A great user experience is not just about the design and flow of a website. It also has something to do with web security.
A site with plenty of security flaws will prevent you from being trustworthy. This can also hurt your customer engagement, which can be detrimental to your business’s bottom line. That’s the reason security needs to be embedded in your site design.
One of the biggest challenges for interface design is reconciling UX with web security. That’s because an excellent UX design can make or break your brand. Meanwhile, failed data security strategies led to a fall of many companies.
Utilizing UX when designing your security gateways will ensure that users will not have a disappointing experience with your brand.
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What is UX Design?
In simple terms, UX design takes a human-centered approach to develop your products and brand presence. It is about making a pleasant experience around the needs and desires of your target market.
That said, let us share with you the seven actionable tips on how a great UX design enhances web security:
It Makes Web Security Easy to Implement
Make your security flows easy to use. A classic example of a web security measure that’s hard and ineffective to use is the traditional password. You need to type in many letters and remember them. But the thing is- no one hardly likes passwords.
Passwords do have unwanted effects as well. To avoid the hassle, users pretty much come up with insecure passwords.
This defeats the purpose of nominating a password in the first place.
Fortunately, there are much better alternatives. For instance, biometrics have significantly improved the UX of security. What you can do is scan your face or finger, and you’re in.
Another excellent method for authentication is the magic link. If you’re constantly resetting passwords by sending an email, why will you need one in the first place? You can email users a link instead. By clicking on the link, you’ll prove who they say they are. No one wants to remember annoying passwords at all.
It Helps Visitors Beware of Precautions
At Sytian Web Design Philippines, we are aware that many users are fearful that hackers will steal sensitive data and information. The problem is that not everyone knows how to protect themselves. That’s why you need to explain a couple of these security precautions to users.
When it comes to security, most users have an unspecified fear. Although they’re aware that bad things can happen, they’re not entirely sure how to protect themselves.
By embedding security from the beginning, you can quickly turn sites and apps into security blankets. You can also point out every feature so that users will recognize them for the protection that they’re offering.
It Lets People That They’re Safe
User security is part of the design, so make sure that you let your audience know about it. For example, the green lock found in the address bar will let visitors see that the site is safe.
Similarly, it also tells them subconsciously that your company cares and wants to protect them. So, to make sure that the site’s design and security are of the highest quality, you can work with professional UX/UI designers. Doing so can help you build a safe and user-friendly web design.
It Enables SSL Encryption
Page designs that usually involve data exchange should be protected by SSL encryption.
Most UX designers are often tempted not to secure pages without financial information. That’s because encryption can affect page performance. A slight effect on speed is worth it to help you avoid potential security problems.
It Implements Authentication Effectively
Once authenticated, users can do actions on a site or the app, like making purchases or updating settings. If not authenticated, they’re logged out, unable to do account-related activities.
Therefore, if users need to authenticate every time they purchase a product or service from a site or an app, they might be put off using your site.
Excellent UX design doesn’t need purchases for you to authenticate every transaction. Take Amazon, for instance. The website will recognize users from initial authentication. It will then provide a customized shopping experience based on their preferences or previous history.
It Allows You to Collect Enough Data
It would be best to minimize the personal data you gather and work on it to keep it secure. You should also see that you get rid of it if it is no longer needed.
Moreover, designers should make sure that closing an account is easy. When it comes to these things, convenience is essential even when your customers leave.
Sure, gathering data can help you provide a personalized user experience. However, you need to ensure data security if you want people to entrust their information. Thus, make sure that you think twice about how much data you’ll need to give off a more premium online experience.
A user-based site design will pay attention to how much data is gathered and framed questions. Forms, notifications, and permission requests will show up only when a particular customer is willing to accept them.
It Makes People Aware of Phishing
Most cybercriminals often resort to phishing. It is an online scam where criminals tend to impersonalize legitimate companies. This can be done through text, ads, email, and other means of acquiring sensitive information.
To protect client data from phishing, you need to develop popups alerting users about this scam. That way, it doesn’t interrupt the entire browsing experience.
Designers can also build security forms and other collaboration tools to report scams, helping other users. They can use the popups and messages found within their apps to tell other users of phishing attempts.
Over to You
An excellent user experience does not just have a visually-pleasing website. It can enhance or compromise web security.
When you let UX and web security work hand-in-hand, it will be easy for you to attract people’s attention. You can also encourage them to take your desired action, be it to buy your product or share your content.
Otherwise, you will be hurting your business.
