Interface prototype 5 & 6

Based on the feedback from users, I developed the fifth and sixth interface prototype of the online identity management system. For these two prototypes, I used Axure RP, an interactive html prototype tool, to mock up the interface experience. Axure is mainly used for websites and apps but I used it to generate desktop interface because it’s easy to build links and generate interactive prototypes through the tool.

Axure RP is easy to start and it supports various ways to generate a prototype. I mainly used fast sketches  to build the whole interface for the early prototypes (there are many widget options in Axure). The fifth interface prototype is mainly for experiencing and learning Axure with slight improvements from the fourth one. And the sixth was structurally developed for further user tests.

With the html mock up, I experienced the truer interface and asked other people to test. From the feedback I integrated some functions to reduce repetitive operations, make the interface more concise and easier to understand.

(generating the prototype with Axure RP)

With the help of an article from UED Baidu, I successfully put the html prototype into iOS. It’s easier to take one iPad with me and find people to test the interface.

From the feedback of these two prototypes, I learned that people can understand the way organizing their personal information and profiles in this system and find that it will benefit them with sync updates and re-link accounts when they have different requirements and need to make changes. Also, making all activities of users and interactions with others in one page will save much time for them. They also like the idea to have a vault to save passwords and other data of the accounts. But they mostly concerned the security of this system, if the system is strongly linked to users’ specific devices or provides dynamic authentication methods, people might feel safer to store and use personal data with the new service.

Interface prototype 3.0 & 4.0

The third prototype explores more of the interface details of how users may operate in a desktop application. It’s a quick prototype for me catching what the service system may look like and how to layout the functions.

After that, I find profile management is one main function in this system and I experienced different profile pages in various sites to find out the common requirements and differences to build profiles online. It helps me to better organize the functions and modules in the interface. Based on that, I developed the fourth prototype:

It has clearer sketches for testing with people. The paper interfaces are cut in shapes to let people operate and mock-up the experience of it.

 

Group interview of online identity management-2013.06.03

Today I had an informal group interview with four design students about how people interact with their identity management online. We started the discussion from 1Password- password management application and talked about how customers use this service to help them better store and remember passwords. Then we extended the topic of what’s people’s behaviors online- especially for social networks. Here are three main groups of finding I get from this helpful group interview:

1. Online identity management frustration causes:

• one part update in a combined system (Safari & 1Password)
• two passwords requested in one system (alipay- Chinese PayPal)
• not timely record (1Password)
• contact information change (i.e. phone number)
• confused login failure (Prezi)
• information sync across sites (i.e. share same photos on different sites)
• previous password setting pattern doesn’t fit new platform request (i.e. capital letter for apple app accounts)
• occupied account names
• security risk of linked accounts

2. People’s value of online identities:

• what people may store as private info: passwords, account names, telephone numbers, birthdays etc.
• people sometimes evaluate devices’ security level for online data use
• people have different rules of information sharing for various accounts and different people hold different rules as well
• more people like to demand more than contribute information online
• people may worry practical jokes of personal photos
• people may feel safer to share information with “friends” who manage their friends cautiously
• people may like to search online profiles of a new person before physically contact
• people are more receptive of real-name environment than before
• leave comments with real-person profile picture give the feeling of more veritable & worth reading
• people want to protect family members’ online privacy
• people are not comfortable of amplified personal details online
• people may feel tired and messy to take various audience for different accounts into account very carefully
• people prefer convenient & fluid user experience
• people may value more of audience needs rather than themselves’ 

3. Online identity behavior change causes:

• online service suggestion (Google 2-step authentication)
• new devices (i.e. ipad)
• new online services (i.e. apps for different info types storage)
• service policy (i.e. MyDundee request users change passwords every year)
• new service functions (Safari)
• audience movement (i.e. friends move to other social networks)
• life stages and life focuses change
• new social network environment effect
• short-term purpose reached (i.e. quite email subscription)
• look for united service experience (Google doc & Gmail)

Who have multi-identities?

“Multi-identites” is the word I come up in my mind during the research with people and literature reading. I use this word in my SMART objectives and the picture above is deeper explanation of this word.