Users and Trust

As part of continual usability research, usability engineers at Microsoft had observed hundreds of users answering questions posed by the computer (consent dialogs) in Internet Explorer, Windows Client and Server, Microsoft applications, and other companies’ products. It was clear that users often weren’t following the recommendations that the products made. The question was: why not?

Having seen this behavior over multiple usability sessions, we ran some specific studies to gain more insight. We conducted in-depth interviews about trust with 7 participants, and lab-based research with 14 more. We then used the results of this work to develop user interface prototypes that incorporated design elements suggested by the initial research, and observed a further 50 participants working with various iterations of the designs in different trust scenarios. Later, we had the chance to verify the concepts and designs with participants who were helping us evaluate the interface for Windows XP Service Pack 2 both in multiple lab sessions and through feedback a....