You Cannot Fix a Feeling. You Can Only Fix Behaviour.

The Fatal Flaw in AAA UX: Most studios spend millions trying to repair player emotions. They are chasing ghosts.

If the Lead Producer or someone o your team tells you, "The HUD feels clunky," or “the flow feel off“and you go back to your desk to try and make it "feel better," you have already lost.

You cannot fix a feeling. You can only fix behavior.

Why We Hide Behind "Feelings"

  • Feelings sound insightful: They make us sound like "empathetic designers."

  • Feelings avoid blame: It’s hard to tell a Creative Director they are "wrong" about a feeling.

  • Feelings feel humane: We want players to be happy.

But feelings are the "Downstream" result. Behavior is the "Upstream" cause. If you don't fix the upstream, the downstream stays toxic.

The Problem With "Feeling" Feedback

A feeling has no location. If a playtest report says, "Players felt overwhelmed," you cannot answer the three questions required to keep a project on schedule:

  1. When exactly did it happen?

  2. What specific feature, screen or mechanic caused it?

  3. What changed after the fix?

A feeling has no "fix path." Behavior, however, is a signal.

The Signals of Behavior

When I audit a build, I stop listening to what the players say and start watching what they do. Behavior shows up as:

  • The Pause: They stopped moving because they don't know the goal.

  • The Misclick: They hit the wrong button because the affordance was weak.

  • The Abandonment: They closed the menu before completing the task.

  • The Workaround: They found a "glitchy" way to do something because the "right" way was too slow.

These are not "feelings." These are measurable failures in design.

Translating "Vague Fluff" into "Production Reality"

Every "feeling" has a behavioral root. As a Senior Designer, your job is to be the translator.

Abdi Jama