Default values I changed
A short list of defaults that did more work than any feature I built.
Some of the most consequential changes I made to the product in the last year were one-line changes to default values. None of them shipped with a changelog entry. All of them quietly moved a number.
What I changed#
Notifications default to off. New users opt in by interacting with the thing they want to hear about. Most existing apps default to on, and their day-thirty users learn to dread the icon. Mine do not.
Sharing defaults to private. The user can change a switch later, but nothing they create is exposed unless they intentionally expose it. The audit conversation that followed was the easiest I have ever had.
Sort order defaults to most recent. Not "by relevance," not "smart sort." Most recent is the order most users mean. The complexity of a smart sort is paid for at the cost of a small confusion every time the order changes for reasons the user did not initiate.
What I did not change#
Currency. Date format. Language. These are the defaults that need to be correct, not optional. I get them from the browser and never present a dialog asking the user to confirm what their own settings already declared.
The pattern#
The good defaults push power, not surface, to the user. They make the product safer, calmer, and quieter without anyone having to learn a setting. They are also impossible to A/B test honestly, which is probably why most products do not change them.