Google designer quits over performance obsession
All cut up by 'sword of data'
Regcast training : Hyper-V 3.0, VM high availability and disaster recovery
Google’s visual design leader quit the company on Friday because he was irked by the web giant’s obsession with performance data.
Douglas Bowman said in a blog post on 20 March that he had “grown tired of debating such minuscule design decisions” after a team at Google couldn’t choose between two blues. Instead they decided to test them against 41 shades to see which colour performed best.
“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,” grumbled Bowman, who joined the firm in 2006.
He added that Google wasn’t to blame for its reliance on data.
“The company has millions of users around the world to please. That’s no easy task,” he wrote.
“Google has momentum, and its leadership found a path that works very well. When I joined, I thought there was potential to help the company change course in its design direction. But I learned that Google had set its course long before I arrived.”
Bowman’s parting shot was a little more to the point, however.
“I won’t miss a design philosophy that lives or dies strictly by the sword of data,” he said. ®
COMMENTS
@TeeCee
'the little white ones (Wuh, Wuh for White)'
...five milligrammes?
taken with a 'Glass of water'? ( I've just discovered I can't do echoey writing :)
10/10 for the obscure reference
do I get a plane for spotting it?
Attention to design details is a reason for the success of APPLE,
There are reports about the obsession of Steve Jobs with every design aspect of Apple products. (e.g. in WIRED)
Be it on screen or details of the casing of the MacPro.
It may be annoying for a developer, but the cosnumer values it.
H.
@Charlie Mason
I believe Counselor Troi would disagree with that.
Paris, because she'd disagree too.
IT infrastructure monitoring strategies
Requirements Checklist for Choosing a Cloud Backup and Recovery Service Provider
Data control in the cloud
Cloud based data management
Enabling efficient data center monitoring
