Making PRIME usable

Abstract

Privacy-enhanced Identity Management can enable users to retain and maintain informational self-determination in our networked society. This paper describes the usability research work that has been done within the first year of the European Union project on "Privacy and Identity Management for Europe" (PRIME). It primarily discusses and compares three alternative Ul paradigms for privacy-enhanced Identity Management, and presents how important legal privacy principles derived from the European Union Directives have been mapped into suggestions of user interface solutions for PRIME. Besides, it discusses results and encountered problems from conducted usability tests on mock-ups implementing the different Ul paradigms and proposes means for addressing those problems. The paper concludes with remarks on the characteristics of usability work for privacy-enhancing technologies.