1. The Publisher Interface Study
TF-CPR Meeting 4 March 2010
Licia Florio
The Publisher Interface Study

2. Topics Problem Space Issues with federated login
Seen from the end-users’ perspective
How to improve the end-user’s experience
Next steps

3. 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

4. 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.

5. Login Area

6. 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.

7. 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

8. Where are we now
A study group was created to create a business case for eduID
The group works under REFEDs
See more at:
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