[Commotion-dev] quick note on crypto UX

[Dan Staples]

On 11 Jan, there was a hackathon in DC for Commotion, Cryptocat, and
Cupcake. Cryptocat posted an interesting debrief from it[1], in which
they made some interesting observations regarding the crypto-related
aspects of the user experience:

"""
The area of the most confusion — to the point where it made the users
feel threatened or panicked — was the user information screens (either
for a specific buddy or the user themselves). Though “fingerprint” is
widely known by cryptography and security experts, it is, at the end of
the day, jargon. There were several participants who immediately
associated “fingerprint” with a negative connotation (i.e., leaving a
fingerprint at a crime scene). Their tone was panicked in asking their
questions on this issue, and were unsure of why that information needed
to be displayed, and if it was even safe to display. There were a
handful of users who understood encryption technology at a very basic
level who were not confused by the terminology on this page, but were
unsure of what to do with this information.

[...]

The term “fingerprint” was severely off-putting for many users.
Thankfully, there are several ways to avoid this discomfort. Consider
adding “microcopy” to the fingerprint pages–very brief, clear, and
concise copy telling the user that everything is okay, and that this
information isn’t anything threatening. In addition to microcopy, a
tertiary page can be created that explains the basics of what a
fingerprint is, why that information is important, and how to use that
information. This way, a space can be created to not only educate users
on encryption, but possibly catalyze their own self-guided education on
the matter.
"""

Since we will be starting the process of designing a key management
interface (e.g. buddy list and fav local apps) for the various Commotion
clients, this is some good information to keep in mind.

Dan

[1] https://blog.crypto.cat/2014/01/cryptocat-at-the-openitp-dc-hackathon/

-- 
Dan Staples

Open Technology Institute
https://commotionwireless.net
OpenPGP key: http://disman.tl/pgp.asc
Fingerprint: 2480 095D 4B16 436F 35AB 7305 F670 74ED BD86 43A9