Evaluating Usability of Three Authentication Methods in Web-Based Application

Abstract

Effective user authentication is critical for protecting information and system safety. The most common computer authentication method is text password. Previous research suggests that text password can be hard to remember and users tend to create simple text password that is unsecure. Various password strategies and alternative authentication applications have been proposed, such as mnemonic password, graphical password, and biometrics. However, existing research on the usability of these authentication methods are limited. We conducted a longitudinal empirical study to examine the usability of three authentication methods: traditional text password, mnemonic password, and graphical password, in a real life environment. The result suggests that the graphical password took longer time for authentication and demanded higher work load than the text password and the mnemonic password.