Pass the Password

How many times have you struggled with the many rules of setting passwords?

Created in Canva

How many times have you been forced to hit “forgot password” while returning to a website?

In the winter of 2016, I wrote a fan letter to Juggernaut books. The mobile application was a charm to use, and one of my favourites was that of creating password. Unlike convoluted hints on other application, Juggernaut simply wrote a combination of the types of characters needed. And that visual is etched in my memory from the date I created an account.

The beautiful experience of the application notwithstanding, there’s something upsetting about having to set a password in the first place.

1. They’re difficult to remember. We end up hitting ‘forgot password’ most of the time, and promptly forget which of those 15 ‘universal’ combinations we used on the application.
2. They’re famously insecure. Hacking is rampant, and with the number of data breaches that get reported, most services now recommend two-factor authentication.
3. For those conscious of their privacy, two-factor authentication is an alarming thought. And those Twitter and Facebook integrations — umm, seriously?

Surely there’s got to be another way, right? There is… Presenting *drumroll* the email link. Well, it’s nothing new — Medium has been using this since 2015. No passwords. No nasty Facebook or Twitter logins. Just enter your email and click the magic link that comes into your mail to log you in.

Some financial services employ this technique in combination with the mobile phone. A one-time-password sent via SMS to your registered phone.

Like other solutions, this one has its downsides. The hassle of switching apps to access the service. And in our short-attention-span world of infinite clicks, the user can lose context. Personally, I find the email link a more elegant solution to the security and usability woes of passwords. (And ideally, an option to not have an account at all — but that’s a rant unto itself.)

What do you think? Which method of securing your access to applications do you prefer?

Originally published on LinkedIn on 16 October 2018