Abstract
VeraCrypt is a popular free and open source file encryption software that encrypts disks and partitions. It has known usability issues which limit its reach to a wider audience. One way of improving its usability is to better support user mental models by changing the functionality description. We did a Cognitive Walkthrough with usability experts to test VeraCrypt’s interface and the effectiveness of an attempt to help ease use through a mental model builder (MMB) in the form of a short instructional text. They concluded that the MMB would be helpful for users. We also conducted a user study to verify VeraCrypt’s usability and to test the MMB with users. Before the MMB, participants were asked to secure a file using VeraCrypt and none were successful. After our MMB, 4/5 participants were able to achieve at least one sub-task, with two successfully completing the entire task. However, the MMB was more successful with users with tech backgrounds, suggesting that a more detailed MMB would have been better for average users.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Brooke, J., et al.: SUS: a quick and dirty usability scale. Usability Eval. Ind. 189(194), 4–7 (1996)
Gujrati, S., Vasserman, E.Y.: The usability of TrueCrypt, or how I learned to stop whining and fix an interface. In: Proceedings of the Third ACM Conference on Data and Application Security and Privacy, pp. 83–94. ACM (2013)
Henry, A.: Most popular file encryption tool: VeraCrypt. https://lifehacker.com/five-best-file-encryption-tools-5677725/1685273934. Accessed 02 Oct 2018
Nielsen, J.: Enhancing the explanatory power of usability heuristics. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 1994, New York, NY, USA, pp. 152–158. ACM (1994)
Sauro, J.: A Practical Guide to the System Usability Scale: Background, Benchmarks & Best Practices. Measuring Usability LLC, Denver (2011)
Whitten, A., Tygar, J.D.: Why Johnny can’t encrypt: a usability evaluation of PGP 5.0. In: USENIX Security Symposium, vol. 348 (1999)
Johnson-Laird, P.N.: Mental models and thought. In: Holyoak, K.J., Morrison, R.G. (eds.) The Cambridge Handbook of Thinking and Reasoning, pp. 185–208. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2005)
Petrie, H., Bevan, N.: The evaluation of accessibility, usability and user experience. In: Stepanidis, C. (ed.) The Universal Access Handbook, pp. 10–20. CRC Press, Boca Raton (2009)
Norman, D.A.: Some observations on mental models. In: Gentner, D., Stevens, A.L. (eds.) Mental Models, pp. 15–22. Psychology Press, London (2014)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Spero, E., Stojmenović, M., Biddle, R. (2019). Helping Users Secure Their Data by Supporting Mental Models of VeraCrypt. In: Stephanidis, C. (eds) HCI International 2019 - Posters. HCII 2019. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1032. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23522-2_27
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23522-2_27
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-23521-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-23522-2
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)