Reviews, Dan Saffer & Joel Schafer

Dan Saffer: 'Interaction design is an applied art'

After reading the interview I think that there is some good information that can be taken out of this and put into use in my studies, for instance he comments on knowing a little about other elements of design outside of your field, ‘Other design disciplines such as visual and industrial design are essential siblings. Knowing some programming/scripting is also important; it's like a sculptor knowing clay and stone. You have to understand the properties of the medium you work in.
Tons of other fields like filmmaking, art, psychology, anthropology, library science, physiology, and biology touch on the work we do and knowing even a little of them goes a long way.’

This is relevant as you don’t always know what is going to be set out in front of you in client projects so having a little knowledge in other areas might help you solve problems in the future.

Joel Schafer: 'I'm into minimalistic clean design'

A brief interview that contains useful information, for example not rushing into software but sitting down and noting things down and sketching ideas beforehand, also using other sites and pieces for inspiration are understandable but always use your own source materials.

The main point I think he is trying to explain is that less is more, having a page that contains lots of elements isn’t always the best way to set out pages but to use less and make better use of the space as it is easier to navigate and easier on the eye.


I also feel that the part where he describes mistakes that people who are new to the industry make, especially the first point about setting your sights on one thing and completely ignoring other things around it, this is useful as you wont necessarily get far in the design industry by doing this.