The Publisher Interface Study TF-CPR Meeting 4 March 2010 Licia Florio florio@terena.org www.terena.org The Publisher Interface Study

Topics Problem Space Issues with federated login Seen from the end-users’ perspective How to improve the end-user’s experience Next steps <lastname@terena.org>

The Problem Space In July JISC published a report on a study to look at the issues surrounding the user’s experience when using federated access management Mostly to access publisher websites One of the issues highlighted is the so-called ‘discovery problem’ In federated access a user needs to be redirect to their home organisation's identity provider, which will “vouch” for that person and pass across

Federated Login Steps Finding the Login Area The Login page: Where is the login button? The Login page: Sometimes a dedicated login area on the page itself Other times a login request only shown to the user when attempting to access content itself. If the resource provides several access methods, the user needs to select which one to use Choosing the correct Federation Choosing the correct Institution Lack of consistency in the way that every single step of this process is presented to users.

Login Area

End-Users Experiences Lack of consistency among different service providers interfaces Terminology: users generally do not understand any of the terminology in use Users indicated (during debriefing) that a well implemented dynamic search facility would be preferred A common ‘brand’ (name and logo) for the academic federated access would help Both publishers and users Such a brand would need to be adopted at a global level to be of any use.

How to solve the problem Work towards the creation of a common brand eduID name was proposed Pros: Easy to remember Would solve the ‘where-to-click’ problem Cons: not inclusive enough Extra overhead to manage the brand Do not create a common brand: Each federation is in charge of their own Too much effort to create a common brand Not enough trust that branding would be a solution

Where are we now A study group was created to create a business case for eduID The group works under REFEDs See more at: https://refeds.terena.org/index.php/EduID_Working_Group First conf call end of Feb Agreement on presenting the business case at the next REFEDs meeting in June Inputs for this TF will be asked