Usability of Cryptography (was Re: More FUD from First Virtual)

[Nathaniel Borenstein]

Excerpts from mail.nonpersonal: 11-Dec-95 Re: Usability of Cryptograp..
Bryce at taussky.cs.colorad (6455)

> I challenge you, however, to go beyond pointing this problem
> out and start suggesting some approaches to alleviating it.

Actually, this was something I was strongly considering doing as a major
new venture *until* Einar Stefferud introduced me to Lee Stein and we
realized that you could do payments without any cryptography at all. 
That, as you have seen, turned into a fairly major distraction.  I'd
still like to get back to usable crypto some day, however.

There are about a gazillion *easy* ways to make crypto software more
usable.  PGP is a *great* starting point in this regard, as almost any
user interface change is an improvement.  :-)

What's less obvious, and most critical, is how to map the complexities
of key management onto a usable interface.  What few ideas I have in
this regard are, well, ones I'd really like to productize some day,
which makes me a bit reluctant to suggest them publicly at this
point.....  I guess the one hint I'll drop is that the art of designing
good user interfaces usually comes down to choosing the right
abstractions or metaphors.
--------
Nathaniel Borenstein <nsb at fv.com> (FAQ & PGP key: nsb+faq at nsb.fv.com)
Chief Scientist, First Virtual Holdings

VIRTUAL YELLOW RIBBON==> http://www.netresponse.com/zldf