Design talk
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This document discusses design challenges for cybersecurity products. It notes that many security products are designed by engineers and focus more on technical functionality than user experience. This can lead to products with inconvenient or confusing interfaces. The document advocates for giving design equal priority to technical aspects in security products. It provides examples of how poor user experience, like generating too many alerts or making multi-factor authentication annoying, can reduce security by causing users to disable protections. The document concludes that great design can differentiate enterprise security products and actually make the online world safer by enabling usability of security mechanisms.
Design talk
- 2. about me • not Dus)n Webber • not a designer • developer/entrepreneur • co-‐founded Threat Stack • formerly Mandiant, Symantec • @fun_cuddles, jandre@gmail.com
- 3. previously @ threat stack * the work of my talented co-‐founder, Dus)n Willis Webber, from whom I learned the importance of good design even in a B2B/enterprise product.
- 4. challenges • many cybersecurity products are technical products • helping find or prevents aKacks and breaches. • helping developers write safer code
- 5. security is seen as inconvenient
- 6. … a lot of these products are designed by engineers.
- 8. challenges for startups • Higher level of product maturity is expected from security products. • Sales require credibility. Customers are relying on you to supplement security exper)se.
- 9. great design can make up for both of these.
- 10. key success factors • Subject ma<er exper>se plus • Good UX plus • Good design polish from the start ins)lls confidence in your company and product.
- 11. the consequences of bad UX
- 12. real life examples • Mul>-‐factor auth too annoying? Users will not use it. • Too many alarms generated? Users stop looking at them. • Crypto too hard to use? No one uses crypto. • Performance too slow? Users disable the security mechanisms.
- 13. emotional design factors credible fun practical security productconsumer products B2B productcute reliablecreative
- 15. beware of alarm fatigue
- 16. challenge for designer: avoiding alarm fatigue • Some ideas: • Rollup repeated events. • Is this alert really cri)cal? • If you are making the user take ac)on, be specific.
- 17. it’s ok to tell the user things are fine
- 18. challenge for designers: too much data The sad state of many security event management consoles. :(
- 19. It’s possible to make this information beautiful and engaging! * cybereason.com
- 20. in conclusion • Design is a first class ci>zen. For B2B/Enterprise products, great design is a differen)ator. • You can make an impact. Great design and usability in a security product actually can make the online world safer.