Does design really matter?

Yes. Design matters more than you may think about more things than you may expect.

Garr Reynolds/Why Design: "Personally, having degrees only in philosophy, communications, and business, I am most certainly not a designer. But I am design mindful. At least I try to be. Since I got my first Mac way back when, the world of graphic design, and then multimedia, were opened up to me. It was at that time that I went to town reading book after book on design. I was inspired. I then joined Apple Computer and hung out with design folks whenever I could. Designers can be weird, quirky people, no question. But I learned a lot by associating with these people and asking a lot of questions. For example, 'why does that poster 'work' for me?' or 'what do you think about this cool, new office chair I was thinking of buying for $2000 — is it worth it?' The answers were often eye-opening, to say the least."