Dan Saffer: 'Interaction design is an applied art'.

After reading through Dan Saffers' interview i got the impression that he is extremely passionate about his work.
I found the interview interesting and believe the piece to be extremely informative. At the start of the article Saffer highlights the importance of getting the correct balance between self-teaching and design-education. He also outlines the importance of understanding the medium you are working in, he links this with programming and scripting. This particular point relates directly back to me for my work for the Interactive Media module.
Saffer goes on to talk about what he believes to be the core elements of an interaction 'Usefulness, usability, and desirability. If your design fills a need in people's lives, works well, and looks beautiful, you've got design gold'. I think this is an excellent way of looking at a design.
He talks a lot about what inspires him and also how he keeps at the top of his game. He takes inspiration from many different sources, claiming that he sharpens his skills by reading RSS feeds.

The way to become a great designer is to learn as much as you can and put what you've learned into practice by designing a lot.

This is how Saffer ends his interview. I think it kind of sums up the article. He stresses the importance of both self-learning and being taught things throughout the interview, this twinned with practice is the best method of success.

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