Appraisal on User’s Comprehension in Security Warning Dialogs: Browsers Usability Perspective

Abstract

End-user encounters security warnings on a daily basis in different web browsers. Effective security warning is critical to provide a secure environment to end-users to against attack. However, users always encounter problems and challenges when they encounter security warnings due to the poor warning dialogue interface. Element used in the warning interface is important to support users to make an effective decision. A poor warning design will lead a user to become a fraud victim. Hence, there is a need to design an effective warning dialogue by providing useful security features. Although the efficacy of security warning is depending on the interface of security feature, but also highly dependent on the user’s perception and understanding. This paper determine to investigates further from the end-user’s experience whilst encountering security warnings (i.e. Chrome browser context). An exploratory interview study with 65 participants was conducted to pursue in-depth information about the perceptiveness of users towards current security warnings in three different scenarios. The results show that elements such as icon, colour, wording used in the warning can impact the efficacy of the warning. All the user feedback indicated that there is still room for improvement on the current security warning.