘迫和头晕。让病患为这场“惊悚”做好准备，是一个简单但却能够缓解恐惧的措施。

The clinic's guiding principle -- patients first -- is used as a mantra by chief executive Toby Cosgrove, who weaves patient experience stories into all of his presentations. Everyone at the hospital, regardless of his or her job, is called a 'caregiver.' Through this simple change in vocabulary, Cleveland Clinic is able to send an important signal to everyone in the organization about what's expected.

这家医疗中心“病人至上”的指导原则，被首席执行长托比•科斯格罗夫(Toby Cosgrove)奉为真言，他把有关病人经历的故事融入自己所有的演讲中。医院的每个人，无论具体职能，都被称作“关爱给与者”。通过用词的简单变化，克里夫兰医疗中心向机构所有员工发送了一个重要信号，告诉他们病患对他们的期待是什么。

What makes the biggest impression on people during their stay in a hospital? As Cleveland Clinic learned, it's the small details: how long it takes a nurse to answer the call bell, the availability of food on request, whether staff members follow the '10-4' rule ('when 10 feet away from a patient, smile and make eye contact; when 4 feet away, address the patient').

人们待在医院时，哪些事情留给他们最深的印象？克里夫兰医疗中心认为是一些细节：护士多长时间会回应呼叫铃；食物是否能随叫随到；员工是否遵守了10-4规定（在距离病人10英尺远的时候微笑和眼神交流，距4英尺远的时候开始回应病人的诉求）。

Borrowing from the hospitality industry, Cleveland Clinic has even paid attention to the scent in the air. No antiseptic aroma; the air smells like a signature fragrance favored by four-star hotel chains. Everything from the way doctors talk to patients (in plain English, and with a willingness to answer questions until there are none left), to the hospital gowns (designed by Diane von Furstenberg to combine ease of access with a touch of dignity), to the clear, concise bills you receive after checking out reflects a commitment to simplifying the interaction between a human being and a large, complex medical establishment. The hospital has achieved simplicity through the elimination of 'hassles' and the addition of clearer, more human communication.

克里夫兰医疗中心甚至向酒店业学习，关注空气中的气味。这里没有消毒剂的味道，空气闻起来就像四星级连锁酒店里常有的香味。从医生对病人的讲话（愿意用简单易懂的英语回答病人的所有问题，直到病人满意为止）到医院的着装（由黛安•冯芙丝汀宝(Diane von Furstenberg)设计，结合了亲和力和高贵之感），以及出院时清晰简洁的单据，这些都反映出，克里夫兰医疗中心致力于简化人类和大型复杂医疗机构之间的互动。通过减少麻烦和增加更清晰更人性化的交流，这家医院实现了简单化。

One of the keys to achieving empathy is feedback. The hospital gathers lots of it from patients and displays the data in patient experience 'dashboards.' For staff members eager to do well in comparison with their peers, 'Bedside Manner' has become a measurable attribute, not an intangible quality.

为病人着想的关键在于获得病人的反馈。这家医院收集了大量病人反馈，并将数据展示在一个有关病人体验的“控制面板”上。对于积极上进的员工来说，“临床礼仪”已成为一个可量化的品质。

If Cleveland Clinic appeals to the emotional side of our brains to provide a simple, soothing experience, the supermarket chain Trader Joe's tries to simplify rational choice. The company's long-standing goal is to reduce the grocery-shopping experience to a few manageable decisions. Trader Joe's figured out that trying to give people everything is a lousy business model: It overwhelms customers, clutters stores and undermines the shopping experience, causing some customers to default to 'no' since they can't make up their minds. On top of that, it is inefficient for handling inventory.

如果说克里夫兰医疗中心提供的简单、令人放松的体验满足了我们的感性需求，超市连锁Trader Joe's的尝试则简化了我们的理性选择。这家公司的长期目标是将杂货店的购物体验简化为几个可以管理的决定。Trader Joe's发现，努力向人们提供所有的商品是一种糟糕的商业模式，这会让客户难以抉择，导致商店拥堵，破坏购物体验，一些客户会自动拒绝购买任何东西，因为他们无法作出决定。最重要的是，无法有效地控制库存。

Trader Joe's offers many fewer products than other supermarkets (about 4,000 items instead of 40,000, according to Peter Sealey of the Sausalito Group). Limiting variety doesn't mean bland selections, however; the company does extensive research on its customer base to make smart choices on behalf of the people who shop there, mixing in some exotic food choices and using playful, quirky packaging. Shoppers are thus spared the aggravation of having to sort through dozens of options for jam or mustard or frozen foods.

Trader Joe's提供的产品比其他超市要少（Sausalito Group的彼得•希利(Peter Sealey)称，它只提供大约4,000种商品，而不是4万种）。不过，限制产品种类并不意味着店内的产品是枯燥乏味的。这家公司对客户进行了广泛研究，从而代表消费者作出了聪明了选择。这家商店购进了一些外国食品，店内商品采用好玩、奇特的包装。购物者因此不必辛苦地从几十种果酱、芥末或速冻食品中作出选择。

Does it work? The chain, which has about 350 stores in the U.S., sells an estimated $1,750 in merchandise per square foot, according to Fortune magazine in 2010, more than double the sales generated per square foot by Whole Foods Market.

这么做行得通吗？据2010年的《财富》(Fortune)杂志称，这家连锁店在美国大约有350家门店，平均每平方英尺（约0.09平方米）的店面带来的销售额大约为1,750美元（约合1万人民币），比全食有机食品连锁店(Whole Foods Market)每平方英尺的销售额的两倍还多。

Sometimes simplicity can be a matter of life and death. A decade ago, worried that confusing prescription labels threatened the health of her grandparents, Deborah Adler decided to do something about it. A graphic designer, she took on this challenge for her master's thesis. Rearranging the small type on the typical prescription label, Ms. Adler put the information in a logical order, giving prominence to the things that people most need to know at the moment they are reaching for their medicine. She divided the label into two parts, separated by a thick black line, and placed the critical information, such as the name and dosage of the medication, at the top, with everything else relegated to the bottom.

有时候，简单化有着生死攸关的重要性。10年前，由于担心令人困惑的药品标签可能会耽误祖父的治疗，德博拉•阿德勒(Deborah Adler)决定做些什么。作为图像设计师，她在硕士论文中讨论了这个难题。阿德勒重新排列了药品标签上的小字，以一种有逻辑的顺序安排标签上的信息，突出显示人们在拿到药品时最想知道的信息。她把标签分成由一条粗黑线分隔的两部分，并把药物名称和用量等重要信息放在黑线上端，其他的信息则放在下面。

Ms. Adler next considered the shape of the bottles. The wraparound labels on conventional round bottles were difficult to read, so she designed a flat tube-shaped container that stood upright on its cap, with plenty of room for a large, flat label that could be read easily at a glance. Also, by color-coding the bottles, she made it possible for family members to distinguish among their individual medications. Her simpler, clearer drug packaging has been adopted by Target pharmacies nationwide.

阿德勒接下来考虑了药瓶的形状。传统圆形瓶子上的标签难以阅读，因此她设计了一个扁平管状容器，有足够的空间可以平贴一张标签，这样一来标签的内容就一目了然了。此外，她还在瓶身上加了彩色代码，家庭成员可区分他们各自的药物。她的更简单、清晰的药品包装已被全国的Target药房采用。

Smart companies test product information by finding out how customers perceive it and how much of it the customers actually comprehend. Measuring perception alone can be misleading because people are often reluctant to confess their confusion. They view it as a personal failing rather than as a flaw in the information. Measuring their ability to perform tasks based on the information is a more reliable indicator of its clarity and precision.

聪明的企业往往通过调查客户对产品信息的理解，以及能理解到什么程度来测试产品信息是否足够简单。单独评估客户的理解程度可能产生误差，因为人们通常不愿意承认自己的疑惑。他们认为这是自己的失败，而不是信息表达的缺陷。客户根据信息执行任务的能力才是更可靠的指标，以此可衡量产品信息表达的清晰度和准确度。

This type of testing can be conducted quickly and cheaply with online panels of consumers. For example, testing a notice from the Internal Revenue Service (a current client of ours), a taxpayer might be asked how much they would pay in penalties and interest if they missed a deadline, revealing their actual understanding of the consequences of their actions, not just their impression of the tone and clarity of the notice. Similarly, patients can be asked what dosage of medication to take and when so that we don't have to guess whether they truly understand the package directions.

由于网络上有大量消费者资源，这种测试可以非常便捷，又无需花很多钱。例如，如果要测试美国国税局(Internal Revenue Service)（目前是我们的客户）的一则通知，纳税人可能需要回答，如果错过最后期限他们需要支付多少罚金和利息，从中就可以看出他们对行动的后果的真实理解，而不光是了解到他们对信息的大致印象。同样，病人可能会被问到用药的计量以及用药时间，这样我们就不需要猜测他们是否真正理解了包装上的说明。

Simplicity is slowly catching on as a standard. The Pew Charitable Trust, for instance, is trying to develop simplified model documents on financial topics such as banking fees, about which there is widespread and costly confusion. The model form that Pew put forward last year has been voluntarily adopted by several of the nation's largest banks─a very encouraging sign.

简单正在慢慢成为一种标准。例如，皮尤慈善信托基金会(Pew Charitable Trust)正在努力开发简化版本的金融文件，比如银行费用，人们对银行费用存在广泛的困惑，而这种困惑的代价相当高昂。美国的几家大型银行主动采用了皮尤慈善信托基金会去年推出的模板，这是一个令人振奋的信号。

Similarly, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is working its way through the disclosures related to major consumer financial transactions (student loans, home mortgages, payday lending) with an eye to making it easier for borrowers to do comparison shopping. Local governments such as New York City are simplifying residents' interactions with the bureaucracy through systems such as a 311 hotline for complaints and urgent matters. And social media is allowing all of us to get closer to companies and institutions and to make known our concerns and compliments.

同样，消费者金融保护局(Consumer Financial Protection Bureau)正在研究与主要的消费者金融交易有关的信息公开（学生贷款、住房抵押贷款、发薪日借贷），目标是使借款者更容易比较消费。通过311投诉和紧急事务热线等系统，纽约等地的地方政府正在简化消费者与金融保护局之间的互动。社交媒体也正在使人们与企业机构间建立更密切的关系，使人们的担忧和好评能被更好地了解。

What do we still need to simplify? For ordinary personal and commercial transactions, we need brief online contracts with interactive features explaining key words, concepts and computations. We need personal health records that can be easily used and updated by all health-care providers. We need summaries of our home and auto insurance that clearly explain how we will be reimbursed when the next storm hits; clear, one-page hospital bills that will allow us to recognize each element in the care that we receive; and a simplified tax code that will eliminate the need for costly tax return preparation by professionals.

我们还需要简化什么？对于普通的人事和商业交易来说，我们需要简洁的网络合同，通过互动手段解释一些关键词、概念和计算方法；我们需要个人健康记录，任何医疗保健服务提供者都能轻松使用和更新；我们需要家庭和汽车保险概要，它能清楚解释下一次风暴来袭时我们将如何获得补偿；我们需要医院仅一页纸长的单据，清晰告知我们享受到了哪些医疗服务；另外还需要一个简化的免税代码，从而使专业人员无需准备高成本的纳税申报单。

For any modification or addition to its pristine home page, Google GOOG -1.06% has a famous zero-based approach, which is meant to avoid creeping complexity. The company requires extensive justification for any new visual element, assigning 'points' for each change in type style, size or color. The goal is the fewest number of points because, as the company says, 'More points = less simplicity.' Other institutions would do well to adopt a similar approach for evaluating new services, communications and products.

谷歌(Google)采用了一种著名的零基础法来决定是否对其原始主页进行修改或补充，这种方法旨在避免使页面复杂化。公司要求对任何新的可视元素进行广泛论证，为版式风格、尺寸和颜色上的每一个变化打分。谷歌的目标是让变化的总分最少，该公司说，这是因为分数越高，页面越不简洁。其他机构也可采取类似的方法来评估新的服务、沟通和产品。

Simplicity may sound like a narrow standard, but it can help companies, governments and every other sort of organization winnow down unnecessary choices and clarify their messages to consumers, clients and citizens. We may not quite be able to re-create Thoreau's calm life on Walden Pond, but it is always possible to drive improvement by simplifying.

简单化可能听起来是一个不易达到的标准，但它能帮助公司政府和各种机构剔除不必要的产品和服务，使消费者、客户和市民获得更清楚的信息。我们也许不能够复制梭罗在瓦尔登湖的宁静生活，但是我们永远可以通过化繁为简来改善自己的生活。