What should guide the design decisions of a company - user response metrics, or the vision of the designer?

The question came to the forefront recently when Douglas Bowman, a top visual designer for Google left that company and joined Twitter instead.

According to the New York Times, Bowman's blog post saying Google was not friendly to designers has set off a debate over what guides the design decisions of a company.

"Data eventually becomes a crutch for every decision, paralyzing the company and preventing it from making any daring design decisions," Mr. Bowman wrote, pointing out that Google would measure the user response to test versions of every design decision.

According to the Times, Google has no intention of changing, letting "the math and the data govern how things look and feel."

The web allows someone to get near instant feedback from the people using their designs, but Debra Dunn, an associate professor at the Stanford Institute of Design says the feedback isn't very nuanced or deep which she thinks "is a legitimate gripe among many designers".

Designers remain important for companies with an online presence like Google and Twitter. The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts there will be about 286,000 jobs in the field by 2016.