The Hills Are Alive with the Sound of Interaction Design
But I also think that this is changing. People are more design literate. They notice that well designed products enrich experiences and make life more enjoyable. Witness, for example, Canon and their playful camera (thanks Ben Cerveny for this observation), or the popularity of Flickr, which is a distinctly pleasant place to be, or the iPod. Sure all of these have loads of features now, but Flickr and the iPod were aclaimed from the beginning for being a joy to use.
I don’t expect to assert that THE WORLD IS CHANGING without providing a little more evidence than that, so let’s take a brief sideways step into the world of trend forecasting.