Rethinking Connection Security Indicators
Venue
SOUPS (2016) (to appear)
Publication Year
2016
Authors
Adrienne Porter Felt, Robert W Reeder, Alex Ainslie, Helen Harris, Max Walker, Chris Thompson, Mustafa Acer, Elisabeth Morant, Sunny Consolvo
BibTeX
Abstract
We propose a new set of browser security indicators, based on user research and an
understanding of the design challenges faced by browsers. To motivate the need for
new security indicators, we critique existing browser security indicators and
survey 1,329 people about Google Chrome's indicators. We then evaluate forty icons
and seven complementary strings by surveying thousands of respondents about their
perceptions of the candidates. Ultimately, we select and propose three indicators.
Our proposed indicators have been adopted by Google Chrome, and we hope to motivate
others to update their security indicators as well.
