Friction for privacy: Why privacy by design needs user experience design

Abstract

IRMA is an open source identity platform that is run by the not-for-profit Privacy by Design foundation in The Netherlands. It grew out of academic research at Radboud University Nijmegen - and originally at IBM Research at Zurich in the 1990s. IRMA is now clearly gaining momentum and is being integrated in various ways, especially in healthcare, (local) government, and also in commercial areas such as insurance. The techniques underlying IRMA have been developed with privacy protection as explicit goal. This article explores the impact of this privacy focus on the user experience (UX) and on the ongoing (re)design of the interface of the IRMA app. The authors are both closely involved in the development of IRMA.