Cybersecurity, UX Design, and You

Written by Coursera Staff • Updated on

Learn how cybersecurity and UX design intersect when creating digital applications, websites, and products.

[Featured Image] A group of college students gather around their professor in a classroom as she explains the relationship between cybersecurity and UX design.

While they are unique disciplines, cybersecurity, UX design, and their teams intersect in various ways when designing products. Cybersecurity protects, prevents, and detects cybercrimes like data breaches, computer viruses, and ransomware against digital infrastructure. UX design focuses on creating intuitive experiences for users of digital products, websites, and software. If a fundamental aspect of UX design is prioritizing the user, then prioritizing their security is essential to any design. Similarly, cybersecurity focuses on keeping digital users safe, so having an intuitive design in security measures is a must. 

Learn more about cybersecurity and UX design, including where and how they intersect in their creation and how to get started in these career fields. 

What is cybersecurity? 

Cybersecurity is a branch of information technology (IT) that focuses on preventing and protecting the infrastructures that digital information from hackers passes through. Cybersecurity professionals create tools to prevent cybercrime and keep private information safe. With nearly all aspects of daily life and business online, cybersecurity is becoming increasingly important as 2023 saw an estimated $8 trillion worth of cybercrime costs alone [1]. 

Types of cybersecurity

Cybersecurity threats come in many forms and attack in different ways, leading to various types of cybersecurity. Some of these types include:

  • Critical infrastructure: Protects a range of physical and data infrastructure like networks, computers, and applications

  • Network security: Protects against, detects, and shuts down access to networks under attack from a cybersecurity threat

  • Information security: Protects all kinds of information threats, both physical and digital, from cybersecurity threats trying to access, alter, or leak important information, including data security

  • Application security: Protects cloud-based applications from threats to enter an unauthorized network, application, or the data associated with it

  • Cloud security: Protects data, applications, assets, and storage you or an organization uses in the cloud and also protects the service providers' cloud infrastructure

Every domain adds up to an organization’s overall cybersecurity, so covering all aspects of cybersecurity is important. 

What is user experience (UX) design?

User experience (UX) design encompasses the design and usability of computers as they relate to human interaction. UX design makes software accessible for users by addressing aspects of the UX that make a particular software challenging to use or unable to fulfill its purpose. UX design also incorporates branding and marketing to track how users interact with and view a brand. 

While UX and UI (user interface) design have many similarities, UI design is the actual design of the interface a user engages with, including interactive elements like buttons, images, and text. UI only encompasses one aspect of UX, which focuses on how the user interacts with a product. UX and UI work in tandem to produce usable products or software like websites.

Goals of UX design

The main goal of UX design is to facilitate how aspects of product design affect perception and usability. Some specific goals of UX design include:

  • Centering the user at all levels of the experience, working with all departments to ensure each aspect of a product focuses on the user 

  • Creating design prototypes, elements, and layouts

  • Guiding the rest of the process for the creation of the UI, branding, and product strategy

Some questions UX designers ask:

  • Who uses this product? What research about the audience do we need?

  • How does the product feel to the user? How does this affect the experience?

  • Is this application intuitive? Does this allow the user to achieve their desired goals out of the software?

How cybersecurity and UX design intersect

Cybersecurity and UX design intersect in various ways, as cybersecurity is inherent in the user experience. If the UX design does not take proper cybersecurity measures, the design fails the user. Similarly, cybersecurity protocols that are not intuitive for the user compromise online safety. These two aspects have implications in health care, logistics, education, and e-commerce industries, to name a few. 

An example of how cybersecurity and UX design intersect is how patients use telehealth services for virtual doctor’s appointments. These systems work with critical, sensitive patient information connecting over the internet. If this information is not secure, the UX design of the system fails as patients lose trust and no longer use the service. At the same time, to implement cybersecurity aspects, an understanding of the patient user experience must inform the implementation to maximize the service's usability. The UX design and cybersecurity teams need to work together to ensure the successful integration of both aspects.

Ways to use UX to enhance security

Let’s take a look at some ways that UX design enhances cybersecurity:

  • Uses microcopy to alert users to security measures in place like SSL encryption and password strength to build trust

  • Uses simple forms of encryption like passwords for easy sign-in but more secure forms like two-factor authentication for important financial or personal information to build security

  • Makes users aware of any active or ongoing phishing scams using your organization’s information through UX design tactics on your website or app 

  • Designs for users that have a disability, such as a simple CAPTCHA security challenge for those who have a visual impairment instead of a more cumbersome CAPTCHA that requires clicking multiple images 

Ways to use cybersecurity to enhance UX design

Now, take a look at how cybersecurity measures can enhance UX design, keeping the above examples in mind:

  • Create and foster a culture that understands the importance of cybersecurity in every aspect of the organization by having the UX team work with the cybersecurity team

  • Inform the UX designers about information laws and simple ways to enhance security without compromising the flow of the UX design 

  • Make your approach to data collection transparent and honest with your users by telling them the security measures in place, what data you collect, and how it's stored 

How to get started in cybersecurity and UX design

Cybersecurity analysts typically require a bachelor’s degree in a relevant field like computer science, information technology, engineering, or math. Some employers may hire candidates with relevant experience, certifications, and training. To become a UX designer, you typically need a bachelor’s degree in computer science, programming, or graphic design. 

To increase your skills in cybersecurity, you may want to pursue certifications like the CompTIA Security+ certificate for entry-level cybersecurity jobs and the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certificate to demonstrate expertise in the field. 

To become a UX designer, you can learn many skills through online courses or boot camps. Many UX designers use knowledge from various disciplines in their field to build strong portfolios and work experience. 

Taking the next steps with Coursera

Cybersecurity and UX intersect when creating digital products, websites, and applications. They are two components of a secure, safe, and intuitive user experience. To learn in-demand cybersecurity and UX design skills or to complement one aspect of your abilities with the other, consider the Google Cybersecurity Professional Certificate, Google UX Design Professional Certificate, or the California Institute of Arts UI / UX Design Specialization, all found on Coursera.

Article sources

  1. Cybercrime Magazine. “2023 Cybersecurity Almanac: 100 Facts, Figures, Predictions, And Statistics, https://cybersecurityventures.com/cybersecurity-almanac-2023/.” Accessed April 2, 2024. 

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