on this, i remember a few times when a sibling has sent me a link with barely any context, and after responding about the page content, i then talk about the site .. then i've been told it's really rare to get that kind of open feedback, but it was mainly because of having totally no idea it was a site the sibling had worked on or ran.
the problem seems to be developers don't get feedback, they get feature requests. it decenters the issues as being objective or even subjective, rather than pure experience without framing.
my most recent interaction with ui was a webstore with familiar product layout; grid of thumbnails with limited details, dots for pattern selection which change the thumbnail without opening, which is neat, and then tapping anywhere else still doesn't open the product, it overlay a band to the thumbnail saying "view item". pressing that opens the new page. now, i could ramble for hours about that but from experience i learned developers and designers know all that, but it's the implied ability to encounter process and resolve the unfamiliarity that already happened that is most valuable (and yes, i am as ambivalent as i am capable).
while you assuredly know this difference, i'm now wondering about this playtesting conundrum, how to get communicate it to a people who are only engaging with opinions. fair to their perspective of course, as these are driving forces, just, what else could we normalise awareness and feedback of?
for context, i'm only an esoteric programmer. i hear computers whispering when i'm tired.
