Bill Buxton is one of the great interaction designers, and authors on the topic.

Video and a written interview for Mix '09 via interactiondesign.se

On Great-Depression-era Industrial Designers:

And the lesson from this and these successes at that time from '29, think about it, what idiots would do a startup of a design consultancy on the eve of the Great Depression? But every one of these companies is still in business today. They didn't just survive the Depression, they thrived in it as did their clients because they got the return on experience.