Verizon
04/2024 - 11/2024
Telecommunications
Sr. Experience Designer
Implementing Passkey Authentication at Verizon
As a Senior Experience Designer on Verizon’s Authentication Team, I played a key role in conceptualizing and designing the implementation of Passkey authentication. Working in a small but highly efficient team of two, alongside my colleague, we were tasked with minimizing security risks while creating a seamless, passwordless sign-in experience for Verizon customers.
Hackers were increasingly targeting Verizon customers, attempting to gain unauthorized access to their accounts. Traditional passwords posed both security risks and usability challenges, leading to frequent password resets and user frustration. Our goal was to:
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01
Reduce password-related security vulnerabilities.
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02
Minimize password reset requests.
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03
Provide a seamless, passwordless login experience.
To introduce Passkey authentication, we took a phased approach. In the short term, I designed a Passkey setup section within profile settings, allowing users to manually create and enable Passkey authentication. This initial step provided users with a standard experience for activating Passkey authentication on their mobile devices. For the long-term strategy, I developed an interception flow that proactively prompted users to enable Passkey, ensuring a seamless transition to a fully passwordless experience. This approach aimed to enhance security and eliminate the need for traditional passwords across Verizon’s digital platforms.
UX Research, Experience / UI Design
Created low-fidelity wireframes to illustrate the user flow and improve comprehension. Presented them to the team for review, gathering feedback to refine the design and ensure clarity, alignment, and usability before moving into high-fidelity prototyping.
Since this was an early-stage concept, we conducted user testing in collaboration with Verizon’s CMI team and UserTesting.com to identify key demographics that would benefit from Passkey, assess users' familiarity with Passkey authentication, and gather feedback on Verizon’s Passkey integration approach. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with 98% of users understanding Passkey and finding it useful. After multiple rounds of presentations and discussions with stakeholders, the proposal was approved, and Passkey authentication for Verizon is set to begin development in Q3.
This initiative marked a pivotal step in enhancing Verizon’s security measures while improving user experience. As a Senior Experience Designer, I played a crucial role in strategizing, designing, and testing this concept. The successful approval of this proposal will lead to a more secure, user-friendly authentication system for Verizon customers in the near future.
