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- 原文标题：Five Beliefs that Inhibit Good Design（Businessweek）
- 原文作者：Deepa Prahalad
- 原文来源：businessweek.com
Five Beliefs that Inhibit Good Design
扼杀优秀设计的五个纠结想法
The growing interest in design notwithstanding, many businesses cling to misbegotten ideals that hinder it, says consultant Deepa Prahalad
设计的兴趣与日俱增的同时, 许多企业仍然坚持会给设计拖后腿的理念
By Deepa Prahalad/p>
作者：Deepa Prahalad
Posted on Harvard Business Review: October 28, 2010 9:57 AM
发表于哈佛商业评论, 2010年10月28日
There are plentiful examples today of companies using design to create value for consumers and shareholders. Despite the growing interest in design across industries, there are also persistent misconceptions that keep many business leaders from realizing its potential in their organizations. Here are the most common ones:
很多公司利用设计为客户和股东创造价值，时下不乏这样的成功案例。尽管各行各业都对设计越来越有兴趣，顽固的错觉让很多商业领袖不能发挥他企业的潜能。以下是一些常见的情况：
1. Quality is more important than design in my business. Quality is important in every business and always will be. However, quality is the price of entry in many industries and it's rarely enough to win market share and loyal consumers.
1. 质量对企业比设计更重要。质量对于每个企业都是重要的，而且一直都是。然而，质量对于很多行业来说只是入门门槛，并不足以赢得市场份额和忠诚的客户。
There's a persistent belief in a trade-off between style and substance. In reality, design is a way of conveying quality. Data suggest that companies gain the luxury to focus on design when they have mastered quality, distribution, and understand their markets well enough to create a relevant offering. Google, Coca Cola, HP, Procter & Gamble—are just a few examples of firms that are high design and high performance.
有些理念认为必须权衡外观和内涵。实际上，设计是传递质量的一个途径。数据显示，很多公司奢华地专注于设计的时候，已经成功的在质量，营销，理解市场并提供体贴产品等方面做得足够好。谷歌，可口可乐，惠普，保洁等--就是几个设计和业绩都很优良的典范。
What's true in the lives of individuals applies to companies as well—when you're exhausted, overwhelmed or confused about what to do next, you never look your best. Consumers look at a dirty store, picked-over merchandise and bad service and come to the same conclusions. Good design is like putting on a suit for an interview—it shows the other person that you care about the relationship.
个人生活中管用的常识应用到企业也是一样的，你筋疲力尽，不堪和迷惑，不知下一步该如何时，你看不到你的最佳一面。消费者看到肮脏的商店，挑剩下的货物和糟糕的服务也会得到相同的结论。好的设计就像穿上西装去面试，这让别人看到你把这当回事儿。
2. It is more important for me to offer a great price than a great design. Some great designs and brands do cost more, but there is no absolute correlation between price and design. Great design exists at all price points. Some of the best-known examples are companies such as Target, IKEA and LEGO that offer goods in a budget-conscious segment. The pattern continues with the Top 20 global brands, which include luxury retailers but also accessible goods and services like Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Google and Gillette.
2. "我能提供优秀的价格比优秀的设计更重要"。一些优秀的设计和品牌的确成本高，不过并不存在价格和设计的绝对关系。优秀的设计在所有价位都存在。一些知名品牌，例如Target，宜家和乐高，提供的商品都是在成本敏感的层次。顶尖的20个全球品牌都是这种状况，包括奢侈品零售商，亦或是平民商品和服务，例如可口可乐，麦当劳，谷歌和吉列。
More importantly, some of the most innovative designs today were created with affordability and scarcity in mind. The Tata Nano, the award-winning portable ECG machine from GE and One Laptop per Child were just a few notable efforts that challenged assumptions about price-performance relationships and generated design buzz. The push for sustainability across industries is likely to amplify this trend.
更重要的是，当今最具创新的设计都不忘“买得起”和节约。来自GE的获奖产品轻型便携式心电图仪Tata Nano，“人手一本”的儿童电脑（译者注：原产品名称是“每个儿童一台笔电”）是众多成功挑战性价比死结和创造设计传奇的卓越努力中的两个。跨行业推广可持续发展可以弘扬这种潮流。
3. I would like to have a great design, but I have to launch on time. Design by definition must include execution. Focusing on design forces an organization to test ideas, synthesize feedback, and generate new concepts at a rapid pace. Historically, designers were brought in at the end of the launch process—and creating concepts under intense pressure is still the norm.
3. "我想要伟大的设计，不过我得按时上市"。就定义而已，设计必须包括执行。聚焦设计驱使企业以很快的步伐测试想法，整合反馈，并且产生新概念。过去，直到新产品上市的尾声阶段，设计师才介入--在巨大的压力下进行创意一直都是天经地义的。
Look at the many of the companies that are strongly associated with design today. Apple, P&G, Target, Amazon, LEGO and others expand their portfolios and launch products more frequently than their peers. Design efforts don't slow down product launches. Indecision does. A widely shared set of decision criteria around design can make the process more efficient.
看看现在紧密以设计为伍的公司。苹果，保洁，Target，亚马逊，乐高等等，以比对手更快的频率扩展投资和发布产品。一个关于设计广泛认同的决策理念可以让业务流程更高效。
4. Design and aesthetics are too subjective—I need data to make decisions. Although great design speaks to a consumer's needs and emotions, there is no single aesthetic that companies must drive toward. Consistency between the brand values and the physical design is what creates a superior consumer experience. BMW, Honda and Hyundai have deep consumer loyalty with very different looks and features. Moreover, design priorities are based in actual data. Consumer testing and feedback can be achieved at low cost today with the internet and social media.
4. "设计和审美太主观了--我需要数据进行决策"。虽然伟大的设计可以与客户需求和情感对话，并没有所有公司都必须追随单一的审美标准。真正产生卓越用户体验的是品牌价值和实物设计的一致性。宝马，本田和现代截然不同的外观和特性都有各自牢固的客户忠诚度。而且，设计的重点是基于真实数据的。有今天的互联网和社交媒体，可以用很低廉的成本获得消费者试用和反馈数据。
5. I will create the product or service; I trust the advertising experts to tell the story. The worlds of brand, advertising and design are rapidly converging. Well-crafted marketing and branding can boost the impact of a great design, but unless the message is reinforced by real-world experience, the effect is usually temporary.
5. "我负责创造产品和服务，我信赖让广告专家去讲故事"。品牌世界里，广告和设计是快速融合为一体的。精心设计的营销和品牌可以提高一个伟大设计的影响，不过除非广告词能够被真实体验所巩固，其效果通常是暂时的。
In the best cases, the design itself can become the advertisement. Some familiar success stories—Dyson, FlipCam, the iPod, Method—illustrate this point beautifully. These designs fuel demand and propel brand loyalty. It's no accident that great companies often have great ad campaigns and use social media effectively—they are leveraging the same deep understanding of the consumer.
最好的情况，设计本身成为的广告。很多相似的成功故事，Dyson，FlipCam，iPod，Method等，漂亮的诠释了这个观点。这些设计鼓动需求并推进品牌忠诚度。毫无意外地，伟大的公司总是有好的广告公关，有效的利用社交媒体，这方面他们同样成功的利用了对消费者的深刻理解。
Business leaders don't need to go to design school to bring great design into their companies. They need to remember bring their own core skills—listening to consumers, asking questions, and openness to new ideas—into the design process. Design doesn't work in a vacuum—it's the alignment with the right business model and service that creates a compelling consumer experience. Getting to great design requires looking at consumers, not competing products, more thoughtfully.
商业领袖不需要去设计学校才能把优秀的设计带进公司。他们需要记得把他们的核心技能--倾听消费者，提问，和对新想法保持开放态度--带进设计过程。设计不是空想，它是正确的商业模型和具有吸引人的用户体验的服务的相得益彰。达致优秀设计需要紧盯客户，而不是竞争性的产品，要更有想法。
