Norm Hardy Prize

The Problem

Our society depends on the reliability and resilience of our infrastructure, which in turn depends on security. Unfortunately, our current software infrastructure is not only insecure, it is insecurable. No user interface can make an insecure system secure. We understand how to build systems whose foundations are vastly more secure, but we are likely to need new interaction designs so that people can use these secure systems securely.

The Prize

The Norm Hardy Prize is a $10,000 annual award for work that helps users make wise decisions. The Prize will recognize work that meets at least one of these criteria:

• Helps users understand, preferably tacitly, the security aspects of what they do
• Introduces workflows that make the secure way to do something the easy way
• Develops design principles for systems that are as easy or easier to use because of their security
• Explores ‘theory of mind’ with respect to how users interact with secure systems

The long term goal of the Norm Hardy Prize is a set of design principles and tools that encourage developers to create interaction designs that make it easy for people to use secure systems securely.

Submissions

To be eligible for the $10k prize, please submit work which discusses at least one of these four criteria:

• Actual implementation of a system
• User studies of novel system
• Theory of mind of the user
• Sets of principles for user interaction design

Submissions must include a description of the work and how it contributes to the stated goals of the Prize. They may include links to working prototypes that the judges can evaluate. Wire frames for new affordances will be accepted, but working prototypes are preferred. User studies that only evaluate existing systems are not eligible for the Prize. Work that proposes metrics for usable security must demonstrate that it can differentiate systems based on the ability of users to make good choices. Work on how users build mental models of the systems they use must demonstrate that these models can be translated into guidance for developers.

For questions about the prize, please reach out to: [email protected]