Log out

[Tosin-Balogun]

What

We need a way to help reassure users they have safely off-boarded the app

Why

Logging out of a service is a way to help users safely off-board services. This ensures their sensitive details does not fall into the wrong hands.

In the current app, we have a log out page which exist on the web. This meant that once the user logs out and the session is terminated, the user is immediately transported out of the app and into the login screen which can be disorienting. This particularly prominent if the user tends to use biometrics as a way to log into the app as it triggers automatically

User behaviour insights

We got a lot of feedback from app store reviews pointing this disorienting switch when logging out.

• "When you log out, the App immediately try's to open straight away again with Face ID. Most annoying"
• "I log in using Face ID and when I log out it IMMEDIATELY logs me back in again. I log out it IMMEDIATELY logs me back in! It's my very own 'Groundhog Day!'"
• "If you logout, it immediately tries to log you in again, you need to make the logout page one that you don't login from. Perhaps I should try screwing my face up when logging out?"

Hypothesis

We introduced the proposal to have a native log out screen to help with this disorienting situation for users with our hypothesis being that:

We've observed that when users try to log out of the NHS App, they are being logged back in automatically if they have their Face ID biometrics turned on.

IF we add a log-out screen after users logged out with the option to log back in

THEN users will feel reassured that their journey of logging out is completed by having the confirmation on the screen

We'll know this is true when users feel safe and reassured that they have logged out of their accounts on the NHS App

Hypothesis proved true – see insights in follow up report below

Details

For the app, we created several iterations that went through design and content reviews. The major feedback was to keep it simple since we have no native logout pattern to learn from. This meant that timeout was not thoroughly considered within the scope, however the timeout banner would now live on the new native logout screen rather than landing screen where it current sits.

Reference

https://usabilitygeek.com/ux-logout-lapse/

[anna-rigo]

NHS App usability testing

On 13-14th November 2024 we took a HTML prototype to the NHS research lab in Leeds. We tested the hypothesis mentioned in Tosin's comment above.

In the final task, we asked participants to log out of the App after they booked their GP appointment.

Log-out journey test

Who we spoke to

• 6 participants
• including 2 participants with red-green colour deficiency and 1 neurodivergent participant
• users and non-user of the NHS App

Key findings

• 6/6 participants felt safe and reassured that they logged out of their App
• 2/6 expected to find the clear 'log out' text on the top or bottom navigation
• 1/6 could not complete the log-out task for the first time
• 1/6 said they would log out of the NHS App as they view their data sensitive on the App similar to their banking data (this participant was not using biometrics)
• 5/6 would not consider log out of the App, these participants were biometric users so “swiping up to close the App” was the main user behaviour as they understand they will be asked to provide their biometric log-in details again upon logging in which they deemed safe enough

Quotes

• "only I have my face" [in response to why they wouldn't feel the need to log out of the App]
• "Why would I want to log out.. it's my phone!"
• "If I was concerned about someone else using it I would log out. But if it's Face ID you wouldn't need to"