(ex) Top Google designer hates Multivariate Testing and Data

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by MrOptimization in Basics News

Claiming reliance on data became too much of a design "crutch" at Google, lead designer Doug Bowman quit a few months ago.

Said Bowman of his departure, "when a company is filled with engineers, it turns to engineering to solve problems ... I won’t miss a design philosophy that lives or dies strictly by the sword of data. "

While he may be a talented designer, Mr. Bowman seems to have completely missed the point of his job.

Do designer's opinions matter anymore?

Doug Bowman thinks that digital design is about a set of "principles" that rely heavily on the opinions of "classically trained designers." Mr. Bowman has come down squarely in favor of design maxims versus the concrete data produced by Multivariate Testing.

While using certain digital design best practices saves everyone time and hassle, weighting digital design decisions in favor of one person's opinion over another simple does not make sense with today's technology.

In the past, the designer's opinion was all you had to go on. Today, you can use techniques like Multivariate Testing to quickly collect the opinions that really count: those of your intended audience.

What is digital design really about?

Design in the digital world isn't just about art. Very few of us spend our time on the Internet basking in the subjective joys of good design.

We use the Internet to get things done. This is where Mr. Bowman's principles fail him.

Branding? Standards? Principles? Multivariate Testing fodder!

Mr. Bowman also said that reliance on data "eventually becomes a crutch for every decision, paralyzing the company and preventing it from making any daring design decisions."

Nonsense!

Multivariate Testing lets you try anything, from the most mundane—like the 41 shades of blue Mr. Bowman complains about—to the boldest reinterpretation of an entire site.

Maybe Mr. Bowman just didn't have the stones to test the right things?

And at the end of each Multivariate Test, you'll know what your audience likes best—which, with all due respect to classically trained designers everywhere, is all that really matters.

Who in their right mind would side with the opinion of a single designer, classically trained or not, over a mountain of incontrovertible data showing exactly what the audience who uses the thing really wants?

Who wants more "design" at Google anyway?

Google still generates most of its revenue from search ads, so producing fast, accurate search results is really Google's core business.

Most non-search-related Google features and applications are still just blips, at least as far as revenue is concerned.

Do you want some giant, slow graphic created by a classically trained designer dancing around the screen when you're trying to do a search?

Neither do we.

There just isn't too much "design" needed on a site like Google.com that has one simple purpose.

All's well that Twits well?

Doug Bowman is now safely ensconced with several other Google escapees over at Twitter.

Let's hope he'll be happier at Twitter, a site that does so little it has even less need for his talents than Google did.

How do you handle bringing the discipline of data to your "principled" designers?