Case Study: Usable LogIn

Background:

Ginsburg Design was hired to design the user experience for Usable Security System's core product, Usable LogIn, prior to its launch at Demo2008. The product makes passwords obsolete and provides secure access to any web site. All users have to do is recognize their picture and remember one simple codeword.

Discovery & Research:

Ginsburg Design kicked off the project by interviewing the CEO and CTO, reading related research, and reviewing existing online security systems. Although dozens of services were available at the time, they were difficult to use and plagued with usability issues: poor feedback, confusing terminology, convoluted setup processes. After the competitive analysis, we organized interviews with the key personas--online investor, social networking guru, wired mom, and college student. These interviews, combined with the stakeholder interviews and competitive research, helped refine the product requirements and develop the initial paper prototype.

Concept Exploration:

In this phase, we created a paper prototype containing the core user interface components--setup flow, sign in module, management dashboard--and tested them with target users. Although the task flows worked well, we discovered that users wanted several questions answered before they signed up for the service: Why should I trust Usable? How could something so simple be secure? In addition, test participants expressed interest in a number of enhancements which we subsequently added to the product requirements.

Design Development:

In the second round of user testing, we introduced a working prototype, enabling participants to interact more freely with the Usable LogIn service. We discovered that additional feedback was needed for many of the low-level interactions, e.g., drag-and-drop shadow when rearranging sites and mouseover tool tips for site related tasks. These enhancements and many others were immediately incorporated into the working prototype. The service launched at Demo2008 and received positive reviews from CNET, USA Today, and VentureBeat.

To find out more about how Ginsburg Design can help your company, send email to: info@ginsburg-design.com