I always thought of it more like architecture and mathematical formulas. You don't have to be a good graphical designer to know what a good mathematical formula

I always thought of it more like architecture and mathematical formulas. You don't have to be a good graphical designer to know what a good mathematical formula or a bad is. However, for mathematicians, a simple and elegant formula is much better than a complicated formula which requires much more work and gives the same answer. I think Graham answer what he consider as good design in the link below, you should check it out: http://paulgraham.com/taste.html http://paulgraham.com/taste.html