People started using Twitter and Facebook for direct messages instead of E-mail because they require less physical manipulations to send a message. Future web designers will focus less on surface design but on speeding up processes by cutting [and] reducing physical manipulations. The best way to learn about speedy interfaces is to study everyday interfaces as doorknobs, drawers, shampoo bottles. Web designers need to learn more from traditional product designers.

Thought-provoking and largely right-on post over at Information Architecture.  Not sure if I’m quite as on-board with CSS frameworks revolutionizing the web though.  I find it’s a battle to keep them from making your code way less semantic, and I don’t like not understanding everything that’s going on behind the scenes — and yes, it’s not rocket science and I probably should understand this stuff, but hey, I’m learning.  That said, the general goal behind these frameworks — focusing on functionality and not getting caught up in code and inane tweaks — is definitely something I can get behind.