1977年的纪录片Powers of Ten设计师Ray和Charles Eames是有史以来最著名的短片之一。
这部电影从湖畔野餐开始。相机的视点直接在头顶上方，并显示一个宽度一米的场景。相机缩小。每10秒钟，它显示出更大的视野，每个功率比最后一个宽10。首先，我们看到公园，然后是湖泊，然后是城市，州，国家和地球等等，直到我们的银河系只是一片光线。
Then the camera zooms back in at the same pace. With the picnic back in view, the camera focuses on one of the picnicker’s hands and begins to zoom closer, into the skin texture and structure, individual cells, and so on. Now, every 10 seconds, what you see is magnified by a negative power of 10. Before you know it, you’re seeing inside a proton. That’s where the journey ends.
This little movie had a big impact on how science is shared. By moving between the tiny details of molecular biology to the enormous expanses of astrophysics, the film reveals interconnections across scientific fields. Comprehending scale, or as the Eameses liked to call it, “the effect of adding another zero,” helps connect these hidden dots, making us better designers—and citizens.
Ray and Charles的孙子Eames Demetrios认为，规模是导航歧义的永恒方法：“我们今天面临的许多挑战是事物的结合，与机遇和威胁以及非常有机会和威胁的事物相结合。”除非您了解基础知识，否则您将无法真正浏览这些巨大的机会：您在处理什么？它有多大？它与其他事物有什么关系？Demetrios说，无论是您在阁楼上拾取的怪异对象还是您无法放开的抽象概念，”
Zoom in.
了解细节和已知。
当您笼罩在不确定性时，命名您所知道的东西可能会使您开始了解事情。设计师会进行产品故障，以仔细研究对象的胆量。医生需要X射线检查身体的坚硬内部结构，MRIS和PET扫描以更详细的方式看软组织。项目经理使用待办事项列表，时间表和日历。
When you don’t know how something works, take it apart (metaphorically or literally) and look at it closely. Ground yourself in what you know about the challenge. This can help you make connections that aren’t already in your head—and create the room to explore.
保持以人为本的。
There’s a reasonPowers of Tenstarts at the scale of humans. Connecting to the needs that you want to satisfy keeps you laser-focused on the “why” behind your work. A strong point-of-view statement can be a tool for crisply defining what you’re trying to navigate, who it’s for, and why it matters. It can sustain motivation when you feel like you’re spinning your wheels or getting stuck in the trenches. By zooming in and looking at a problem through the lens of a specific person, your work becomes more focused.
坚持约束。
We deal with constraints all the time. Your kid refuses to eat carrots, you have to use a certain software, there’s a deadly pandemic outside and you can’t leave the house— whether known or unforeseen, constraints can feel like roadblocks. But they’re often the most powerful force behind getting us to come up with creative solutions. Your greatest ideas might emerge when you have to improvise within a theme, sneakily substituting parsnips for carrots. Time, materials, budgets, space, human resources—all of these can be hugely valuable constraints. If you find yourself stuck for how to get started, return to the knowns and see if that sparks your next move.
依靠规则。
一旦您放下一些“已知”，您就可以安全地探索。定义您需要的东西，并承诺。在团队中，分享个人需求并概述了关于如何工作的共同协议，可以创建一个框架，当您感到不确定时，该框架可能会成为安全网。例如，神圣的会议时间是什么时候？谁负责什么？您将如何处理冲突？您的沟通规范是什么？
Zoom out.
1971年，埃德加·米切尔（Edgar Mitchell）是NASA Apollo 14任务的月球模块。米切尔（Mitchell）负责月球上的月球模块以及月球上的科学（距离地球约1^8米，对于那些仍在计数的人）。可以说，他的工作完成了，他有一分钟的时间可以回到地球上。就像在公共汽车上，飞机上或船上的任何人一样，他看着窗外。米切尔（Mitchell）看到了地球 - 蓝色，明亮，周围有薄薄的气氛 - 在漆黑的黑暗中浮动。米切尔说：“在外太空中，您会发展出一种立即的全球意识，一个人的取向，对世界状态的强烈不满以及对此做些事情的强迫。”
This sensation is called the “overview effect,” a term coined by the philosopher Frank White. “Anyone living in a space settlement . . . will always have an overview,” White observed. “They will see things that we know, but that we don’t experience, which is that the Earth is one system. We’re all part of that system, and there is a certain unity and coherence to it all.”
Another NASA astronaut, Ron Garan, has focused his career on spreading the word about the overview effect. He believes that what he terms an “orbital perspective” can have “profound, positive effects on the trajectory of our global society and our world.” His new mission is to “communicate the transformative power of acquiring a big picture and long-term perspective of our planet.”
Designers recognize—and are energized by—the reality that everything is connected. When you’re creating a new idea, it helps to move fluidly between concrete details and more abstract systems. Activities like populating a stakeholder map or visualizing the connections in a system help you zoom out to understand the full landscape of implications.
From Buckminster Fuller to Carl Sagan, people have found inspiration and insight in the concept of zooming out. When we step back and look at the big picture, we gain an intangible understanding of how things work and connect. We need to take that time to step back, reflect, and look at our world as a tiny speck. Seeing something from afar helps us understand it.
Andrea Small是设计负责人，战略家和教育家。目前，她在D.School任教，并为三星研究的研发创新团队领导讲故事和设计策略。安德里亚（Andrea）曾与世界上一些最具标志性的品牌合作，包括耐克（Nike），脸书，星巴克（Starbucks）和赫尔曼·米勒（Herman Miller）。
Kelly Schmutte is a designer, educator, and entrepreneur. At the d.school, she designs learning experiences with lasting impact, reimagining the future of higher education, creating life tools for high schoolers, and building out the Navigating Ambiguity curriculum. Kelly teaches core d.school classes alongside d.school founder David Kelley.