Due to the proliferation of online services such as social networking, online banking, and cloud computing, more personal data are potentially exposed than ever before. Efforts such as two factor authentication (2FA) aim to make these services more secure; however, existing research efforts suggest this may come at the expense of usability. We conducted a usability evaluation of Google's 2FA setup process that confirms this concern, and extends previous efforts by identifying several problem areas and specific usability issues that affect human performance in 2FA setup processes. Future research should include more diverse populations but also continue efforts in improving the usability of 2FA setup processes. This will hopefully lead to increased adoption of 2FA systems.

Low user adoption due to usability issues during setup is one of the primary challenges facing two-factor authentication implementations. A method which could quickly provide performance predictions for two-factor authentication setup processes would help create opportunities for iterative improvements during the design phase. These improvements can lead to increased human performance in the two-factor authentication setup processes once implemented and may help address some of the usability challenges that plague two-factor authentication user adoption efforts. Various software-based prediction tools can help simulate human performance and analyze underlying usability issues. The challenge is to evaluate human performance quickly and iteratively in two-factor authentication setup processes to help improve the usability of the processes during the design phase. We demonstrate rapid software-based performance predictions for three two-factor authentication setup processes and compare them to previously published human performance data for insights.