A Hacker’s Guide to Usability Testing

Presented at BSidesDC 2016, Oct. 23, 2016, 10:30 a.m. (50 minutes).

Tor. PGP. OTR. We have privacy enhancing technologies (PETs), but when was the last time you used privacy software that “just worked’’? Just like security cannot be an afterthought bolted on after the software is written, neither can usability. In this talk, we will discuss why usable PETs are important, why creating usable PETs is challenging, and conclude by describing a real usability evaluation of the Tor Browser Bundle, with a focus on how hackers can perform practical usability evaluations of their own, using tools from the fields of experimental psychology and behavioral economics.

Presenters:

• Greg Norcie - Staff Technologist at Center for Democracy & Technology
  Greg Norcie is a Staff Technologist at the Center for Democracy and Technology. Before he dropped out of his PhD to move to DC and fight in the crypto wars, Greg was a PhD student doing usable security research at Indiana University, where performed the first peer reviewed lab study of the Tor Browser Bundle’s usability.

Links:

• https://bsidesdc2016.busyconf.com/schedule#activity_57348295e3f812c23000003e
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu-jcE8ARFc