Starting now, Ura will be providing Usability and Design Services to Internet Freedom projects as part of Open Tech Fund’s Usability Lab.

OTF logo

The Usability Lab aims to increase user safety and promote practical internet freedom by working with developers and technologists to improve the usability of open ­source circumvention and digital security tools. There are many open ­source software projects that aim to help people around the world – activists, journalists, and everyday citizens – communicate in privacy and security.
Unfortunately, few of these software­ development teams have the capacity or expertise in-house to make tools that are truly usable. These usability challenges hamper tool adoption, or may cause misunderstandings for users about tool functionalities, and subsequently may give users a false sense of security.

To provide the above services, Open Tech Fund (OTF) is working together with four different Usability Lab partners (among them also Simply Secure with whom we have collaborated in the past). As Ura we are proud to be involved in the Usability Lab and contribute to the improvement and accessibility of Internet Freedom projects.

About Open Tech Fund

The Open Technology Fund utilizes available funds to support Internet freedom projects that empower world citizens to have access to modern communication channels that are free of restrictions, and allow them to communicate without fear of repressive censorship or surveillance.

About Usability Lab Services

In addition to Secure Usability Audits, which will analyze and identify any pitfalls that might make it difficult for users under threat to use a tool, the Lab will be offering these additional services:

  • Secure Usability and User Experience (UX) Consultations, to connect tools with Usability and UX experts to help address a specific gap in expertise, or to work on solving the hard and specific challenges facing digital security tools.
  • Secure Usability Testing, which is similar to a Usability Audit, but limited in scope to a particular area or aspect of the tool.
  • User Research and User Studies, to help tools better understand the needs of their users, and how to articulate those needs in the design of their tools.
  • Assistance in secure UX Design, to help projects to design their tool in a manner that puts their user’s needs, usability, and security first.
  • Assistance developing secure usable Style Guides, which outline user interface and graphical elements, rules and guidelines to ensure a cohesive and consistent user experience across different aspects of a tool.

If you are interested to request help from the Usability Lab, you can file a request via OTF.
If you are specifically requesting Ura’s services and believe that your project or tool and meets the criteria, you can also contact us directly and we will help you frame a scope of work proposal.