Project Description

• Motivation: The government has approved the rollout of the new German electronic ID-card (“Elektronischer Personalausweis” (ePA)). It will be introduced in November 2010 and is currently under development. Until now, the usability of the ePA has not been addressed at all. To increase the acceptance of the ePA it should be secure as well as usable.
• Approach: The project will develop a toolbox to evaluate the usability of security-related electronic systems like the ePA. Furthermore, the general behaviour of humans using security-related electronic systems will be examined.
• Benefit: Improved usability of the ePA will increase its acceptance and usage. Furthermore, the evaluation of the usage of security-related electronic systems will help to develop more usable systems in the future.

 Objectives

• Development of a toolbox of different methods to evaluate the usability of security-related electronic systems.
• Expert analysis of the interaction with the ePA in order to find general design flaws and give hints how to solve them.
• Execution of user tests to evaluate the usability and acceptance of the ePA as well as of general security-related electronic systems.
• Provide a general questionnaire to evaluate security-related electronic systems.
• Final report on user acceptance and design recommendations.

Time Frame: 09/2008 - 05/2009;

T-labs Team Members: Sebastian Möller, Niklas Kirschnick

Partners: Deutsche Telekom, OpenLimit, mtG, Softceed

Funding by: Deutsche Telekom Laboratories