The focus on "design" these days in nearing meme territory. Design has always been important, What's exactly new ?
Design has always been important, but what has changed on the web is the technologies for creating designs on the web. They are continuing to evolve, but changes thus far in Javascript, AJAX, Flash, HTML5, CSS, and other technologies has enabled website creators to push the boundaries of design online.
Good question. Maybe Apple's success? But I do believe there's a self-reinforcing meme thing going on where design is the new hot topic.
Not that I'm complaining, as a designer.
I think the problem is that people think you can "teach design". Knowing how to use the tools isn't hard in the slightest, if you don't have good taste then it's impossible to ever design something that looks good to the general eye. Knowing how to use Photoshop or HTML/CSS is like knowing how to use a pencil - it doesn't make you an artist. I'm not saying this is a waste of time, but design isn't something you just teach.
It's all guys??? That seems like a very atypical group of designers.
Good point. I generally don't care about the whole 'we must have women too' perspective but considering the number of people involved it seems surprising that not a single one is included?
Another Article TechCrunch stole/copied from HN. That is why I don't read anything but HN.
But hn is starting to look like yesterday's digg? invariably the top stories on digg make it to tomorrow's hackernews. I think it's unfair to say TC stole from hn. tech news just does the rounds..