Improving Security-Awareness for HCI Through Usability Criteria

[[abstract]]The relationship between computers and human are closer due to the rapid technology development. The wider application area of computers and multi-functional software systems development diversify the human and computer interaction. Research issues of usability and security in HCI are normally independently discussed. However, integration between these two factors should be considered in terms of software development. In the worst case, one of them is even ignored during system development. Several design guidelines have been developed and used for improving system usability. As a result, security issue somehow is embedded into usability consideration. Therefore, users are encouraged to pay more attention to system usability rather than security. In other words, security awareness of software development is overlooked, although it is normally alleged that the system is secure enough. The evaluation of system security provided by the interface should be recognized by users during the software operation to increase security awareness. Several related works argued that the problems of insufficient security awareness include the followings: ineffective interface for user operations complicated operating procedures, and obscure documentation. The priority of security concern is usually behind that of major functions required by users. Therefore, security function is normally arranged under the structure of sub-function or sub-menu in a WIMP interface which is widely applied in the wed-based system and software. This research first uses Microsoft Internet Explorer as a case study where security guidelines provided by other researches are discussed and examined. A framework of improving security awareness based on integrating usability and security evaluation is proposed. The result of this research can provide suggestion of designing HCI interface to improve security awareness without sacrificing usability