The Useless Design Features in Modern Products（Part 3)
现代产品中的那些无用的设计（第三部分）
Back in the 1950s, rolodex cards were a popular way of storing the details of business contacts (Credit: Alamy)
“I had a look in the archive to the first 2,000 that they made. They’re not the same shape that they are now,” says O’Hara. Instead the cards were rounded at the top two corners. “It’s a really unusual shape. The only other example is a rolodex card.”
"我在档案中看到他们最初做的2000卡。"O'Hara说,"那些卡和现在的形状不同。相反, 卡是上方两个角是圆的。”这是一个非常不寻常的形状。唯一的另一个例子是名片盒的卡片。
archive：档案文件
rolodex：名片盒
As readers over a certain age will know, a rolodex is a rotating file device used to store the names and addresses of business contacts. This Linkedin for the pre-digital age involved cardboard cards suspiciously similar to credit cards but stamped down one side and – historically – curved at the edges. Information was hand-written onto the card and then slotted back into the file. “They’re very odd objects, so it’s clear to me that the originals were made from rolodex cards,” says O’Hara.
某一年龄段的读者会知道, 名片整理盒是一种用于存储业务联系人的名称和地址的能旋转的文件设备。这恐怕是数字时代之前的领英用的纸卡，很可疑地与信用卡极其相似，其一边被贴住，而且，根据历史事实看，它的边缘是弯曲的。信息被手写到卡片上，然后再插到文档中。”那最初的信用卡是非常奇怪的东西，所以很清楚，最先的大来卡是用名片盒里的卡片做的。” O’Hara说。
pre-digital age：前数字时代
Eventually the rounded corners were dropped and the cards were cast in plastic. But the dimensions of the card never changed. Today we’re locked into this shape. Every debit and credit card in the world has to resemble a rolodex to fit card machines.
最终，圆角被去掉了，卡也用塑料制成了。但卡的尺寸从未改变。今天我们被定格在这个形状上了，世界上所有的借记卡和信用卡都必须像名片整理盒的卡片一样，才能在信用卡机器上用。
cast：铸造
debit card：借记卡
credit card：信用卡
Strictly speaking this is “path dependence”, design limited by decisions made in the past. And like its older sister skeuomorphism, there are plenty of examples.
严格地说，这种设计属于 “路径依赖”，也就是这种设计受到过去作出的决定的限制，就像其它的那些拟物化的姐妹设计一样，有不胜枚举的例子。
limited：受到限制
The most famous case is the keyboards of modern computers. The QWERTY layout, the name of which comes from the first six letters on the upper left-hand row, was created by newspaper editor Christopher Latham Sholes in the early 1870s. According to urban legend, the design was intended to make typing slow and awkward. In reality, it made his writers even quicker.
最著名的例子是现代电脑的键盘。QWERTY 键盘的布局, 其名称来自左手上行的前六字母, 是由报纸编辑Christopher Latham Sholes在十九世纪七十年代代初设计的，有都市传奇说，设计的目的是让打字速度慢而笨拙。在现实中，使用它的作家们却打得更快。
QWERTY：标准的传统键盘;
urban legend：都市传奇;
At the time typewriters had a major flaw: if you pressed down on two neighbouring characters in quick succession, the whole thing would jam. To overcome this he designed a keyboard where the letters that often follow each other in a sentence, such as “ST”, were placed further apart.
当时，打字机有一个很大的缺陷：如果你快速地、连续地按下两个相邻的字符，整个机器就会卡壳。为了克服这一点, 他设计了一个键盘, 在这个键盘上， 经常在句子中互相跟随的字母, 如 "ST", 被放置在相对而远的地方。
Eventually this layout was copied onto other technologies. There’s no longer any mechanical need for it and others such as Dvorak, a simplified keyboard invented by educational psychologist August Dvorak in 1936, require less finger movement and boost typing speed. Yet QWERTY has stuck because that’s what we all learned on.
最终, 这个键盘布局被复制到其他技术上。QWERTY和其他如由教育心理学家奥古斯特·德沃夏克在1963年发明的简化键盘， 在机械的角度而言，也不需要它们来减少手指移动和提高打字速度了。然而，QWERTY 键盘却延续下来了，因为我们学打字时就是这么学的。
boost：提高，加快
But if there’s one place you really don’t want to mess with established design, it’s thousands of feet above the Earth.
但是，如果有什么地方，是你真的不想搞砸了现有的设计的话，那么那个地方是在地球上空的数千英尺之上。
mess with：打扰; 乱搞;
Despite the rise of digital technology, the cockpits of the most high-tech airplanes are still laden with analogue dials, levers and knobs. They no longer connect to flying systems directly, instead simply linking to computerised ones. Old-school pilots expected old-school controls, which meant that the next generation learnt on this style too, and so on. The result: the controls of modern aircraft look very similar to those from the 1930s.
尽管有了兴起数码技术，最高科技飞机的驾驶舱仍然到处都是模拟的表盘、杠杆和旋钮。这些控制已经不再直接连接到飞行系统, 它们就是直接链接到计算机上的。老派飞行员们要的着老式的控制, 这意味着下一代也会学习这种套路, 一代接一代。结果是: 现代飞机的控制与二十世纪三十年代的极为相似。
cockpit：驾驶舱
analogue：模拟计算机的; old-school：老派的
It’s even happened on our roads. From Roman times until the 1700s, traffic generally kept to the left side of the road. Some experts think this was convenient for travellers on horseback, who could hold the reins with their left hand and keep their right hands free to wave at, or defend themselves from, passing riders on the right.
这种情况也发生在我们用的道路上。 从罗马时代到 1700s, 交通通常是靠着道路的左侧。一些专家认为这对骑马的旅行者来说是方便的, 他们可以用左手握住缰绳, 并让他们的右手自由地挥舞, 或为提防从右面过来骑手的攻击、做出保护自己的防御动作。
rein：缰绳;
Then the balance of power shifted. In the United States, wagons were increasingly common on the roads. Drawn by up to 20 animals, they were a popular way of transporting goods over long distances – and the men helming these vehicles liked to drive on the right. They’d sit on the rear leftmost horse, so it was easier to make sure oncoming traffic didn’t get too close if it was also on the left.
之后，力量的中心转移了。在美国, 货车在道路上越来越常见。这种货车多达20匹马拉着, 这是长途货运的一种普遍的方式，而驾驭这些车辆的赶车人喜欢在右边行驶。他们坐在左边最后面的马上, 所以更容易确保迎面而来的交通， 如果也是在左边行驶的话，不会太接近。
helming：指挥; 给…掌舵;
leftmost：最左侧的
There wasn’t any arguing with the momentum of 20 1,000-pound (453kg) horses. Other road traffic quickly got used to driving on the right and the rule stuck. Hundreds of years on, right-side driving is irreversibly embedded in US street design.
面对20匹、个个重达1000 磅 (453kg)的马匹、迎面而来的阵仗，也是没有什么可说的了。其它路上交通迅速地习惯了驾驶在右边，而这个规则也被保留下来了。数百年来，右侧驾驶是不可逆转地扎根在美国的街道设计里。
momentum：势头; 动力
irreversibly：不可更改地，不可挽回地，不可反转地;
embedded ：植入的，深入的，
There are clues to the past all around us, hidden in designs that are reassuringly familiar. Some may be holding us back – but others are just too nostalgic to mess with. As they say, skeuomorphism is the most sincere form of flattery.
有很多联系到旧时的线索遍布在我们的周围，它们隐藏在令人安心的熟悉的设计中。有些可能会在局限我们—但其它的恐怕太让人留恋了，没必要改了。正如他们所说的拟物设计是最真诚的恭维方式了。
reassuringly：安慰地，鼓励地;
nostalgic：怀旧的; 乡愁的; 令人怀念的;
flattery：奉承（话）;
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