In my experience as a software developer (not games) for nearly 20 years, I’ve gotten the strong impression that most people really don’t know what they want until they have it. My ideal client (i.e. person who intends to use the software I’m about to write) for a new project would have a clear idea about what they’re trying to accomplish, and what problem(s) they’re trying to solve. In my entire career, I believe I could count the number of times I’ve encountered such a client on one hand. In the overwhelming majority of cases, the client has a vague notion of automating some things that currently take them longer than they’d like, and initially provide very few details about the actual problems and goals. The result ends up being a series of updates, with feedback between, until the client is finally satisfied. Interestingly enough, it isn’t that these people are in any way stupid, or that they simply never bothered thinking about it. Rather, it seems to be because they’re a little overwhelmed (the reason they came to me in the first place), and focused more on relieving the burden than on what kind of solution might accomplish said relieving. This isn’t unreasonable; it just happens not to be particularly helpful.
All of that said, I do believe there is a lot of merit to providing feedback that focuses on what we want, rather than what we don’t, largely because, in my experience, people tend to have more specific ideas when thinking about what they’d like. When thinking about what they dislike, many people will naturally focus on their own emotional reactions to things, rather than how said emotions were actually triggered. When thinking about what they want, there’s still a focus on the emotions one wishes to experience, but most people tend to imagine something that will trigger those positive emotions, and state that, rather than talking about the feelings themselves, resulting in higher specificity.
In my experience as a software developer (not games) for nearly 20 years, I’ve gotten the strong impression that most people really don’t know what they want until they have it. My ideal client (i.e. person who intends to use the software I’m about to write) for a new project would have a clear idea about what they’re trying to accomplish, and what problem(s) they’re trying to solve. In my entire career, I believe I could count the number of times I’ve encountered such a client on one hand. In the overwhelming majority of cases, the client has a vague notion of automating some things that currently take them longer than they’d like, and initially provide very few details about the actual problems and goals. The result ends up being a series of updates, with feedback between, until the client is finally satisfied. Interestingly enough, it isn’t that these people are in any way stupid, or that they simply never bothered thinking about it. Rather, it seems to be because they’re a little overwhelmed (the reason they came to me in the first place), and focused more on relieving the burden than on what kind of solution might accomplish said relieving. This isn’t unreasonable; it just happens not to be particularly helpful.
All of that said, I do believe there is a lot of merit to providing feedback that focuses on what we want, rather than what we don’t, largely because, in my experience, people tend to have more specific ideas when thinking about what they’d like. When thinking about what they dislike, many people will naturally focus on their own emotional reactions to things, rather than how said emotions were actually triggered. When thinking about what they want, there’s still a focus on the emotions one wishes to experience, but most people tend to imagine something that will trigger those positive emotions, and state that, rather than talking about the feelings themselves, resulting in higher specificity.