Google's top designer quits, blames engineers
Google designer Doug Bowman has confirmed his departure from the company. (Gossip site Valleywag claims he's joining Twitter.) In a post on his personal blog, Bowman says he couldn't deal with Google's data-driven approach to website design.
Google's geeky approached to design is epitomized by computer scientist Marissa Mayer, who controls the search giant's homepage. In a New York Times profile in February, the reporter observed Mayer making snap decisions on designers' presentations, and ordering her team to test 41 separate shades of blue to see which one drew the best user response.
Bowman writes:
Yes, it's true that a team at Google couldn't decide between two blues, so they're testing 41 shades between each blue to see which one performs better. I had a recent debate over whether a border should be 3, 4 or 5 pixels wide, and was asked to prove my case. I can't operate in an environment like that. I've grown tired of debating such minuscule design decisions. There are more exciting design problems in this world to tackle.
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.
According to Bowman, Google's data-driven approach to design hasn't delivered superior results. Rather, he says, it's a cover for the lack of familiarity with "the principles and elements of Design" in Google's upper management. But since he can't prove the test-all-41-colors approach has diminished the company's success, Bowman claims he's decided there's just no use for his core talents at Google.
(Disclosure: Paul Boutin and Doug Bowman worked together at Hotwired in the 1990s.)
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Been there - done that
Here's one for you: I was the sole Web designer and software engineer at a regional bank (yes: front end UI, back-end, database, encryption, contracts, user needs gathering, full SDLC, compliance assurance - everything). When their Marketing group outsourced the bank's latest campaign, their director also got them to provide, "a new Website," template. Okay.Well, it was horrible. It took me about 2 days to cut the CSS and graphics from their PhotoShop mock-ups and produce a newly styled site for internal review. People called ME up complaining about the new, "baby puke," looking site, wondering why I was going that way.
So, on my own time, with my own hardware and software, I produced an alternative. After all, I didn't want to get canned for not providing an alternative (and... my boss REALLY hated the baby puke site) and it was in my yearly goals to design a new site.
Then, I DID get, "the data." I surveyed the company on both sites. The results? My site scored in the 7-8 range (out of 10). The site and "look" Marketing paid for? 5-6.
The Data was there. *It didn't matter.* The baby puke site went into production and I was forced out. I guess it was somehow cheaper to replace me with 2 (and at times, 3) people who each make more than I did.
Make that business case.