Recently, the user experience blogosphere was ablaze in controversy over the value of data-driven methods in making design decisions. Not an entirely new topic, but it came up again with the sudden departure of Google’s first visual design lead, Douglas Bowman. He wrote a brief yet critical summary of his rationale for leaving, citing the paralyzing forces of excessive data-driven decision making, to the point of data “serving as a crutch” for changing shades of colors or widths of borders. Alternative views emerged online, with adamant defenders of both sides of the “data versus design” battle - which, as Web-design strategist Luke Wroblewski cautions, is an unfortunate label, since each should ideally inform the other in a productive balance…