La història de la civilització és, en certa manera, la història dels mapes: Com hem arribat a entendre el món que ens envolta? Un dels mapes més famosos funciona perquè no és realment un mapa.
The history of civilization, in some ways, is a history of maps: How have we come to understand the world around us? One of the most famous maps works because it really isn't a map at all.
[Coses petites, idees grans.]
[Small thing. Big idea.]
[Michael Beirut: el Mapa del metro de Londres]
[Michael Bierut on the London Tube Map]
El metro de Londres es va unificar el 1908, quan vuit línies independents es van fusionar per crear un únic sistema. Necessitaven un mapa per representar-lo per tal que la gent sabés on anar. El mapa que havien fet era molt complicat. Hi havia rius, masses d'aigua, arbres i parcs. Les estacions estaven amuntagades al centre del mapa, i a la perifèria, n'hi havia que en quedaven fora. El mapa era geogràficament precís, però no gaire útil.
The London Underground came together in 1908, when eight different independent railways merged to create a single system. They needed a map to represent that system so people would know where to ride. The map they made is complicated. You can see rivers, bodies of water, trees and parks -- the stations were all crammed together at the center of the map, and out in the periphery, there were some that couldn't even fit on the map. So the map was geographically accurate, but maybe not so useful.
I va arribar Harry Beck. Harry Beck era un enginyer delineant de 29 anys que ja havia treballat esporàdicament pel metro de Londres. Tenia una visió clau: a la gent que viatja en vagons de metro, no els interessa el que passa a l'exterior. Només volen anar d'una estació a una altra. "On pujo? On baixo?" El sistema és important, no la geografia. Va agafar aquesta barreja d'espaguetis i ho va simplificar. Les línies només van en tres direccions: horitzontal, vertical o en un angle de 45º. A més, les estacions estan repartides uniformement, el color de cada estació correspon al color de la línia i tot plegat queda resolt de manera que ja no és un mapa. De fet, és un diagrama, com un circuit. Tot i que aquest circuit no està fet de cables, sinó de túnels per a trens que duen gent d'un lloc a un altre.
Enter Harry Beck. Harry Beck was a 29-year-old engineering draftsman who had been working on and off for the London Underground. And he had a key insight, and that was that people riding underground in trains don't really care what's happening aboveground. They just want to get from station to station -- "Where do I get on? Where do I get off?" It's the system that's important, not the geography. He's taken this complicated mess of spaghetti, and he's simplified it. The lines only go in three directions: they're horizontal, they're vertical, or they're 45 degrees. Likewise, he spaced the stations equally, he's made every station color correspond to the color of the line, and he's fixed it all so that it's not really a map anymore. What it is is a diagram, just like circuitry, except the circuitry here isn't wires conducting electrons, it's tubes containing trains conducting people from place to place.
El 1933 el Metro va decidir, per fi, donar una oportunitat al mapa de Beck. El Metro va fer una prova: imprimir mil mapes de butxaca. Es van acabar en una hora. Es van adonar que anaven pel bon camí. En van imprimir 750.000 més i aquest és el mapa que veiem avui dia.
In 1933, the Underground decided, at last, to give Harry Beck's map a try. The Underground did a test run of a thousand of these maps, pocket-size. They were gone in one hour. They realized they were onto something, they printed 750,000 more, and this is the map that you see today.
El disseny de Beck va ser el model per la resta de mapes de metro actuals: Tòquio, París, Berlín, São Paulo, Sydney, Washington... Tots converteixen una geografia complexa en geometria definida. Fan servir colors diferents per distingir les línies, utilitzen símbols simples per diferenciar els tipus d'estacions. Aparentment, tots formen part d'un llenguatge universal.
Beck's design really became the template for the way we think of metro maps today. Tokyo, Paris, Berlin, São Paulo, Sydney, Washington, D.C. -- all of them convert complex geography into crisp geometry. All of them use different colors to distinguish between lines, all of them use simple symbols to distinguish between types of stations. They all are part of a universal language, seemingly.
Segur que Beck no sabia què era una interfície d'usuari, però és el que va dissenyar. Va acceptar el repte i ho va dividir en tres principis bàsics que es poden aplicar a qualsevol problema de disseny. El primer és centrar-se. Centrar-se en per a qui ho fas. El segon és la simplicitat. Quina és la manera més senzilla de resoldre-ho? Finalment, l'últim principi és pensar de manera transversal. Qui hauria dit que un enginyer elèctric seria la persona que tindria la clau per desxifrar un dels sistemes més complicats del món? Tot va començar amb un home, un llapis i una idea.
I bet Harry Beck wouldn't have known what a user interface was, but that's really what he designed and he really took that challenge and broke it down to three principles that I think can be applied in nearly any design problem. First one is focus. Focus on who you're doing this for. The second principle is simplicity. What's the shortest way to deliver that need? Finally, the last thing is: Thinking in a cross-disciplinary way. Who would've thought that an electrical engineer would be the person to hold the key to unlock what was then one of the most complicated systems in the world -- all started by one guy with a pencil and an idea.