Which of these interviews specially gave you that impression? I read a few and searched through the rest with various keywords, and I don't really see how you came to that conclusion.
"minimalis[m/t]" - 2 mentions in 11 interviews, Billy Sweeney (described as having a "minimalist aesthetic"), Sascha Grief (mentions "preserving the previous version's minimalism")
"Japan" - 1 mention in 11 interviews, Sascha Grief (described as "Living in Osaka, Japan.")
"taste" - 1 mention in 11 interviews, Timothy Achumba ("As designers, taste and preference can only take you so far.")
You said "the questions are almost entirely about their taste". It looks like most of the interviews have the same/similar questions, and very few seem are about taste. I've taken some of the more common ones and grouped them into topics below. It seems to me that only the music question (1 of 24) is about taste. Even a much looser categorization does not seem to support your description of these interviews as "entirely" about taste. I would say the majority of the interview focus on tools, process and the job.
BIOGRAPHICAL (3):
What do you do?
What led you into design?
How do you keep improving yourself as a designer?
TOOLS AND PROCESS (9):
What does a typical day look like?
Describe your working environment and hardware setup?
What apps do you have in your dock?
What apps do you have on your iPhone?
What’s your design process?
What do you use to plan initial design concepts?
What apps do you use when designing?
Do you have a cool design trick/hack/shortcut?
How do you go about testing your design or gathering feedback?
WORK (4):
What pieces of work are you most proud of?
Where do you go to get inspired?
What’s a great website for inspiration?
What product have you recently seen that made you think this is great design?
TASTE (1):
What music do you listen to when designing?
JOB AND COMPANY (6):
Why did you join your company?
What’s it like working at your company?
What design challenge do you face at your company?
How do you handle design disagreements at your company?
Is your company currently looking for designers?
Any tips on designers getting a job at your company?
Comments
Which of these interviews specially gave you that impression? I read a few and searched through the rest with various keywords, and I don't really see how you came to that conclusion.
"minimalis[m/t]" - 2 mentions in 11 interviews, Billy Sweeney (described as having a "minimalist aesthetic"), Sascha Grief (mentions "preserving the previous version's minimalism")
"Japan" - 1 mention in 11 interviews, Sascha Grief (described as "Living in Osaka, Japan.")
"taste" - 1 mention in 11 interviews, Timothy Achumba ("As designers, taste and preference can only take you so far.")
You said "the questions are almost entirely about their taste". It looks like most of the interviews have the same/similar questions, and very few seem are about taste. I've taken some of the more common ones and grouped them into topics below. It seems to me that only the music question (1 of 24) is about taste. Even a much looser categorization does not seem to support your description of these interviews as "entirely" about taste. I would say the majority of the interview focus on tools, process and the job.
BIOGRAPHICAL (3): What do you do? What led you into design? How do you keep improving yourself as a designer?
TOOLS AND PROCESS (9): What does a typical day look like? Describe your working environment and hardware setup? What apps do you have in your dock? What apps do you have on your iPhone? What’s your design process? What do you use to plan initial design concepts? What apps do you use when designing? Do you have a cool design trick/hack/shortcut? How do you go about testing your design or gathering feedback?
WORK (4): What pieces of work are you most proud of? Where do you go to get inspired? What’s a great website for inspiration? What product have you recently seen that made you think this is great design?
TASTE (1): What music do you listen to when designing?
JOB AND COMPANY (6): Why did you join your company? What’s it like working at your company? What design challenge do you face at your company? How do you handle design disagreements at your company? Is your company currently looking for designers? Any tips on designers getting a job at your company?
ADVICE (1): Any advice for ambitious designers?