What Google Should Learn From Apple

It was touching to see that Douglas Bowman, Google’s (GOOG) visual design leader, chose, in announcing his resignation, to stroll down Steve Wozniak Honesty Avenue.

In a blog post, he summed up his feelings, as all the best designers should, in one simple statement: “I won’t miss a design philosophy that lives or dies strictly by the sword of data.”

He talked of how data was being collected (and one can only wonder what fine, laborious methods are used in the process) to judge the acceptability of a shade of blue, the width of a pixel, or the hair bang length of a brand manager.

Well, he didn’t mention that last one, but I am prepared to believe it might be possible.

I know that there are some engineers out there who will delight in yet another triumph for alleged data over some subjective, sniffy, superior artist. I also know that there will be many, many artists and other sentient human beings who wish that they would just take a run and jump.

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