If you asked me when I was younger what my favorite movie was, I probably had a single answer ready to go ("Back to the Future!"). Similarily, I would likely have answers for favorite color, song, meal, and so on.

Ask me now, though, and I have multiple answers to each question. I have a favorite song while driving, but a different one while cooking, and entirely different favorites for reading or relaxing.

As I've gained more life experience, my preferences have become more contextual. It's hard to specify favorites without first narrowing down the context.

As designers, being mindful how experience impacts on our preferences can only make our work better.

We can imagine beginning work on improving a design tool by doing research on what tool graphic designers like to use most. Ask a junior designer, and they'll likely have one or two favorites they think vastly outperform others. Ask someone who's been doing the work for a while, though, and they'll give a nuanced answer based on different situations (and likely tell you that the choice of tool doesn't really matter much anyway).

To understand preferences, the best thing we can do is first consider the background of the person we seek to understand. And the deeper that background is, the more we must consider the specific context we seek to understand.