Hi all –

 

There may be a way technically to avoid providing email address but it’s a tricky and NOT apparent to an end user.

 

One issue we (at Jisc and perhaps at OpenAthens) often have is that its hard to evaluate the full sign experience not actually having access to the resource but I have seen others get to a stage beyond what Jane describes and they are still then confronted with the PROVIDE EMAIL screen.

 

We shouldn’t be expecting end users to jump through hoops in order to maintain their privacy and personalisation can be done much better to ensure that.

 

Elsevier are a UK federation member and I’m very happy taking the issues Caroline (and others) have described to them- as this frankly is not how we want to see SSO federated access working in the UK Academic context.

 

I’d be interested to know what other institutions think?

 

Thanks

 

Mark

 

 

Mark Williams

UK federation Manager

 

T: 02030066042 (Direct)   

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Jisc

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Hi Caroline

 

I agree it’s not at all obvious or intuitive, but in very small type in the Science Direct login box you’ll see another option to login using your University of Sussex credentials.

 

 

Once you’ve clicked ‘sign in’ it will take you to this page, where you type in ‘University of Essex’

 

 

You will then be taken to another page where you can ‘Sign in via your institution’

 

 

See image below - at this point you are on your university website, so you aren’t giving any credentials away as you’re using your normal university email and password to login using single sign-on. Signing in via federated single sign-on means you don’t have to provide personal information such as your email address.

 

 

RA21 recommended practices

 

If you want to opt for personalisation on the publisher website it is possible to do this without compromising privacy using ‘TargedID’ or ‘eduPersonTargetedID’ as the attribute. The Coalition for Seamless Access (previously called RA21) have recently published some guidance on attribute release which may help you and your publisher vendors. Or please give the OpenAthens service desk a call and we’ll be happy to provide further guidance on this.

 

The recently published RA21 recommended practices provide advice on users login experience:

 

1.1.3.  User Experience Principles

 

To achieve an authentication experience that is “as seamless as possible, intuitive and consistent across varied systems” RA21 adopted guiding user experience principles focused on removing friction and reducing cognitive load* at every opportunity in the user workflow. Specific guiding principles include:  

 

● Reducing the number of steps required for federated authentication.

● Limiting the choices presented to the user at a given time (buttons, input fields, links, options in lists, etc.).

● Helping users find the next click in the access workflow by creating clear and simple calls to action (CTAs).

● Using best practice feedback patterns, such as typeahead and suggestions, to give the user confidence to proceed.

 

We encourage as many libraries as possible to speak to their publishing vendors and suggest ways in which they can improve the login experience and user journey to content generally. Discovery and access to content have for too long been a missing link in the publishing cycle and recent initiatives such as RA21 are aiming to change that for the benefit of end users globally.

 

OpenAthens Wayfinder

OpenAthens offers a free organisation discovery service called ‘Wayfinder’ and can provide consultancy services to publishers like Elsevier and Science Direct to improve the login experience. Wayfinder was developed alongside the RA21 pilots and has recently been updated following the RA21 recommended practices.

 

New award for Best publisher user experience

Please also contact any publishers you think provide a great user experience and ask them to apply for our new award for the Best publisher user experience. The deadline for applications is 30 September 2019. The main driver behind the award is to encourage and highlight best practice so blockers to content such as the one you’ve described become a rarity rather than the norm.

 

I hope this helps Caroline and please do reach out to us if we can be of further help and assistance.

 

With best wishes,

Jane

 

 

 

Hi all

 

I was wondering whether anybody had any thoughts on the new SD login?

 

I’ve been testing this from a user point of view and now feel violated by persistent demands for my e-mail 😊

 

In principle I can login anonymously (or is that pseudonymously) but I felt the process was misleading and lengthy. I only found the alternative login process by being just as determined not to hand over my e-mail (although they already had it… foiled…not sure how perhaps because I am an administrator or I do have an old Mendeley account).

 

If I just go to Science Direct and click on the sign in link, the link to the institutional sign-in is tiny, can’t it at least have equal weight?

 

Secondly I can’t get any further without entering my e-mail even via the institutional login, but wait if I take the risk and enter my e-mail, I can ‘continue without connecting’! If this is the case, why present it this way? If I can continue without connecting why ask for my e-mail before offering this? I also think the language would be better as ‘continuing without registering’ which seems more typical to me from my online shopping habit.

 

I also understand I can use SD ‘anonymously’ a different way but I am bombarded with attempts to get me to register.

 

1. Enter search terms click search icon
2. Presented with a pop-up – please register before I get my results which only presents me with the buttons to register or sign-in. You can close the window which I did but if you choose to sign-in you are taken to first sign-in process I outlined.
3. Get my results and interspersed in my results lists are buttons again to sign in but I ignore it and click on an article title.
4. A pop-up hits me from the side – register for free….
5. Click on Get Access – a popup appears check access click on this
6. Pop-up find your institution search for Essex
7. Login
8. Message continue without registering – yay.

 

Why do we need to register personal details at all? I’m concerned at the direction some service providers seem to be moving with this, suggesting that we need to provide an e-mail address for personalisation.

 

I think it is acceptable to have pseudonymous sign-in, so the user can at least use the resource ‘anonymously’, and then if the user wants to use personalisation, they can choose themselves whether to sign-up but the ideal would be to have the personalisation features associated with an pseudonymous persistent ID which should be possible??

 

I have a document of the process with screenshots but was unsure about sending it as an attachment, so if you would like to a copy let me know.

 

I would appreciate your thoughts on this.

 

All the best

Caroline

 

Caroline Checkley

Digital Systems and Services Librarian

Library Services

University of Essex

 

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