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Few mergers and acquisitions are easy to predict, particularly in the technology space, where certain combinations of software or hardware may only make sense to a few strategic thinkers. In the case of Adobe, however, there was probably nothing more natural, more inevitable and possibly game-changing as its decision to follow up the purchase of Behance with Thumb Interactive.

Press the button. Flick the switch. Open the file folder. They're all terms we immediately know, but the context is a lot more complicated in a software-centric world. When you hear them, do you think first of handling objects in the physical world or using an app? Your answer will say a lot about how you will respond to interface design. More developers need to think about how their target market will react to this question.

When developers start creating their apps and games I wonder if they picture how they will be used. Don't just consider what features or functions will prove popular, but keep in mind what people will actually be doing with their bodies--how they will be sitting if they're sitting, whether they'll have use of one hand or two, whether they will hold a phone comfortably in their lap or with their arm stretched out.

You don't need to be a theoretical physicist to develop a great mobile app, but some basic understanding of how business and entrepreneurship really works would probably help. I was reminded of this recently when I caught a rerun of The Big Bang Theory, a sitcom from CBS that features the exploits of a group of scientists at a university in Pasadena, Calif.