Google's New Look ... And How Google Decides?

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_20/b4178000295757.htm

The focus of the article is how Google redesigned its search page. But completely apart from the main focus of the article, I found this comment interesting:

"Douglas Bowman, Google's first visual designer, left the company in March 2009—and lit the Web equivalent of a bonfire on his way out the door. In a post on ­stopdesign.com, Bowman claimed that at Google, data 'becomes a crutch for every decision, paralyzing the company and preventing it from making any daring design decisions.' He noted that one project was delayed when a team at Google couldn't decide between two blues—so they tested 41 different shades between them. 'I had a recent debate over whether a border should be three, four, or five pixels wide, and was asked to prove my case,' wrote Bowman, who is now the creative director at Twitter.

"Other ex-Google design stars acknowledge that the emphasis on data can be grating. Jeffrey Veen, who joined Google as design director in 2006, says that 'the designers I worked with were fantastic but very formally trained in human computer interaction rather than having MFAs. That frames how design happens at Google.' Veen, who left the company in 2008 adds: 'None of the colleagues I would want to hire would be able to get a job at Google because of the computer-science-based requirements.'"