To some level, yes, experienced cooks can. "I'm adding ingredient A because it adds flavor X/it gives texture Y/has color Z". Perhaps you cannot understand why the effect the cook says the ingredient has improves the result. But then the cook could make a dish with ingredient A and without ingredient A and then you can probably taste or see the difference. If you cannot then the ingredient probably wasn't important.

Similarly if the UX designer says "this label should go here" he should be able to explain why: "the form is easier to understand that way". And if the client doesn't see why it is easier to understand he should be able to make two versions, and the client should be able to see why one of them is better. If the client cannot see that and the UX designer cannot convince him then it probably isn't better.

For the most part, I agree with what you're saying. The only problem is, "better" is subjective.

I've had cases where the person I'm working with can clearly explain why he feels one UI is better. And I was just as adamant about a different UI. I coded both up ways up, we played with both -- and we were still on opposite sides of the fence.

In this particular case, we ended up throwing both our solutions out the window and found something better, that we both agreed on. Unfortunately, it doesn't work out that easily.

"You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother" -- Albert Einstein

Do you think the experienced cook can necessarily explain exactly why some things work and others don't?

They should be able to!

It's not magic - there are well accepted rules for what works and what doesn't. If they can't explain them then they are probably just following a recipe very well. That's fine, and may make great food, but creativity takes understanding, and understanding means they can explain what is occurring (at least to themselves).

> It's called instinct, sometimes, taste, other times, experience by yet others.

None of those are 'understanding'.

> Do you think the experienced cook can necessarily explain exactly why some things work and others don't?

No, which means he doesn't understand what he's doing, merely that he's built up empirical knowledge about what works and what doesn't.

He can teach that knowledge to someone else but that's just transferring the 'ritual', not the underlying knowledge.

Don't underestimate all of the cooks though, some of them are quite knowledgeable when it comes to the underlying chemistry and the theories of taste and smell.

Being able to do something and actually understanding it aren't the same thing; I'm sure there are many things which you do which don't don't very much understand.

I very much agree you don't really understand something you can't explain.