Start: Summer Semester 2026
(Not started yet)

The project

There are many ways of authenticating yourself online, from simple username and password combinations, to Single Sign On (SSO), passkeys, and in the near future using identity wallets such as the European Digital Identity Wallet (EUDIW). For all of these options, there are differences in usability, security, and privacy. However, those differences are not always easy to understand for everyone.

What you’ll do

Your job in this project is to create a web application that educates users in the differences between these options, including their implications for privacy and security, in an interactive manner. Once built, you’ll run a user study on this application to see if it can successfully educate users, and to gather opinions and insights from participants on the different methods of authentication.

What you’ll learn

In this project, you’ll apply software engineering and development skills in a real-world project. This includes not only technical skills such as software design and programming, but also teamwork and project management skills such as Scrum/Agile. As usability is a big theme in this project, you’ll also look into UX/UI design.

Besides developing an application, you’ll also run a user study. This is good chance to become more familiar with qualitative research, and to look at software/technology through a different lens. You’ll also write a report based on this study, which is a good opportunity to improve your academic writing skills.

What you should know

While there will be time within the project to learn new skills, you should ideally have some experience with front-end development (ideally using a JavaScript web framework such as React, Angular, Vue, Svelte, etc.). At a minimum, we expect programming skills in any higher-level programming language (JavaScript/TypeScript, Python, Java, C#, etc.).

Experience with qualitative research such as user studies is a plus, but not necessary. We do expect those unfamiliar with qualitative research methods to familiarize themselves through self-study (links to materials and the opportunity to ask questions will be available).

Organization

During this project, you’ll largely follow a Scrum/Agile based approach where you’ll work in 4 week “sprints”. At the start of each sprint we’ll discuss goals and deliverables for that sprint. While we don’t intend on implementing Scrum to the letter, you can find more information on how it works here: https://www.scrum.org/learning-series/what-is-scrum/

Core deliverables

1. Web application, including documentation and deployment
2. User study, including data, analysis, and written report

Facilities

You’ll have access to our lab as a space to meet and work together. GitLab will be used for version control and project management, and we’ll provide a server for deployment. If needed, we can provide other materials or assets on request.

Recommended reading

Here are some links to more information on the topics of this project group. Check them out to get a better idea of the type of work that you’ll be doing.

Authentication methods

• Single Sign-On (SSO), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on
• Passkeys, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebAuthn, https://bitwarden.com/blog/what-are-passkeys-and-passkey-login/
• EU Digital Identity Wallet, https://ec.europa.eu/digital-building-blocks/sites/spaces/EUDIGITALIDENTITYWALLET/pages/694487738/EU+Digital+Identity+Wallet+Home, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EU_Digital_Identity_Wallet

Usability & user research

• https://www.nngroup.com/articles/usability-101-introduction-to-usability/
• https://www.nngroup.com/videos/what-is-user-research/
• https://www.nngroup.com/articles/usability-testing-101/