[bo1024]

Really? If your software is only used by a very specific kind of person in very specific circumstances, that logic might work. Otherwise, you'll always find two different people, or one person at two different times, with mutually contradictory definitions of annoying behavior.

For example, what should the default volume setting be? (Warning before you answer: if you don't pick the volume I want right now, it'll be annoying!) Okay, what should the default mouse speed be? (Just so you know, I might be 20y.o. with a gaming mouse or 80y.o. with a trackball.) Etc.

[themacguffinman]

Right now, it's generally hard to always know what the default volume should be and I consider that a failure. One day tech will be sufficiently advanced that it can adapt to the environment and user and consistently pick an excellent default volume.

We're improving though. Volume settings are an unnecessary annoyance in a great deal of apps already and you won't need to tweak it in many apps that pick good standard defaults for notification sounds, mic volume, etc. It's grating when apps pick bad default volumes and it immediately assaults our ears. Unfortunately, users sometimes still have to tweak a global/system volume setting, but hey, things aren't perfect and it's good to have a fallback when software fails.

Two people may indeed have different preferences, but that's no excuse to force users to configure a bunch of knobs and switches themselves. Good design adapts to the user. When it doesn't, then settings cleans up after the failure.

[mrob]

>One day tech will be sufficiently advanced that it can adapt to the environment and user and consistently pick an excellent default volume.

This is sadly true, but I really wish it wasn't. There's no way to automatically determine the correct volume without privacy violating brain scanning.