Design by metaphor—or, as is often the case, design by simile—happens when a client provides design and development in the form of a reference to another product. This can occur both in high-level concepts, such as, “MySpace, but for B2B relationships,” and in individual details, like “the login should be just like Gmail’s.”

当客户要求参照其它形式设计和开发网站的时候，经常利用暗喻的方法，有时候也使用明喻的方法。这种方法有时也会在一些高水平的理论中，例如：My Space中的功能（除去与B2B相关的功能） 也会出现在个人资料中，例如：Gmail中的登录信息。

Spoken language provides an interesting analogue to design by metaphor: If you’re not a fluent speaker of a particular language, you’re often forced to stretch your limited vocabulary into bizarre, descriptive phrases instead of the exact words that say what you mean. Maybe you remember the last time you were overseas and asked directions to the “shop of changing banknotes.” In the same way, you’ll mostly see similes in specifications provided by clients who may not know how to say that they want “database of user registrations with reports X, Y, and Z” or “JavaScript menus that degrade into CSS-formatted lists.”

口语给我们提供了使用暗喻的环境：如果你某种语言说得不流利，可能会利用有限的词汇编造一些令人莫名其妙的词语，不能用准确的语言表达自己的意思。可能你还记得在国外询问：“兑换货币的商店”的路怎么走；同样，你经常会在客户的说明书中看到一些明喻的用法，他们可能不知道如何表达：创建用户登记报告的数据库；设计CSS表单格式的JS菜单。

Metaphors and similes are also excellent ways to summarize multiple, loosely-related concepts in shorthand. After all, the basic behaviors of any web-based discussion forum, contact form, or shopping cart are largely the same as those of any other once you factor out the specific content of the site.

利用明喻、暗喻方法可以帮你快速总结零散内容，切中要点。毕竟，一旦整理出网站的具体内容，所有的讨论、接触和销售与其它网站的情况就差不多相同了。

Why put up with comparison-driven design?
利用比较设计的原因

When used to pin down abstract concepts or unusual design details, design by metaphor or simile bridges a major gap of understanding. The customer may not be able to pin down what he wants from another site, but in some cases, pointing to that site can be enough to make the features he desires apparent to experienced developers.

在涉及到抽象概念或难以理解的设计细节时，利用明喻或暗喻可以避免设计者与客户之间产生大的理解分歧。客户可能不知道从其他网站学习什么，但对有经验的设计者来说，客户推荐某个网站，已经足以让他们了解用户的需要。

Conversely, comparative references can be extremely powerful for explaining design decisions back to a client. Few client-provided specifications are all-inclusive, and you can expect questions when your judgment calls don’t match what he imagined. If you explain that you designed your booking process “like Expedia,” you can easily summarize a wide range of choices through the system, as well as gain added authority by showing that your choices mirror those of a successful system.

反过来也是一样的，利用比较的方法能够让设计者更好地解释自己的决定。客户的说明书没有几份是全面的，当你的判读与客户的想法出现矛盾时，你可以通过这种方式去发现问题。如果你向客户解释，登记程序像Expedia，就可以通过对比，简要介绍选择这个设计的原因，而且通过与某些成功系统的对比，可以提高设计者的权威。

When comparisons attack
对比的负面作用

Unfortunately, the power of this method of communication comes at a significant cost. If a client says he wants his new auction site to be “like eBay,” what does that mean? An artist hears “It has a tacky color scheme.” A developer hears “It’s scalable to 20 million users.” A user hears “It has feedback ratings on all sellers.” Which, if any of these, did the client mean? You may spend dozens of hours writing specs for eBay-esque features that didn’t capture the client’s heart.

然而，用比较来进行交流的方式有时会让人产生理解偏差。客户如果说：希望自己的拍卖网站像eBay一样，这意味着什么呢？艺术家可能会理解为：色彩设计要俗气；开发者理解为：网站要吸引2000万用户；用户理解为：网站要有销售商的排名，那到底客户的意思是什么呢？这时，你可能要花时间研究一下eBay网的哪些方面是客户不希望借鉴的。

Conversely, defining your own work in terms of other products may set up unacceptable comparisons or fixations in your customer’s mind. If you boast that a new shopping cart works 95% like Amazon, the client may grow obsessed with “fixing” the 5% that’s different, or incorrectly believe that his site has acquired the capacity and features of Amazon across the board.

有时候，作对比也可能让客户不能接受，让他们产生某种固定的想法。如果，你保证网站会像Amazon一样，95%的购物车会利用起来，客户就会对怎样确定5%感到迷惑，或者会错误的认为，网站的容量和功能和Amazon一样了。

Moreover, the ability to identify a loose aggregation of features via a single comparison may cause clients to accidentally include irrelevant or needlessly expensive features in their specifications. For example, many off-the-shelf shopping systems include extensive support for multiple currencies and tax jurisdictions. This adds many layers of complexity, and if you’re running a single outlet in Chandler, Arizona, you probably don’t actually want to spend $5,000 more on development to ensure your “just like Zen Cart” shop is ready to handle British Value Added Tax.

此外，客户可能会通过与其它网站的对比，在说明书中增加一些无关的或不需要的功能。比如说：很多现货供应系统支持多种货币交易和税收，假如客户提出这个要求，复杂性就会增加，如果网站只是简简单单向Chandler、Arizona销售产品，那你可能不想花费5000多一点美金来保证：“just like Zen Cart”网站可以承担英国的增值税。

Finally, a client who can only speak in similes may be unable to bring the best possible choices to the table. If the client is selling merchandise, he’ll probably say he wants a self-contained shopping system styled after his favorite e-commerce site—but his comparison is limited by his experience. Odds are, he hasn’t seen an example of a hosted shopping cart service, or a single-action “Buy Now” button that he can allude to, even if those would suit his needs better. Your experience and expertise comes in there, as you’ll be able to offer your clients choices they didn’t realize they had and rescue them from the tyranny of comparison.

最后，只会做比较的客户不能够写出自己的最佳选择。如果是网上销售，他可能说：希望有一个独立的销售系统，就像自己喜欢的某个网上商店一样，但是他的经验限制了这种对比。可能他以前没有浏览过更好的网上商店，可能没有点击过“立即购买”这个键，即使这个更能符合他的要求，他也不可能提出来，因为没有这样的经历。但设计者有经验和技术，可以为客户提供意想不到的服务，可以把他们从比较的束缚中解脱出来。

Bounce back to the real world
恢复正常交流方式

The ambiguity inherent in comparison-based design communication must be managed, or you’ll end up trying to build mutant websites which work as YouTube plus Newegg multiplied by DeviantArt…on a $750 budget. Fortunately, there’s a practical strategy for controlling runaway scope: limit the use of metaphors and similes to the phases in which they work best.

在网络设计的交流中，一定要克服运用比较方法出现的不明确问题，否则设计的网站就是一个集合多种网站特点的网站，没有自己的特色。很幸运的是，现在可以利用一种实际的方法解决这个问题：在可以说明的状况下，尽量少使用明喻和暗喻。

It makes sense to start with comparisons, especially if you’re about to develop a significant new functional unit. However, if you do so, the second round of specification development becomes critical. Once you understand what the client is asking for on a high level, you should restate that understanding in more concrete terms that will form the basis for binding design documents. You can even walk through the comparison product part by part and ask the client what he really means with his comparisons. There is absolutely no harm in asking “what part of this process do you want to copy?” Developers often over-complicate vague requests, and it may turn out to be a pleasant surprise when it turns out that all the client really wants to lift from the $300,000 commercial backend is its color scheme and menu placement.

进行比较有时候也有实际意义，特别是当你想开发新功能的时候。然而，说明书的改动就变得尤其重要。在了解到用户需要什么更高的要求后，你应该用更加具体的词语去重新理解这些要求，然后形成一份基本设计文件。你可以慢慢地理解比较的内容，询问客户真正需要的内容，比如说：这一部分你想要借鉴什么呢？这样做对网站设计完全是有益的。有时开发者把客户的要求想象得过分复杂，当真正了解到客户的需要以后，才大吃一惊，原来客户愿意花费30万美金购买网站的色彩设计和菜单布置。

You may also be able to control ambiguous comparisons by treating them not just as a design reference, but also as a source of benchmarks. Compare compatibility and performance of the model site: when you bring a focus group in, let them attempt to complete tasks on your site and then on the sites the client presented as models. Direct comparison of user experiences and task success rates are solid evidence that your site matches, or even exceeds, the models. Such a strategy is particularly effective when the client has questionable assumptions about user behavior.

对于这些模糊不清的比较，你可以把其当作一个基准，而不是设计参考。比如说，可以与模型网站比较兼容性以及运行状况：吸引到一些客户，让他们尽力完成网站上的任务，然后让他们完成模型网站上的任务。对用户的浏览经历和任务成功率进行比较，在这两个方面，网站应该与模型网站相同，甚至应该超过这个网站。当客户对网站用户行为感到疑惑时，这种策略最有效。

When it’s clear that the client is relying on a poor or inadequate analogy because he lacks a better choice, you can combine his understanding of comparisons with your wide design vocabulary. Speak his language, and propose that “instead of doing it like your example, what if we try doing it like this other example?”

有时候，由于没有更好的选择，客户可能会做不恰当的对比，这时你可以把客户对比较的理解与网络设计词汇联系起来。不要用专业的语言解释，可以向客户建议：先不考虑这个网站，我们借鉴其它的网站设计是不是更好呢？

Finally, don’t miss the possibility of the sum of a client’s models being significant as well. If all the sites he idolizes average 700k per page of images and Flash, the unspoken message could well be “a seamless, graphics-intensive look is more important to me than 28.8 modem users.” Reading between the lines is no less important here than it is with a more conventional specification.

最后，要考虑客户的这些要求是否可行，如果客户推荐的网站，每一张网页图像和Flash容量平均为700K，那么那些隐藏在图片中的信息对我来说就会更重要。体会言外之意与传统的叙述一样重要。

One more communication tool: no more, no less
另外一种交流工具：适当运用比较

Design by comparison can help to engage your clients in the development process while keeping the discussion at a level they’re comfortable with. However, its practitioners must realize that poorly analyzed metaphors can say too much or too little. The need for this delicate balance keeps the technique from being a panacea, but doesn’t prevent it from being useful.

通过对比的方式设计网站，可以让客户积极地参与到网站建设中，而且是用一种他们感到舒服的方式。然而，叙述者必须意识到，暗喻如果利用不好，表达的内容就不是很准确，或者过多或者过少。比较既不是万能药，又不是没有任何作用。

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