I believe it is something that can be explained to developers and can be improved if you seek to educate yourself. Don't think you will never be able to improve. Good design follows patterns just like good coding does and can be learned. If you are a Windows developer, I recommend you read Microsoft's UX guide. One of the things I like about it is they use old versions of Office and Windows to point out their own bad examples. About Face: The Essentials of Interaction Design by Alan Cooper should be on every developer's bookshelf as well. I am reading Designing Web Interfaces by Bill Scott & Theresa Neil and can recommend that as well.