[vslira]

Maybe specialists have a higher bar than consumers, and as a design consumer he's right about the design, and the designer is right about the code, if "being right" means "understanding what the end customer will think about this".

[wavemode]

Well, design isn't just about looking nice, nor even just about what people think about it. Something can look nice and fail as a design.

That is to say - it's entirely possible to have a design that a layperson looks at and goes "wow that's beautiful", and then A/B test it in the real world and your revenue goes down X% because (for example) certain important sections now require more clicks to access.

Or to use a real-world example - you could redesign a train station and make it more beautiful while also increasing the amount of people who get lost because it's now more difficult for some people with poor eyesight to find the right track.

[hashmap]

those are some nice thoughts but it doesn't seem to have worked out that way, or software would get more responsive, more legible, and less irritating over time. the opposite has been true for decades. user friendliness can be cracked open to increase revenue and those who do just the right amount of cracking win. right now a meme is the frustration is the product. failing as design means something different now than what it meant at like nasa in the 60s.