I was on a flight from Lisbon to Paris recently.

Sitting on an airplane is one of those moments where I eventually get bored enough to start exploring my iPhone settings.

While I was reorganizing my phone, I had a sudden realization: Settings are typically seen as the result of design failure. The thinking goes that as designers, our goal is to create product experiences that don’t require any adjustments by the user. Consequently, offering customization options is interpreted as a failure to make firm product decisions.

I think there is a misunderstanding about what settings really are.

Users love settings

There certainly are moments where I find myself on the settings page of a product because it failed to deliver the experience I really wanted. But not all settings are created equal.

There’s a difference between product settings that a product needs to get right by default and preferences that designers deliberately shouldn’t have a strong opinion on.

First of all, remind yourself that users love settings.

Despite initially being born out of the absence of airplane WiFi, I actually enjoy discovering new settings on my iPhone that will make my life easier or improve my productivity.

Just look at your own user behaviour:
What do you do when you set up your new computer?

You change your background image.
You adjust your mouse speed.
You set a default browse