Why Do People Hate Changing Device Settings? (And What They'll Do Instead)
A major technology company needed to understand why smartwatch users weren't adjusting their device settings, even when those settings could significantly improve their experience.
Through a four-day diary study combined with in-depth exit interviews, we uncovered something counterintuitive: people don't avoid settings because they're hard to find. They prevent them for a deeper reason.
The insight: People buy smartwatches for freedom from their phones. But that freedom is fragile, and notifications hold it together.
Here's what we discovered:
The #PhoneFreedom Paradox
Users loved their smartwatches because they could check their wrist rather than pull out their phone. But they weren't using their watches to do things; they were using them to know things. Checking a message on your wrist? Easy. Replying to it? You're going back to the phone.
The real magic was this: notifications on the watch meant users could leave their phones in their pockets and still feel connected. They wouldn't miss anything important.
The Settings Cycle Nobody Talks About
We documented something fascinating. People don't smoothly manage settings over time. They go through phases:
Excitement – New device energy. You're exploring, tweaking, and customizing.
Tweaking – Making minor adjustments as annoyances pop up.
Equilibrium – You've found what works. You stop touching anything.
Disruption – Something changes (a new app, an update, a change in routine) and you're out of equilibrium.
Adjustment – You fix what's broken to restore equilibrium.
Re-equilibrium – You're good again. Stop touching things.
The problem? People won't adjust settings unless the annoyance reaches a threshold. And that threshold is high. Many users were getting unwanted notifications daily and doing nothing about them.
The "Fat Fingers" Problem (And Why It Matters)
Participants loved the smartwatch for quick actions. But for anything complex? They switched to the companion app on their phones. Not because they wanted to, but because the larger screen made it feasible.
Here's what's interesting: they expected parity. If a feature existed on the watch, they thought they should be able to do it there. But they were pragmatic. If it were complicated, they'd happily go to the phone.
Silent Is the Default (Not What You Think)
Most smartwatch users kept their watches on silent. Not because they were ignoring alerts, but because vibrations were enough. They felt notifications through haptics and learned to trust that system.
But here's the missed opportunity: almost no one knew custom vibration patterns were possible. And when we mentioned it, most weren't interested. The effort-to-benefit ratio wasn't there.
The Bigger Picture
This research revealed a fundamental truth about settings management: it's not a design problem. It's a behavioral one.
People will tolerate significant annoyances rather than spend the mental energy to fix them. They'll take suboptimal experiences if it means maintaining equilibrium. And they'll do whatever is easiest, not necessarily what's "better."
The best settings design in the world can't overcome someone's decision not to engage with settings at all.
But here's what can work: recognize the phases of settings engagement, understand what triggers people to actually want to adjust settings, and make the critical moments count.