Assessing Real-World Applicability of Redesigned Developer Documentation for Certificate Validation Errors

Abstract

We face certificate validation errors commonly, yet the related tools and documentation had been shown to have very poor usability. Previous research suggests that just improving the error messages and corresponding documentation can have significantly positive effects. Our work aims at increasing the usability of certificate validation by 1) redesigning the API error messages and the corresponding documentation, and 2) validating the real-world applicability of the redesign by investigating the opinions of 180 IT professionals. We focus on the perceived obstacles, desired ideal form and overall satisfaction. The redesigned documentation exhibits a reliable significant decrease in perceived incompleteness, with a small amount of perceived bloat and tangle. The redesigned documentation, now published on a dedicated website, is preferred by 89% of our study participants. CCS CONCEPTS• Security and privacy → Usability in security and privacy; • Software and its engineering → Documentation; • General and reference → Validation.