IdentityForce
Behavior
Development
App
IdentityForce was in search of a way to urge their customers to take a more proactive approach to protecting their identities, and through user research we ascertained what users wanted and how they wanted it: an app that would effectively inform them in an approachable way. We achieved this by designing and testing a quiz feature to keep the user engaged and informed. In practice, a feedback aspect to the quiz would amass each week's criteria based off of the previous quiz results and user's recent activity, ensuring a relevant and customized experience for each subscriber. An abbreviated case study can be found below - for the full case study, click here.
Role /
Project Lead
Duration /
2 Weeks
Year /
2017
The Objective
As a leading provider of proactive identity, privacy, and identity protection, IdentityForce has a wealth of information regarding best practices to prevent identity theft, but they need a way to communicate that information to consumers in a manner that promotes behavioral changes that can prevent their customers’ identities from being compromised in the first place.
The Goal
To develop a new system that effectively communicates identity security best practices and information to IdentityForce customers in a way that motivates changes in security behavior.
The Skills
User Interviews, Surveys, Persona Development, User Flows, Site Maps, Iterative Design Process
User Research
User Interviews
A list of questions was compiled to gain insight into the habits and familiarity regarding identity theft prevention. Most interviewees were 45+ — however, two were in their 20s. Questions included:
Sample Group/
7 Participants
Aged 21-60
- What do you want to learn about identity security?
- What would encourage you to keep you identity safer?
- What woud make it convenient for you to take action to be more proactive in your own identity protection?
Survey
A list of questions slightly more general questions was compiled to gain insight into the habits and familiarity regarding identity theft prevention. This was set into Google Surveys and dispersed to the our team’s networks. Questions included:
Sample Group/
25 Participants
84% Aged 18-34
- How often do you change your passwords?
- Have you ever had your identity stolen?
- Are you willing to pay for identity protection, why or why not?
Key Findings
Bringing our user interviews together and observing the results of our survey, we made some notable
discoveries:
- A desire for updates and notifications
- Need for effortless protection
- Many are not worried enough to subscribe
- Of those surveyed, 86% change their password only when necessary
- Of those surveyed, 52% do not know their credit score, though 76% know what affects it
Personas
With the information gathered in our user interviews and surveys, we developed two personas - one who was not familiar with identity theft or the need to monitor his sensitive information, and a second who had
experienced identity theft in the past. The former, primary persona, is shown below:
Jared Williams
24 || Single || Business Analyst
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"I hear I'm at risk, but why would identity thieves come for me? I've got nothing for them to steal."
Main Goals
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​To learn what identity thieves target
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To keep track of his own records
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To avoid putting himself at risk
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Needs
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Easily digestible tips for ID protection​
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Reminders administered in the context of potentially risky decisions
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To see obvious value in the service
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Pain Points
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He doesn't recognize identity fraud for its severity
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He thinks actively monitoring his identity security is too much work
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He thinks the protection his bank offers is sufficient
Jared doubts he'll ever have his identity stolen because he thinks he has nothing to steal. His friends have had a few fraudulent credit card charges...but he isn't sure that's identity theft. He's been noticing more news reports dealing with identity theft, and so he spends an afternoon researching it and ways to avoid becoming a victim.
Problem Statement
"As a busy young adult with few assets, I need a resource that helps me incorporate best practices within my daily life without bogging me down."
Solution Statement
Create a mobile application that prompts the user to engage with weekly personalized briefings, allowing them to earn rewards, build better habits, and inform them of best practices as they pertain to identity protection.
Sketching & Prototyping
Design Principles
We set to sketching & designing our first prototype, bearing in mind two design principles for our project:
- Less is more: don’t overwhelm the user with data
- Intuitive Hierarchy: pertinent information stands out to the user
Design Workshop
Working in bursts of independent sketching and collaborative brainstorming, we drew out the basic structure of our mobile app.
Wireframes & Paper Prototype
We then made wireframes of our best ideas, and developed a paper prototype which we tested with users from our target demographic.
Home Screen Evolution
We iterated on our prototype a total of 3 times, moving into digital for the 2nd & 3rd iterations, and developing the 4th in high-fidelity.
Iteration Nº1
Iteration Nº2
Iteration Nº3
Iteration Nº4
Key Takeaways
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In the first iteration, the app provided specific information regarding the user's financial accounts. However, when users saw the small amount of information, they wanted more. We realized that we were getting out of scope, because users were beginning to expect a banking app - and so we removed the balance and recent transaction function.
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Users were unclear as to the function of the icons in the persistent navigation at the bottom of the page, so we labeled them.
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By the third iteration, we implemented a gamification strategy to the app.The "Briefing" and the "Assignments" are terms meant to keep the user engaged by making identity protection seem like a secret agent report.
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The newspaper icon for "Weekly Briefing" was not well-received, and so as we moved into our high-fidelity 4th iteration, we changed the icon to a manila folder.
Conclusions
User feedback throughout our iteration process supported the gamification plan we implemented, which rewarded users with redeemable points for having read articles and answered questions correctly. Given this feedback, we expanded this feature to include a badge system to reward the user for completing tasks that would provide gratification without incurring costs to the company. This feature was also well-received, and kept the user engaged. Combining gamification with a highly personalized curriculum will make IdentityForce appeal to a large audience, and keep their attention long enough to develop better identity security habits.
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