Five Tips On How To Balance User Experience And Security

Users place high demands on the applications they use every day: they must be easy to use and react quickly. In addition, user requirements can change very quickly. As vendors strive to meet these expectations, the challenge of simultaneously protecting against security threats and malicious intrusions increases. User experience and security therefore go hand in hand. AppDynamics explains why companies shouldn’t neglect this and gives five tips for combining user experience and (application) security.

On the other hand, end users expect their applications to be fundamentally secure. However, once the security of a digital service is questioned, it can make it difficult to ensure a satisfactory user experience. It is all the more important to secure both the applications themselves and the implementation of a flawless user experience so that users are not impaired and companies remain competitive.

Accelerated digitization processes – as many companies experienced last year, for example – can become a breeding ground for vulnerabilities and security-related incidents, since the security aspect is often ignored and appropriate precautionary measures are missing. In addition, the demands on IT teams have been higher than ever in the past year. According to a current study, the IT experts surveyed are increasingly having to deal with tasks and activities that are unfamiliar to them. Therefore, here are five tips on how development teams can secure their applications without restricting the user experience:

• The coordination of all departments and teams involved is crucial, as silos in IT are counterproductive when it comes to working across functions and departments – especially when you have to act quickly and flexibly. If teams do not use DevSecOps models, there is a risk that they will neglect the security aspect. This, in turn, can lead to delays and tensions within teams. At the same time, managers are left out – they have to be integrated into the processes.
• Responsible teams are under increasing pressure to maintain the perfect balance between user experience and security. Security should be a high priority during application development. Concepts such as DevSecOps involve the responsible security team in the entire cycle. Codes can be tested more regularly, allowing security professionals to find and fix bugs and vulnerabilities faster—before the user experience is impacted.
• As secure as the use of passwords is: They not only represent a hurdle for the optimal user experience, but also cause considerable support costs, for example in the event of a reset. The desire for a passwordless world is increasing. The use of new, advanced security tools, such as those based on AI, can help to improve the user experience by analyzing security threats and providing important insights into security-related developments. Since cyber criminals also use technological advances, it is all the more important to stay up to date with the latest developments.
• We are in a world where we must take risks while accepting that problems will arise. It is important to note that these problems must be identified and resolved quickly. With the right tools, systems can be managed more efficiently, operations processes can be automated and difficulties can be resolved more quickly. Such a site reliability engineering approach not only helps internally, but also strengthens customer trust.
• Modern applications require security that is embedded directly in them and not built around them. Security should be independent of where the application is running. In addition, it must be continuously and automatically adaptable, since applications are also dynamic and also change due to changing requirements.

In our digital-first world, if consumers are frustrated with unsatisfactory digital services or do not see their expectations and requirements being met, this can have an impact on business figures – for example through customer churn. Applications are therefore the key to improving the user or customer experience. They expect their digital services to be available 24 hours a day and their use to be extremely secure. Security must therefore be given a great deal of attention.

Also Read: The Importance Of Cybersecurity For SMEs