I think that as far as design goes, products like the Mac, TextMate, and JFormDesigner have really opened my eyes to the possibilities of great design, and it's impact on people (I was going to say "users", but that say more inhuman than ever before), and my personal feelings about using these products. At the moment I don't really ever want to go back to using a Windows PC ever again, in spite of the few things I don't like about Mac OS X.

I also write this after having just watched part of the Apple keynote on the new iPhone. Whether or not it changes the world remains to be seen, but the UI looks incredible, and it looks like an incredible integration of technologies. Kudos to Apple on another great-looking, innovative product.

In a related note, here's a collection of interesting articles about Jonathan Ive (Apple) and Dieter Rams:

1. jonathan ive (wikipedia)
2. jonathan ive at design museum
3. design according to ive (wired)
4. who is jonathan ive? (business week)
5. interview with dieter rams
6. dieter rams at the design museum

This definitely makes me think about the importance of design in the products I create. Hopefully that will be made clear here when I have the time to redesign this site.