I'm working in a company that has assembled a small team to develop a web product for this organization's clients and themselves.
We are new to SCRUM and we're running into 1 issue around design - who should decide or drive the design decisions?
When I say 'design', I'm specifically talking about both aesthetic things like colors, spacing, fonts..etc and design interactions or elements like the positioning of a sidebar, the states the sidebar goes through while using it..etc
There is a conflict between a designer on our team and pretty much of the rest of the team when it comes to how things should appear and flow in come cases.
For example - product owner wishes for there to never be a totally hidden sidebar - designer insists on having a hidden state for the sidebar. Compromise is using a top page menu with dropdown menu panes. In order to make this work we adjust the page titles to give more vertical space to the rest of the content. Designer wants more space, product owner (and stakeholders and other team members) vote for less.
The foundational assumption this designer has is that "crowd sourcing UI design and aesthetics isn't a good idea". Or, "the product owner shouldn't drive the UI"..etc
Personally, I think it makes most sense to design the UI around the product owner and customer expectations rather than general design principles or rules. So long as it's easy for the user to use - that's what should drive the design. Thus quick feedback is crucial to iterating the design. We listen, adjust, and make it look good!
What are your thoughts?