Homework 5: design exercise
In this assignment, you will be brainstorming and designing improvements to a privacy or security interface or process of your choice.
Due
This homework is due 23:59 on Thursday, April 11.
Collaboration
This assignment should be completed in groups of 2.
Assignment
In this assignment, you will devise an improved process or interface related to security and privacy.
Decide on what you want to improve
You can choose to improve an interface (for example, the UI used to send encrypted files) or a process (for example, the process of obtaining a CVE for a vulnerability). Feel free to think broadly (a library API is also an interface and therefore fair game for this assignment) and be creative.
As previously, there are some restrictions on the interface:
- It must have something to do with security and privacy.
- Try to pick something reasonably complex to make it interesting!
- There must be at least 4 distinct steps to the task you are studying.
- It must not be an example we used in class or one of the following tasks:
- Authenticating with two-factor authentication
- (However, more complex operations related to MFA may be okay.)
- Logging in using a password manager or adding a login to one
- Authenticating with two-factor authentication
You may use an interface you’ve used for one of the previous assignments.
If you’re not sure about the interface or process you’ve chosen, please ask upfront.
Identify the usability issues
After you’ve identified the interface, your next task will be to identify what you see as the usability issues with it. If this an interface that you’ve previously conducted your cognitive walkthrough or user study of, then you’ll have a head start on some of the issues with it. If not, I suggest conducting a cognitive walkthrough and otherwise generating potential issues, taking into account everything you’ve learned in the class.
Design an improvement
Next, come up with some solutions! Brainstorm potential solutions for each of the problems you’ve identified. Your solution doesn’t have to be perfect, but it should represent a notable (and, ideally, measurable) improvement over the status quo.
Your improvements could be visual (making the interface clearer and less cluttered, rewording confusing text) or process-based (changing the order of actions, eliminating redundant steps).
Your changes must not be purely aesthetic. You should be able to clearly justify how they improve usability.
If you’re not sure whether your proposed changes constitute an improvement, please talk with me.
(Some of) your changes must be (cumulatively) substantive
To receive full credit for this assignment, you should propose changes that are relatively significant. It should not be the case that all of your proposed changes are small wording improvements or visual tweaks — think bigger.
Be wary of simplistic solutions
Conversely, I will be extra skeptical if the solution you come up with seems simplistic — for example, if you replace a complex, multi-step process with one magic button that accomplishes everything you want it to.
I’m not saying this is impossible, but if you find yourself arriving at this outcome, consider what assumptions you might be making and whether they are likely to be true in the real world. (If not, this suggests your solution may need to take more factors into account.)
If you truly believe that your one-step (or otherwise very simple) solution is an effective replacement for the existing process, your write-up must justify this in depth by describing all the factors you considered and how they are addressed. (Submissions that don’t do this satisfactorily will not receive full credit.)
What to turn in
In your write-up (submitted as a PDF created using LaTeX), you should document:
- The name of (and a link to) the interface or process you examined
- If you’re focusing on a specific task or aspect of a larger process, specify that clearly.
- A step-by-step description of the task you were improving
- For each step, provide either a screenshot or (if that’s not applicable) a detailed text description of the step in the process
- Also, for each step, state the usability issues that you plan to address
- A thorough documentation of your proposed improvements
- If it is possible to represent your improvements visually, you must do so.
- You can use a design tool like Figma to mock-up your changes.
- However, it is also acceptable to submit low-fidelity mock-ups, such as wireframes created with Balsamiq. They just need to be clear about what you’re proposing.
- In addition to the visual representation, your write-up should clearly state what the change was and why it represents an improvement.
- If it is possible to represent your improvements visually, you must do so.
- A brief reflection about why you think the current interface/process lacks these improvements
Late policy
- Assignments submitted up to 24 hours late receive a deduction of one letter grade (10 percentage points).
- Assignments submitted more than 24 hours late receive no credit.
- The late penalty will be waived for up to 3 homework assignments.
- However, this cannot be stacked (you can’t use more than one late day per assignment).
- Even with this waiver, an assignment submitted more than 24 hours late receives no credit.