When the aim of the design can't be explicitly specified, you're right. As soon as you have a way to know if your design is "better" or "worse" that isn't simply opinion, measuring will improve the design - it has to, because the result is measurable. So a designer who says "You are forcing me to deliver an inferior result based on a flawed belief" has the flawed belief, surely? They might feel a design is inferior, but the data proves it does the job better.
Apple is the obvious counter-argument, but then Apple works in a place where it's hard to test better or worse, because the final test is how it does in the market. If there were a way to produce 50 different iPhones for each feature and test each on 1000 people, you'd quickly find out that data improved the product. Google can test each thing (or group of things) on many people, so it drives their culture.
by Richard — Mar 22
Apple is the obvious counter-argument, but then Apple works in a place where it's hard to test better or worse, because the final test is how it does in the market. If there were a way to produce 50 different iPhones for each feature and test each on 1000 people, you'd quickly find out that data improved the product. Google can test each thing (or group of things) on many people, so it drives their culture.