The non engineer knows he is not qualified to have an opinion on code.
Yet the non designer thinks he is qualified to have an opinion on “UX” and aesthetics.
Why?
Discussion
People experience ui/ux all the time just using apps and websites so have personal opinions on what does and doesn’t work for them.
People don’t experience code first hand, typically.
Because the user is who you are ultimately making the product for.
If there's a handle on a door you pull it, you don't push it. This is a universal design expectation.
Go against intuitive design anywhere and people will notice. Being a door carpenter or software engineer has nothing to do with it.
Users most definitely do have an opinion on code. Just less directly… e.g. “this app is very buggy”
In much the same way they have an opinion on UI/UX e.g. “this app is hard to use”
They may not have the specific skills or toolset to change it but their opinions still matter 🤷🏼♂️
I disagree.
I was working on mass consumer apps and was able to improve the product mostly thanks to habitually digesting all these unqualified opinions left in our feedback channels.
UXR job is to up the quality of the feedback and make it more useful. But even the most unskilled feedback from a lost visitor is more useful than nothing for me, if I can observe a trend there.
That's a great observation. I wonder if it's because there is a portion of personal taste when it comes to aesthetics. Since everyone knows what they like, they are comfortable projecting that taste onto the world because it feels absolute to them.