Beyond Identity
·2025
·2025 Cyber UXcellence Award
Credential Extension Flow Research and Redesign
UX Research
Usability Testing
Security UX
Interaction Design
Award-Winning
Context
Credential Extension lets users move a passkey to a new device — one of the most friction-prone moments in the Beyond Identity experience. After launch, feedback confirmed the flow was too complex. Users needed IT support just to get through it.
We ran two rounds of usability testing and redesigned the experience from the ground up before a single line of production code was written.
Figma
OpenAI
Zoom
Impact
40%
Time on task reduced
Across both Secure Work and Secure Access extension flows.
6.8 / 7
SEQ ease rating
Up from 5.15 in the February baseline round.
1m 16s
SA avg time on task
Down from approximately 5 minutes.
Contributors
Senior Product Designer
Nune Vardanyan
A collaborative project — I led the visual ideation, ran usability testing sessions, synthesized research findings, and drove the cross-platform design ensuring consistent and smooth user experience.
Design Team
Beyond Identity
Design collaboration, iteration, and research facilitation.
The problem
Two platforms, two data models, one shared application — and when a user needed to extend a passkey to a new device, all of that complexity landed on them at once. The original flow demanded they follow multiple steps across two devices simultaneously, with no confirmation that any of it worked.
Round 1 — February 2025 Usability Testing
Usability testing confirmed what design already suspected.
We recruited 5 internal employees who had recently joined Beyond Identity to act as the end-user. They completed 3 tasks: enrolling a Secure Work passkey, enrolling a Secure Access passkey, and extending both. Most completed the tasks despite errors — but the path to completion was painful.
5.6 / 7
SEQ — SW Extend
Single Ease Question score
5.15 / 7
SEQ — SA Extend
Single Ease Question score
~5m 2s
Avg time on task
Secure Work extension
~5m
Avg time on task
Secure Access extension
"This feedback wasn't a surprise. Our system is complex. The reality is we introduced complexity."
Round 2 — June 2025 Usability Testing
The redesigned flow was tested before a single line of production code was written.
We recruited 8 of the newest Beyond Identity hires — chosen specifically for their limited exposure to the product. Goal: surpass the 76.7% SW and 74.6% SA success thresholds. Every participant completed the task independently.
6.6 / 7
SEQ — SW Extend
Up from 5.6 in February
6.8 / 7
SEQ — SA Extend
Up from 5.15 in February
3m 7s
SW time on task
Down from 5 minutes 2 seconds
1m 16s
SA time on task
Down from ~5 minutes
Takeaway
Good design comes from iteration. The first version taught us everything we needed to build the right one.
Listen. Watch. Iterate. Every improvement in this flow came from getting out of our own assumptions and into the user's reality.