Bridging the gap between human and machine trust : applying methods of user-centred design and usability to computer security

This work presents methods for improving the usability of security. The work focuses on trust as part of computer security. Methods of usability and user-centred design present an essential starting point for the research. The work uses the methods these fields provide to investigate differences between machine and human trust, as well as how the technical expressions of trust could be made more usable by applying these methods. The thesis is based on nine publications, which present various possibilities to research trust with user-centric methods. The publications proceed chronologically and logically from the first user interviews about trust, trusting attitudes and behaviours in general to the actual design and usability testing of user interfaces for security applications, finally presenting the outcomes and conclusions of the research. The work also presents a review of relevant previous work in the area, concentrating on work done in the fields of usability and user-centred design. The work is of cross-disciplinary nature, falling into the areas of human-computer interaction, computer science and telecommunications. The ultimate goal of the conducted research has been to find out 1) how trust is to be understood in this context; 2) what methods can be used to gain insight into trust thus defined; and, finally, 3) what means can be used to create trust in the end users in online situations, where trust is needed. The work aims at providing insight into how trust can be studied with the methods provided by user-centred design and usability. Further, it investigates how to take understanding of trust formation in humans into account when attempting to design trust-inducing systems and applications. The work includes an analysis and comparison of the methods used: what kinds of methods to study trust exist in the field of usability and user-centred design. Further, it is evaluated, what kind of results and when can be reached with the different methods available, by applying a variety of these methods. Recommendations for the appropriate application of these methods when studying the various parts of trust is one of the outcomes. The results received with the methods used have also been compared with results received by others by applying alternative methods to the same research questions. On a conceptual level, the work contains an analysis of the concept of trust. It also contains a brief investigation into both technical and humane ways to express trust, with a comparison between the two

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

Minding the Gap: Computing Ethics and the Political Economy of Big Tech

In 1988 Michael Mahoney wrote that “[w]hat is truly revolutionary about the computer will become clear only when computing acquires a proper history, one that ties it to other technologies and thus uncovers the precedents that make its innovations significant” (Mahoney, 1988). Today, over thirty years after this quote was written, we are living right in the middle of the information age and computing technology is constantly transforming modern living in revolutionary ways and in such a high degree that is giving rise to many ethical considerations, dilemmas, and social disruption. To explore the myriad of issues associated with the ethical challenges of computers using the lens of political economy it is important to explore the history and development of computer technology