User Experience Design for E-Voting: How mental models align with security mechanisms

TL;DR

This paper explores how user mental models of security in a mobile e-voting app align with actual security mechanisms, providing insights for improving future voting system designs.

Contribution

It analyzes user mental models of security in e-voting, comparing them with theoretical security concepts, and proposes design improvements based on empirical user data.

Findings

Mental models often differ from actual security mechanisms.

Displaying security info influences user perceptions.

Proposed design improvements enhance user understanding.

Abstract

This paper presents a mobile application for vote-casting and vote-verification based on the Selene e-voting protocol and explains how it was developed and implemented using the User Experience Design process. The resulting interface was tested with 38 participants, and user experience data was collected via questionnaires and semi-structured interviews on user experience and perceived security. Results concerning the impact of displaying security mechanisms on UX were presented in a complementary paper. Here we expand on this analysis by studying the mental models revealed during the interviews and compare them with theoretical security notions. Finally, we propose a list of improvements for designs of future voting protocols.