HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT
A Secure Login Solution for K–3 Students
Technology has become ubiquitous in our lives, and classrooms are no exception. HMH needed a secure way for kindergarten through third-grade students to log into classroom devices.
Challenge
Unfamiliarity: Young students’ brains have not yet built up the same mental models and interaction paradigms as adults.
Privacy & safety: Working with children is a big responsibility; extra considerations need to be made.
Difficulty: Traditional, secure passwords are hard for K-3 students to remember.
Age appropriateness: Rapid development takes place at this age, and we needed something age-appropriate for all students.
Solution
We designed three unique ways to log in and conducted usability testing with students. Students were given a physical card, simulating a teacher handing each kid a card, and they were asked to follow the instructions, dealing with any errors they encountered on their own as best they could. One approach was numbers-based, one symbols-based, and one was pattern-based.
Our solution provides a secure and age-appropriate way for young students to log into classroom devices. It also reduces the burden on teachers by eliminating the need to remember passwords for each student. By conducting usability testing with students, we ensured that our solution was easy to use and accessible to all students.
Responsibilities
USABILITY RESEARCH
DESIGN DIRECTION