Precious Keys

We explore what materials, processes, forms, and interaction designs that shape the user experience of contemporary physical and digital access. What are the current possibilities within the frontiers of technology towards realizing sustainable and attractive authentication?

This project was initiated by frustration over the unsustainable and shortsighted culture around the design of interactive and electronic devices, and how this affects the everyday experiences around what we value, protect and need access to.

We bring together streams of knowledge from multiple disciplines (e.g. philosophy, economics, craftsmanship, design and engineering) within the purview of human-computer interaction (HCI) research. As hundreds of digital products and services pervade our lives, the management of the corresponding multiplicity of access credentials turns into an important liability for individuals and organizations, as well as begets significant security and privacy issues. Related technologies such as NFC-enabled devices and contactless payments have also seen widespread adoption over the last decade. Such artifacts are preferred and utilized for a variety of use cases, but current designs fall short of user experience (UX). This project aims to address UX issues in user authentication through explorative design.

The project is funded by a grant from the Swedish Research Council, VR.