UX designers will always argue that to have a successful, highly converting website you need to create a path of least resistance. The less clicks to conversion the better!
However, we now live in a world where we are responsible for protecting ourselves, our businesses and our clients from cyber-criminals. With that in mind, UX designers’ job is to try and make the whole process as quick and easy to use as possible.
Case Study – What we learnt from Recaptcha?
For a start if you don’t have Recaptcha for the sake of you and your users you absolutely should. It’s part of your defences against cybercrime and it shows your customers that you take security seriously.
Recaptcha is a service from Google that helps protect websites from abuse, spam and fraud. It once required users to prove that they aren’t robots by taking a mini test, which added many clicks, decision making and often drove users crazy.
How did Google improve the UX?
Version 2 of Recapture was the best Google could do at the time and when 2018 rolled around they had listened to user feedback and needed a new approach. With version 3 they removed the UX nightmare and instead opted to verify requests with a score and give you the ability to take action in the context of your site. This means the user is required to make no extra clicks, no extra decisions and no more headaches.
Our UX designer Ryan Farrow says “The change from V2 to V3 had a dramatic effect on usability, as most users of V2 were suffering from decision fatigue before the update. Decision fatigue in usability terms means that every page of your website provides the user with information and decisions to be made. The more decisions you ask of a user the more likely they are going to give up which increases abandonment rates and reduces conversion.”
How does the UX designers deal with security?
The problem normally comes when security isn’t considered during the UX/UI process. When developing a persona for the ideal user there won’t be many cases when security of information isn’t a priority. Having security considered early on helps you to consider the areas of weakness and research the best solutions. The best solution will 9 times out of 10 be the safest, but how the security effects the UX process should also be considered to make the final decision.
A good design and development team will carefully consider this balance between ease of use and security. Once a solution has been implemented, it is also important to keep the site updated with the latest security measures as they are released. Finally, the last important thing to do going forwards is to periodically review security to see when better options become available.
At Source Code Studio we provide carefully considered website design, app & software development for all our clients. Also, as part of “The Green Duck Family” we provide our clients with a single point of contact for IT services through Green Duck and cyber-security through Labsec.
If you’d like to speak to us about a new secure website or even how to keep your users safe from cybercrime, get in touch.