Service Design | Passkey Authentication — Usability Research & Experience Design

As Lead Designer, I partnered with a UI/UX designer to explore the introduction of Passkey authentication into a government-facing digital service a feature intended to streamline and secure the login experience for a large, diverse user base that includes jobseekers and members of the general public.

We ran two rounds of usability testing to assess user awareness, comprehension, and ease of adoption. A consistent finding across both rounds was that the majority of participants had never encountered Passkey before, and those who had remained unclear about its purpose or advantages. Despite the feature's promise of simplicity and enhanced security, the terminology and setup process generated confusion and hesitancy particularly among users with lower digital literacy or limited familiarity with authentication technology.

To deepen our understanding beyond the testing environment, we engaged directly with another federal agency already live with Passkey implementation, gaining firsthand insight into the technical and behavioural complexities of real-world adoption. These conversations directly informed our design decisions around content strategy, onboarding guidance, and the timing of feature introduction within the user journey.

This project reinforced that introducing unfamiliar technology into essential public services demands more than good UX it requires careful attention to language, trust-building, and cross-agency learning to drive genuine adoption.

Passkey design