2 Factors Authentication, an extra security step for trading softwares

the cover shows a smartphone with a sign in screen turned on. The title says "2 factors authentication" and the subtitle says Adding an extra step for additional security. Below there is a tag that says "UX/UI Design'
My role

UX/UI Designer

Industry

Financial, Trading

Company

Nelogica

Year

2023

Overview

We know how security is important in a dangerous digital environment. For this reason, companies from all segments increased their investments in security in the last years.
 

And as a financial company like Nelogica, security is even more essential. We are talking about people’s money that can be stolen by wrong hands.

 
The 2 Factors Authentication (2FA) is a very popular pattern that adds an extra step in the “sign in” and “sign up” process. Me and my colleague Giuseppe Tancredo were assigned with the mission of designing this feature for all Nelogica Trading Softwares.
The 2 Factors Authentication for Nelogica softwares

How 2-FA
works?

When an user sign in or create a new account in a digital platform, a code will be requested to proceed. This code can be seen by the user usually by e-mail, SMS and also Authentication services like Google and Microsoft Authenticator.
 
It seems simple, but a lot of thinking was put in this project, to make this extra step easy, safe, understandable and free of errors.

How 2FA works

The process

As 2FA was an urgent update for Nelogica, We had to work really fast and hard to delivery the best design work.

First thing we did was to seek web, desktop and mobile interfaces references from competitors and big companies like Paypal, Binance and Wise.

After that, We quickly generated some ideas following the pre-existent “sign in” interface patterns of each OS (Windows, MacOs and mobile)

After getting into agreement about the best idea, we started to make some refinements, improving interactions and the UX Writing. 

To finish, We replicated the final version to all Nelogica’s softwares, platforms and whitelabels for clients.

01.

Interface Research

02.

High Fidelity Ideation

03.

Interaction and Writing

04.

Design replication

Some references from other companies
Some generated quick ideas

Design decisions

Apart being a well-known pattern, we were very careful to make sure the 2FA is safe for users and easy to understand.

Some questions we kept in mind while working in this project were:

  • What must I do to get access to the platform? 
  • What email will be the code sent?
  • How does the code look like?
  • What should I do if I don’t find the code?
  • Is the code inputed right or wrong?
  • Is the code still valid?
The questions we kept in mind, answered in the interface
Decisions taken to make 2FA safier

The final result

Working with tight deadlines are challenging and fun. I understand the importance of Researching and testing, but I also understand the urgency of business sometimes.

The 2FA taught me some that adding friction and obstacles can be a good thing for user’s security. Somehting that goes against what many designers affirm.

To finish, the 2FA project got a “Neloaward”, a trimestral reward offered by Nelogica to projects that made the difference. The winners are chosen by Nelogica’s employees.

Final result of the redesign
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