Through research and interviews, we determined that user's attitudes toward registration and authentication systems ranged from the paranoid to the intolerant. All users perceived that registration was always a long, tiresome and sometimes a frustrating experience that got in the way of doing what they wanted to do online. They felt that it was unlikely that they would get a username that they wanted or would easily remember. Some users felt registering was for the benefit of companies using cynical marketing data grabbing techniques that would lead to spam. Overall, there was a poor understanding of what the data collected would be used for and why it was being collected in the first place.
The Personas developed for Single Sign On covered a range of existing users of the services which it would integrate with and some users targeted by the business whom the website was not reaching. A primary persona was chosen as the one who's user interface needs were most likely to also satisfy the other Personas. There was one persona who did not fit this criteria because she was a child and so she was also given primary status. This meant that two interfaces were to be designed – one for each primary Persona.
Mandy, our primary adult Persona was a novice user who did not understand the internet or computers. However, she was likely to come into contact with Single Sign On when participating in competitions run online that were mentioned on the radio or television stations.
Mandy wants to feel in control. To support this, Single Sign On was designed to allow her to access and manipulate her data held by the BBC, from wherever she is signed in. Transparency means that Single Sign On tells Mandy everything about what the data she is entering will be used for. This builds trust in us and sign on systems. Mandy wants to know where the end is and what data is required at each step, so Single Sign On was designed to be explicit about the boundaries to the sign up steps and overall process, leaving no unwelcome surprises. Mandy, above all, wants her children to be safe, because she believes the hype about the unsafe internet. Single Sign On's age based permissions system provides assurances that Mandy's children will be given access only to kids areas where adults cannot participate and potentially prey on the vulnerable.
All these attributes enable Mandy to make an informed choice about giving of her time and data.