WSC Usability Studies

Analysis of Proposed Recommendations

First Cut at Usability Evaluation

Research Questions

Can users distinguish chrome from content? Previous studies have shown that the answer is no. We may do a study where this is one test condition. A study on this would not result in new research (unless there is a new design that would allow users to make the distinction- thus far, no proposed recommendations attempt this, though personalized chrome proposals touch on this issue).

Can users effectively use different "modes"? There is some previous research to show that most users will probably forget to enable it, and it will probably be spoofed. Two proposals that address this are Safe Browsing Mode and Browser Lock Down.

Do users notice the presence and absence of EV cert indicators? This may be similar to noticing distinguishing chrome/content. Many proposals depend on users noticing EV indicators so it would be nice to conduct a study to examine these directly. In Serge's study, zero out of twenty users have failed to notice the absence of an EV cert indicator when entering information into a phishing site.

Do users understand the difference between a legitimate site with no EV indicator and a phishing site with no EV indicator? Collin Jackson's EV study touched on this question.

Something about negative indicators.

Study Design

Resource Tracking

* Participants * Testing Environments (Testing labs, instrumented clients) * Test Facilitators * Infrastructure/Test Bed Implementers * Existing studies we can piggyback on * Existing IRB applications * Financial Resources * Data Analysis