谷歌设计大师：时尚不代表轻浮

艾薇·罗斯的工作不光是让科技更好看。

作为谷歌的设计大师，具体来说是负责硬件设计的副总裁，罗斯认为自己为谷歌的硬件产品注入了人性。在用户家里（Google Home和Google Mini智能音箱）和口袋里（Pixel耳机）都能看到罗斯的审美触觉，代表了谷歌与用户亲密相处时的形象。

不久前，在科罗拉多州阿斯彭召开的《财富》科技头脑风暴大会上，罗素上台发言时说：“人们觉得时尚不够严肃，但并非如此。”

她指出：“很多情况下时尚都以社会趋势为基础，例如人们热爱的时尚色，而且非常直观。”

罗斯曾从事金属器皿制作和珠宝设计，史密森尼美国艺术博物馆就收藏了她的作品。她还曾在Gap、迪士尼、Old Navy、美泰、Calvin Klein和寇驰等公司负责设计事务。

罗斯说：“我觉得自己像交响乐团指挥，乐团成员非常有才华也非常多元。多元化带来创造性。”

罗斯于2014年加入谷歌，当时的任务是让第二代谷歌眼镜更人性化，但最后这款产品未能进入消费品市场。随后，谷歌把重心放在了办公销售上。罗斯说，在谷歌工作时常会遇到挑战。刚进入谷歌时，她必须很费劲地适应数据驱动又挑剔的工程师文化。

她说：“设计很主观。我认为设计是艺术和科学的结合，没法量化。”

罗斯举例说，表达对Google Mini外观的看法时得说服同事们，如果加入某些独特的美学设计，这款音箱兼虚拟助手产品就会更好。她建议谷歌用多种材料来制造Google Mini，追求“几乎像雨花石”的手感。她说：“我真的得说服人们，费点工夫别把产品做成黑色方盒子是值得的。”

有人问未来的谷歌手机会设计成什么样，罗斯抛出了一些吸引人的线索：“未来属于粘土，而不是砖头。”意思是技术将越发有适应性，而不是越来越僵化。

罗斯认为：“设备会更加多变，更加个性化，而且一定要更灵活。”

可以肯定一点，未来设计得追上人们不断变化的时尚品味才行。（财富中文网）

译者：Charlie

审校：夏林

Ivy Ross does more than just make tech pretty.

Google’s design guru—technically, vice president of hardware design—would argue that she imbues the search giant’s gadgets with humanity. Her aesthetic touches, which can be seen in our homes (Google Home and Google Mini smart speakers) and our pockets (Pixel phones), embody the face of Google inside our most intimate spaces.

“People think fashion is frivolous. It’s not,” Ross said recently on stage at Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference in Aspen, Colo.

“It’s based oftentimes on sociological trends—the colors people are craving—and it’s very intuitive,” she said.

Ross is a former metalworker and jewelry designer whose work has been showcased in the Smithsonian American Art Museum. She has held top design roles at Gap, Disney, Old Navy, Mattel, Calvin Klein, Coach, and elsewhere.

“I view myself as an orchestra conductor over a very talented and very diverse group of people,” Ross said. “Diversity leads to creativity.”

Ross joined Google in 2014 to liven up its second generation of Google Glass smart-glasses—a product that never made it to the consumer market. Instead, Google pivoted to workplace sales.

Working at Google has had its occasional challenges, Ross said. When she joined the company, she had to get used to the data-driven, fastidious engineering culture.

“Design is subjective. I believe it’s a little bit of art and science,” Ross said. “You can’t quantify it.”

When presenting her vision for the form of the Google Mini, for instance, Ross said she had to persuade her colleagues that the product—which serves as a speaker and virtual assistant—would be better if it had certain distinctive aesthetic qualities. She proposed that the company craft the speaker using multiple materials, and that it be molded so it “feels almost like a river stone” in the hand.

“I really had to convince everyone it was worth the effort to create something that’s not a black box,” Ross said.

Asked what the future of Google’s phone design will bring, Ross offered a few tantalizing clues. “The future is clay, not bricks,” Ross said, meaning that the technology will become increasingly adaptable versus static.

“Things will be more mobile and personalized,” Ross said. “We’re going to need our devices to be more flexible.”

As flexible as humanity’s ever-shifting fashion senses, to be sure.