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Dan Saffer Interview

Looking at this interview had a bit of a disrupted start (the link from the lecture didn’t work!). But after that it got interesting.

This designer clearly knows what he is on about, and is very intellectual. The points from this interview that interested me the most were:

· Knowing the medium

· User-input

· Applied art

· Newbie mistakes

Knowing the medium, in his words, were to explain how you can only do good design, if you are aware of the surrounding design and competition. He also says that we should consider physical design as much of a parallel as digital, and I have to agree. I can’t say that I have ever really thought about it in this way, but after seeing it written down it has become evidently true. Some of the best digital designs you see today have something to do with a physical design form, be it street art or architecture, many of these styles and principles are copied and inspirational to a lot of digital works.

User-input, Saffer believes, can add great quality to a design. After all, they know their business much better than you do, and putting as much user-input into design as possible gives a piece a much higher chance of approval from a client. This is definitely something to remember during any client project.

Applied art, meaning something that is both aesthetic and functional. I think this defiantly one of the most important things to keep in mind when producing websites. One of the website my group presented in class, we thought, was a classic of example of where this had not been taken into account. Creating a website that looks great, with no functional ability, is about as useful as a painting. And a website that works great, but is horribly designed, is about as interesting a dictionary. Website really needs a happy medium to be most effective.

This designers notes on newbie mistakes made me realise some errors I have made, and probably still making today. He explained how it is important to create many different designs for one thing, not just to find one or two and run with those, this is something I cannot deny I am guilty of. The problem is, as he put it, “It is hard to kill your babies, but sometimes you have to.”

Overall a very interesting article, leaving me with a few things to consider in my future approach and designs.

Joel Schafer Interview

I really couldn’t agree more with what this guy says. When reading the article I found myself constantly nodding my head and thinking “he is absolutely correct”, on many subjects. I found it very interesting when he mentioned using a ‘manuscript’ to plan a website. I’m not entirely sure, in a web-design sense, what a manuscript would contain. Although I am sure this will come to light sooner rather than later.

His opinions on colours schemes, Web 2.0 layouts, and photography are ones I can relate to very easily. When asked “Tell us about your use of colors in your designs.” (Note: American spelling, I assume it’s a Yankey website) He responded by saying he currently prefers a greyscale layout and one other colour. I found this particularly supports my current preference of website colour schemes Even within the last week I have used this thesis on a current project.

Although I’m probably meant to be analysing this from a technical view point, I think this designer has a real likability about him. I enjoyed his comment about his first website; he says his first ever live site is still currently in use. Although he keeps the address to himself. I liked this particularly as it reminds us that everyone has to start somewhere, and that I should probably keep my first websites under my hat as well.

I can’t really agree or praise this designer anymore, so I should probably stop. All I can say is everything he said I already believed, and has in a way, confirmed my thoughts, or has made me realise where I might be going wrong in some basic principle areas.

I have bookmarked this interview, and will be doing some research into this designers work later.

The interviews can be found at:

Dan Saffer: http://www.designinterviews.com/interviews/interaction-design-is-an-applied-art

Joel Schafer: http://www.designinterviews.com/interviews/599