Reflection
I decided to pursue a Human Computer-Interaction master's program at Utrecht University due to its flexible curriculum, giving me the ability to curate my courses to my interests and skill set. I decided to go through a more traditional User Interface / User Experience route for my primary and elective courses at Utrecht. Meaning, courses that enhance my understanding of psychology, user studies, and overall UI and physical design choices and thinking.
The Advanced Cognitive and Social Psychology course provided a foundation for understanding user and group behavior from a multitude of angles: perception of the Self, group dynamics, conformity, Social Information Processing Theory, uncertainty theories, and much more. This course gave me the opportunity to link these psychological topics to the field of HCI. Furthermore, the Multimodal Interaction course provided critical information on anatomy, sense, and perception of technology, which further enhanced my understanding of how to best design for people. In this course, many topics were discussed, but my favorite were the notions of the eyes and its influence on motion detection, the human touch and its influence on sensory information, and differentiations and similarities between Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR).
Below is a project that I very much enjoyed, learned from, and provided many tools and skills.
Qualitative Research Methods:
Password Managers
Utrecht University
2024
Award
Best Presentation
Background
Password Managers (PMs)
Many users still rely on the traditional username-password combination to access online accounts, despite growing evidence that passwords are one of the most significant vulnerabilities in information system security. Though password managers (PMs) can mitigate these risks by securely storing and generating random passwords, their adoption remains limited. While the use of PMs is growing, the internal motivations for using or avoiding them are still poorly understood.
Challenge
Despite the availability of password managers, many individuals still use insecure password practices such as reusing or slightly modifying passwords and writing credential on paper.
Opportunity
By investigating users' habits and perceptions around password creation, storage, and safekeeping, we can identify behavioral patterns and barriers to adoption. These insights can inform how password managers are designed and marketed.
Research Questions
RQ1: What considerations do individuals have towards personal password security?
RQ2: What considerations do individuals have for using or not using a password manager?
Results
Using semi-structured interviews with six participants (both PM users and non-users), we identified that users who did not use a PM often expressed higher concerns about online threats, preferring offline methods (paper, local files, hard drives, etc.) due to trust and control. Conversely, users who did adopt a PM primarily cited convenience, especially autofill features and syncing across devices.
Key Findings
✅ Convenience is the dominant driver for PM adoption, not necessarily security.
✅ Mistrust in third-party tools and fear of dependency are main reasons for non-use.
✅ Higher value is placed on credentials for financial and email accounts.
Looking ahead.
The Human-Computer Interaction master's program at Utrecht University has provided invaluable skills and experiences: team collaboration, qualitative & quantitative research methodologies, iterative design, and creative freedom. Moving forward, I want to continue honing my research methods skills to understand design choices based on user data.
I enjoy a middle ground, a balance between people and technical skills; thus, bridging this gap and collaborating with diverse teams is something I want to pursue. Blockchain technology has become a domain of interest and opportunity for my future endeavors. In my experience interacting with various blockchains, I have identified that complex user interfaces often challenge blockchain-based applications.
Bridging the mindset gap between individuals building in the Web3 world and corporate enterprises today will lead to better integration of these processes and better user experiences. Many people seem to think of both in a black or white matter; I believe both can work in parallel.
Designed by Alan Castillo
