Like the graph under visualizes it is an issue that as a system gets more secure, it also becomes less usable.(Microsoft) However, can we with user centered design make this graph less steep?
Kategoriarkiv: Oslo
Word Cloud
I created a word cload of the most used words in my master thesis so far it looks like this:
Eye tracking on mobile devices
The research project (e-Me) that I am connected to at the Norwegian Computing Center have recently gotten the Tobii X60/X120 Mobile Device Testing Solution which enables you to do eye tracking on mobile devices. Because of my connection to e-Me I will get an introduction to the system and will have the opportunity to use it in my master, which I’m really excited about!
Pilot interview
Today I did a pilot interview with one of the participants from the probe study. Went well, but I will reformulate and add some questions before I conduct the rest of the interviews.
All of the interviewees will be people that agreed to be contacted after the joining the probe study. So they already know what the project is about, however before the interview they have to sign a form describing among other things the project, the purpose of the interview, that the data will be anonymised and that they agree to the terms.
The interviews are still focusing on peoples understanding of security and how that affect their behavior in connection to authentication. I have separated the interview into two parts, starting with some initial questions about the interviewee, then some questions about their mobile and computer habits. The second part of the interview will be used to discuss some of the results from the probes. To facilitate the discussion I have printed out some graphs, some examples of different authentication methods and some of the context pictures that I received from the probes.
Mobile Media Design
Print screen of the prototype
This semester I’ve been taking a course called mobile media design at the institute of media and communication. As the course description says the goal was to be trained in exploring the possibilities for mobile media design, while gaining a basic knowledge about the main obstacles and how to overcome them, through a practical, project-based approach in which we would develop our own prototype of a mobile web application.
e-Me: Sound and images becomes passwords
The online newspaper Forskning.no that cover Norwegian and international research news, recently wrote about the e-Me research project and how they have tested out using combinations of sounds or images as passwords instead of numbers or characters.
A lot of todays web services that are supposed to be accessible to all, are because of safety too advanced. This is an issue that the e-Me project have looked into and tries to solve by creating a prototype and testing it on elderly to uncover advantages and disadvantages with the different methods both for people with disabilities and other people. The different methods are also ranked by the level of usability
Read the article here. (The article is unfortunately only in Norwegian. )
This is how it can look like when the test users log on using sounds. (Illustration: e-Me-prosjektet)
Rappid prototyping tool: Flowella
I was introduced to the prototyping tool Flowella on a meetup with IXDA Oslo for a couple of weeks ago, Flowella is a free prototyping tool created by Nokia, and I have decided to test it out in context of my master thesis. Usually at one point in the design process I create sketches in photoshop, but photoshop in it self does not support transactions and interaction.
What Flowella does is that it allows you to drag and drop image files into a library and put them together with easy image mapping, one good thing is that you can import all sorts of images, it doesn’t need to be high-fidelity photoshop sketches, it could for instance also be images of low-fidelity sketches drawn by hand if you want the focus of the testing to be mostly on the concept and content and not on details as font or color.
When you are finished putting together your sketches you can export the file to flash, WRT or QML and test the prototype on a phone that support one of these files.
I have still not created proper sketches that I can try out, but I have tested the functionality and can confirm that it at least is really easy to use. My interests are mostly design and interaction and since my coding skills are quite poor I need a tool for prototyping that do not require me to use to much time on coding and give me more time to focus on designing for a good user experience. So far Flowella looks like tool that will allow me to do this.
Source: http://www.allaboutsymbian.com
Master Thesis: an instrumental case study
I have now decided which case I will focus on in my Master thesis. This is a project where my main purpose is to provide knowledge about accessible authentication on touch phones. I will try to achieve this by study one individual case. The case in it self is not the main focus, but are used as an instrument to provide insight into the issue. This is thus an instrumental case study.
The case I will use in my thesis is Feide (Felles Elektronisk IDEntitet, eng. Common electronic Identity). Feide is a solution for secure identification to educational web services in Norway, chosen by the Ministry of Education and Research.
Master thesis
I have started my last year on my master degree at the University of Oslo and have been encouraged by my supervisor to blog about my thesis. He was convinced that it was a subject that would be interesting to some people and it is also a good opportunity to get some feedback on my work.
I am still in the process of narrowing down the scope of the thesis, and have not decided on what case I will focus on. However I can at least introduce the research area and motivation for my work.
Siri goes public 