Worrying about WHO is an authority is a waste of time. Does that make your design process better? Does it produce better outcomes?
Someone who is highly qualified and skillful in design could give you unproductive opinions. They focus on something trivial, they make assumptions, or they have some malignant bias.
Someone who is not at all qualified and knows nothing about designing things could give you very productive opinions. They understand the problem you're solving deeply, they are the intended audience for the solution, or they are skillful in describing their reactions to your thing.
It would seem like a much better use of your mental energy to focus on how to get useful feedback from people, and setting expectations as to how that feedback is handled.
Worrying about WHO is an authority is a waste of time. Does that make your design process better? Does it produce better outcomes?
Someone who is highly qualified and skillful in design could give you unproductive opinions. They focus on something trivial, they make assumptions, or they have some malignant bias.
Someone who is not at all qualified and knows nothing about designing things could give you very productive opinions. They understand the problem you're solving deeply, they are the intended audience for the solution, or they are skillful in describing their reactions to your thing.
It would seem like a much better use of your mental energy to focus on how to get useful feedback from people, and setting expectations as to how that feedback is handled.