The ever increasing functionality of the man-made devices in our lives — from our automobiles to our mobile phones to our clocks — has brought with it increasing complexity. We have to program our cars to get them working properly with our mobile phones; our home thermostats have capabilities requiring advanced skills and extensive efforts to reach; and our wristwatches — well, as they say in Brooklyn, "Fuhgeddaboudit." All this capability has brought with it incredible complexity.

Enter design. The discipline of design — the "form" that makes "function" accessible — has never been more in demand. Design enables us to simply, intuitively, use all these wonderful product capabilities that otherwise might as well not exist for the vast majority of us.