Don't Be Bland

A recent article in The New York Times caught my eye. It was a feature about Douglas Bowman, currently creative director at Twitter and previously a senior visual designer at Google. In a feature entitled 'Data, Not Design, is King in the Age of Google', The New York Times' Miguel Helft writes about Bowman being required to run every Google design decision - even "whether a line on a web page should be three, four or five pixels wide" - as test versions past user groups, whose responses would be a significant factor in the final outcome.

You could certainly argue that this kind of engineering-led decision-making has done Google no harm. In a little over 10 years it's become one of the most powerful and influential companies in the world, with a 2008 revenue of nearly $21.8 billion (according to Google Investor Relations). Google pretty much owns the internet, kicking its competitors in the seat of the pants when it comes to online search and advertising. While Apple might be a thorn in Microsoft's side, Google is a chainsaw in its jockstrap.

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The Creative Bloq team is made up of a group of design fans, and has changed and evolved since Creative Bloq began back in 2012. The current website team consists of eight full-time members of staff: Editor Georgia Coggan, Deputy Editor Rosie Hilder, Ecommerce Editor Beren Neale, Senior News Editor Daniel Piper, Editor, Digital Art and 3D Ian Dean, Tech Reviews Editor Erlingur Einarsson and Ecommerce Writer Beth Nicholls and Staff Writer Natalie Fear, as well as a roster of freelancers from around the world. The 3D World and ImagineFX magazine teams also pitch in, ensuring that content from 3D World and ImagineFX is represented on Creative Bloq. 

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