The Importance of Submitting Feature Requests to Software Developers

I’m constantly reminded of the importance of playing an active role in the success of software development.

This role is not limited to the work that we do at Ideate Software; it extends far beyond. For me personally, I am all about the experience and usability of software. It needs to be intuitive. It must have a clean look, great feel, and be easy to navigate. When a user generates an error, the software should clearly define what the error is and suggest ways to resolve the error. If software is lacking features, I log feature requests to improve the software, otherwise I move on to something else that works better.

We can all probably agree that no software is perfect. While software may meet most of our needs, there will certainly be features and workflows that are missing or underdeveloped. Whenever I see the opportunity to speak up and log a feature request, I do so. Not only do I log feature requests internally for our own products, I also log feature requests to Autodesk via the forums and to mobile app developers, either directly through their website or from the feedback section in the app store. The goal in doing so is to help the developers understand the needs of the consumer, rather than just assume they know what the consumers’ needs are.

A feature request that I logged with Autodesk a few years back was recently implemented into Revit (starting in Revit 2020.2). This feature request involved showing a marker for Revit’s Internal Origin point (I love the Revit coordinate system!) and markers for linked files Internal Origin, Survey, and Project Base points as well. Instead of just requesting this feature, I took a few extra moments and explained why this feature would be beneficial. Here is the feature request itself and the notation that it was implemented by Autodesk:

Feature requests like these are important to log with software developers, as they typically address pain points and ways that they can improve the users experience.

Ideate Software customers should log feature requests through the Help menu as shown below.

At Ideate Software, we are continually looking for ways in which we can improve our software, whether it be improvements to our current software products or new product ideas. Each feature request that we receive, whether from our website, through our technical support system, or from our Beta program, is logged into our system and carefully reviewed. I always tell our customers and prospects that our software is great because of the wants and needs of our customers, not the wants and needs of ourselves. If you ever feel like your requests to others are never heard, you can take comfort in knowing that we log all requests and discuss them in full detail.

On behalf of our entire team, thank you so much for being an active part of what we do. We are very proud of the quality and service that we provide to all our current and future customers. Keep those feature requests coming!