Re: [Usability] Confusion between Wi-Fi access point passwords and keyring passwords

[Karl Lattimer <karl qdh org uk>]

On Sun, 2009-12-13 at 17:47 +0000, Jason Spiro wrote: 
> Hi all,
> 
> I was reading
> http://www.disambiguity.com/dialogue-boxes-making-simple-things-simple/#comment-18749
> -- a blog comment made by Shawn Medero on May 29th, 2007.  Shawn brings up an
> excellent issue there.
> 
> "[...] GNOME implements a very similar concept called 'Keyring'. The dialogs can
> be quite confusing there to. A common use case I’ve seen is:
> 
> "1. You try to connect to a wifi access point.
> "2. You are prompted to enter a password for the [wifi] access point.
> "3. GNOME prompts you to store the password in a keyring.
> "3a. If this is the first time you are using your keyring you are asked to enter
> a password to secure the keyring.
> 
> "I’ve watched folks retype the wifi access point password as their keyring
> password *many* times. The dialogs aren’t visually different enough for most
> folks because usually when you are connecting to a wifi access point you are in
> hurry. (At a conference, meeting, wherever… trying to check your damn email to
> download that file you need for the presentation in ten minutes)."
> 
> I don't use Wi-Fi in Linux, so I've never run into the issue that Shawn
> reported.  Does the issue still exist now, in 2009?  What are some possible
> solutions?

I think the issue still exists, last time I installed ubuntu for someone
it seemed to be the case. 

A simple fix would be to add a 64x64 wireless icon to the network
manager dialog, and to the keyring dialog we change the layout in such a
way as to highlight the security issues of not using a strong password,
and again a 64x64 icon which denotes it's the keyring. Some text in red
similar to the "master password" warnings on MacOSX would probably be
appropriate too. 

Alternatively, a dialog with a next button for the keyring password
before the user is required to enter it would be another approach. The
first dialog should include a link to some documentation, and a simple
synopsis of the security issues.

BR,
K