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User-centric digital identity initiatives are emerging with a mission to shift control over online identity disclosures to the individual. However, there is little representation of prospective users in discussions of the merits of empowering users with new data management responsibilities and the acceptability of new technologies. We conducted a user study comprising a contextual inquiry and semi-structured interviews using a prototype decentralized identity wallet app with 30 online participants. Our usability analysis uncovered misunderstandings about decentralized identifiers (DIDs) and pain points relating to using QR codes and following the signposting of cross-device user journeys. In addition, the technology did not readily resolve questions about whether the user, identity provider, or relying party was in control of data at crucial moments. We also learned that users' judgments of data minimization encompass a broader scope of issues than simply the technical provision of the identity wallet. Our results contribute to understanding future user-centric identity technologies from the view of privacy and user acceptance.

Research in community-based design highlights the importance of photo-sharing to support membership. As digital photographic collections both age and proliferate, the use of physical mementos and materials have been explored to support rich social interactions around photo-sharing within the home, museums, education and social care settings. However little attention has been paid to digital-material design for diverse cultural community heritage. We present the photo-parshiya; a digital photo-album, an artefact designed and used as part of a long-term research partnership with the Angelou Centre1, an international women’s centre in the UK. The purpose of the artefact was to initiate discussion on how technology might support creative exploration of heritage across cultures and generations. We describe how particular digital-material assemblages encouraged appreciation of archives to highlight the importance of material ‘herstories’, confidence and play with technology while drawing attention to the challenges of sustaining community, familial continuity and relevance with young people when moving to the UK.

As security technologies become more embedded into people’s everyday lives, it becomes more challenging for researchers to understand the contexts in which those technologies are situated. The need to develop research methods that provide a lens on personal experiences has driven much recent work in human-computer interaction, but has so far received little focus in usable security. In this paper we explore the potential of the micro blogging site Twitter to provide experience-centered insights into security practices. Taking the topic of passwords as an example, we collected tweets with the goal to capture personal narratives of password use situated in its context. We performed a qualitative content analysis on the tweets and uncovered: how tweets contained critique and frustration about existing password practices and workarounds; how people socially shared and revoked their passwords as a deliberate act in exploring and defining their relationships with others; practices of playfully bypassing passwords mechanisms and how passwords are appropriated in portrayals of self. These findings begin to evidence the extent to which passwords increasingly serve social functions that are more complex than have been documented in previous research.