Do We Have Too Many Settings

Generate transcript

A transcript unlocks clips, previews, and editing.

A couple of months ago I tried to change a rule for a child account and got lost inside Settings on my own phone. Screens inside screens, settings that seemed related without belonging together, and a search field that only works once you already know what the system calls the thing you want.

This video asks the question directly. Do we have too many settings? And is that even the right question?

FURTHER READING

• "The Vocabulary Problem in Human-System Communication"

• "VoiceAlign: A Shimming Layer for Enhancing the Usability of Legacy Voice User Interface Systems"

• (Samsung Research), "Intuitive Access to Smartphone Settings Using Relevance Model Trained by Contrastive Learning"

• Android Open Source Project, "Android settings design guidelines".

• "Hey, You Have Given Me Too Many Knobs! Understanding and Dealing with Over-Designed Configuration in System Software"

• "Feature Fatigue: When Product Capabilities Become Too Much of a Good Thing", Journal of Marketing Research

• "'I do (not) need that Feature!' Understanding Users' Awareness and Control of Privacy Permissions on Android Smartphones"

• Google, "Control your Android mobile device and apps with Utilities", Gemini Apps Help.

This video is also available on YouTube

Interface Studies

Authors

Saleh Kayyali

Recent Posts

What does "Undo" Mean for AI Agents?

Aug 20 • Saleh Kayyali

The Hover State: Between Noticing and Doing

Jul 18 • Saleh Kayyali

"Save for Later" Has No Later

Jul 11 • Saleh Kayyali

The Lost Discipline of the Alarm: What Notification Design Forgot

Jun 28 • Saleh Kayyali

When Software Took the Word 'Social'

Jun 21 • Saleh Kayyali

What Every Productivity App Trades Away

Jun 10 • Saleh Kayyali

What Makes Software a "Place"?

Jun 1 • Saleh Kayyali