Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, currently accepted face to face models of public system testing within a healthcare setting have become temporarily unfeasible. In order to overcome this challenge, Serums uses an online participatory approach to evaluate the integrated system. Online technical support teams used a social media-based approach to recruit members of the public and support them remotely in exploring and testing the system. The intention of the exercise was to ascertain public perception of the platform in terms of system security, and usability of the technologies, and establish what the level of public trust may be in the system. Public feedback is invaluable in designing, developing, improving, and refining user-friendly features whilst analysing and mitigating interoperability issues within Serums system.
Participants were interviewed in real time by video link on Teams, where volunteers were given access to the Serums platform for the first time, supported by trained members of the project.Â
Using a pre-agreed participant’s script, volunteers were asked to create their picture password in the system by choosing a photographic image relevant to them and perform a series of tasks to test the usability of the system. Participants answered a questionnaire, to gather information about the project success indicators which included evaluation of perceived usability, memorability, security, and trust in the proposed authentication system.