Defaults are decisions
Evaluate a default by asking who benefits, what errors it prevents, and how easily users can change it.
The move: treat every default as a recommendation you made on the user's behalf. Defaults work because inaction is common. People are busy, uncertain, distracted, or willing to accept what the system presents as normal. That makes defaults useful for good outcomes: auto-saving drafts, preselecting privacy-protective settings, or enrolling people into beneficial reminders. The same mechanism can become sludge when the default benefits the designer while the cost falls on the user. A default should pass three tests: welfare, error, and exit. Welfare asks whether this is likely to help the person receiving it. Error asks what predictable mistake the…
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