2015 was our first full year in operation, and we’ve come a long way! Looking back at the past twelve months, here are some resources that we’ve found to be particularly useful (or entertaining). Let us know your favorites on Twitter! Ame’s picks Thinking back on 2015, I’m really glad to be part of Simply Secure and for the opportunity to be an evangelist for design. I’m thankful for resources that make design easier.
Our research on New Yorkers’ use of mobile messaging offers actionable insights into how to design secure communication tools for a mass audience.
It can be hard to communicate about security-related features with users who aren't already security experts. From word choice to the level of detail included, it's easy to overwhelm people with information, leave them scared, or bore them to indifference. For many applications, one major challenge is finding the right place to communicate. Empty states – screens in your app where there is no actual content to display – are a great opportunity for this communication, in part because they frequently occur when the user is first starting out.
Simply Secure is a non-profit organization, and we rely on donations to be successful in our work of getting privacy-preserving software in the hands of more people. To celebrate our official recognition by the IRS as a 501(c)3 organization – which means donations are tax-deductible in the US – we have added a donations page to our website. As you are contemplating your charitable giving at the end of the year, please keep us in mind.
We are pleased to announce a new collaboration with the Open Technology Fund as part of their Usability Lab project. This exciting initiative will allow open-source software projects to apply for free assistance with user-experience (UX) design as well as usability research. To our knowledge, this is the first program to offer support of this kind. Who should apply? The Usability Lab is focused on projects within OTF’s remit – i.