F-Secure / AT&T

Protecting smart device owners against security threats via a robust cybersecurity app

Company F-Secure / AT&T

Role Product Design
Research

Stakeholders (all US-based) Product Director
Product Manager
Product Growth Lead
Product Owner
Product Designer
Research Lead

Duration 9 months

Link AT&T ActiveArmor®

About

F-Secure is a global cybersecurity company developing products that protect consumers against identity theft, fraud, scams, and data breaches. Following the acquisition of LookoutLife in the US, F-Secure partnered with AT&T to explore a next-generation consumer cybersecurity experience for the North American market, powered by F-Secure’s security technology.

Challenge

Consumers today face a growing volume of security threats such as identity theft, scam calls, and data breaches, and with them, a constant stream of security alerts. But awareness alone isn’t protection. Many existing security applications tell users something is wrong without helping them understand what it means or what to do about it.

Early research confirmed this gap. People knew a security issue had occurred, but often they just didn’t know how to respond. This created a compounding set of problems:

Users struggled to interpret security alerts

Recovery steps were unclear or overly technical

Consumer expectations around digital security were poorly understood

Existing research offered little insight into how people actually react to security incidents

The opportunity wasn’t simply better security monitoring. It was helping users confidently understand and respond to digital threats. That led to a clear design question: how might we transform complex cybersecurity events into simple, guided actions that anyone can understand?

I joined the product team to lead UX strategy and research for this 0→1 initiative. This case study focuses on how research shaped the product direction and transformed complex security monitoring into a guided decision-support experience.

Solution

Working alongside another Product Designer, I helped design a 0→1 mobile security experience centred around a unified dashboard that simplifies threat awareness and guides users through recovery.

Rather than presenting raw technical information, the product combines security monitoring with contextual explanations, prioritised alerts, and step-by-step recovery guidance, designed to support users through high-stakes situations.

The research findings, design concepts, and interaction patterns developed through this project directly informed the development of AT&T ActiveArmor®, a consumer cybersecurity application powered by F-Secure technology.

Impact

1 /5 stars

Of 80k reviews, Apple App Store

1 /5 stars

Of 86k reviews, Google Play Store

Strong reception by participants during usability tests & interviews

My Role

I led UX strategy, research, and design efforts, collaborating with another Product Designer, US-based stakeholders, and a lead UX researcher. My responsibilities included:

Driving UX strategy

Research planning and synthesis

Stakeholder facilitation

Product onboarding strategy

Information architecture

Content design & microcopy

Design & Prototyping

Concept testing

Discovery
Exploration
Design
Validation
Showcase

Discovering how customers perceive digital threats

Before any design work began, I made research contributions to understand how consumers perceive digital threats and how they behave when a security incident occurs.

Through surveys, synthesis workshops, and close collaboration with stakeholders, we explored users’ concerns, expectations, and decision-making processes around identity theft, fraud, and account security.

One insight cut through everything else: users rarely struggled to receive alerts. They struggled to understand what those alerts meant and decide what to do next.

That single finding reframed the entire product direction — from building another monitoring application to designing a decision-support experience capable of reducing uncertainty when users needed clarity mos

Exploring ideas for a unified app experience

Working collaboratively with another Product Designer, I explored how to organise these components into a unified experience guided by two principles: progressive disclosure and plain language. Technical terminology was replaced with clear, human explanations. Alerts were reframed not as notifications, but as starting points for guided action.

Throughout, concepts were continuously refined with stakeholders to ensure the product remained technically feasible and genuinely useful for everyday consumers — not just security-literate ones.

Reduce cognitive load across multi-step booking journeys

Surface reservation information at the right moment

Make editing reservations possible without restarting the process

Maintain consistency across web and mobile

Design for accessibility from the outset

A design with a unified dashboard

The final concept is a cybersecurity app built around a unified dashboard where users can monitor their digital security, review alerts, and follow guided recovery steps through plain-language instructions.

Every screen was designed to reduce anxiety, simplify decision-making, and help users understand both the severity of a security event and the steps needed to resolve it.

Rather than functioning as a passive monitoring tool, the product acts as a trusted guide that empowers users to respond to digital threats with confidence.

The work ultimately fed directly into AT&T ActiveArmor® — a real-world product used by consumers across North America.

Strong user reception

High-fidelity prototypes were reviewed iteratively with stakeholders before moving into moderated remote usability testing with consumers.

User sessions were scoped to evaluate how well participants understood security alerts, navigated recovery flows, and interpreted the guidance provided.

Findings drove refinements to content hierarchy, interaction flows, and instructional copy, each round improving clarity and user confidence before the concepts were delivered to AT&T.

Prototype showcase

Below are 2 video clips showcasing the app concept including onboarding. The prototype and proposed functionalities served as the basis for the AT&T Activearmor.