Webtrends Optimization

I recently read Douglas Bowman’s blog, Google’s former Visual Design Lead, about why he left Google.  In it, he describes how the engineering culture contributed to his decision to leave:

When a company is filled with engineers, it turns to engineering to solve problems. Reduce each decision to a simple logic problem. Remove all subjectivity and just look at the data. [...] that data eventually becomes a crutch for every decision, paralyzing the company and preventing it from making any daring design decisions.

He then references Google testing 41 shades of blue and a recent debate he had over “whether a border should be 3, 4 or 5 pixels wide” and was asked to provide data to back up that decision.

Bowman’s post brought up some feelings of disappointment towards Google because despite having their own optimization tool, they did not create a culture to encourage their lead designer to expand his work and actually drove him away.  Optimization and testing is still in its early stage, so mistakes will be common, however I hope news like this doesn’t scare others away from testing.

Rather, I hope companies can learn from Bowman’s experience.  Instead of holding designers to every detail, testing should allow them to explore, learn and refine their ideas.  Testing should not prevent “any daring design decisions,” I feel it should actually encourage them.  As I said before, gamble with your conversions to raise them.

In the end, it’s all about having an understanding of how testing should and should not be used.  You can use testing to find the best shade of blue, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that’s what you should be testing right now.  Don’t be afraid to take a step back and try something new rather than fiddling with details, testing tools give you that freedom.  Big risks, reap big rewards in optimization.  Not taking risks leads to inefficient testing and, in Google’s case, a designer’s resignation.

Photo credit: i-marco (CC)