In my last passage at the Pearson International airport in Toronto, I stopped over at one of the restaurants for a bite to eat. While waiting for my food, I observed a message stuck to the register on the counter. It said: "Do everything you can to make the traveler's life better."

Oh yes, I said it, the geeks don't matter. Or maybe I should be more nuanced: As a consumer group, the geeks don't matter as much as they used to.

Recently, a colleague of mine was cleaning his desk and found a copy of After the gold rush (the book, not the album) that he had borrowed from me years ago.

A few mornings ago, something interesting happened in my bus ride to work. I boarded as normal, paid my fare and turned to find a seat. And then I stopped dead in my tracks. Completely destabilized by the seating arrangement in the bus. Instead of being layed-out like a normal city bus, that particular bus was layed-out like an inter-city coach. Rows of high-backed upholstered seats with armrests. I found a seat and started looking around.

I have been ranting about design for a while. However, I am not a designer, I am a software engineer dammit. I got all the design information that I know from books and blog posts.

Since my employer got into the design business by acquiring a design firm, I have been trying to teach myself about design and how it is used in the software industry. It now seems obvious to me that properly designed software is the exception, not the norm. So, why is that?

Recently, the company I work for acquired a user experience design firm. They are a group of folks that I have known for a while and with which we have successfully completed many projects.