En nyckel till allt : En kvalitativ studie om SSO-portalens roll i skärningspunkten mellan säkerhetskrav och användarvänlighet

Sammanfattning

As organisations become increasingly dependent on digital systems, managing who has access to what has emerged as a central challenge at the intersection of security and usability. Security requirements such as multi-factor authentication and password policies are critical but often create friction that drives users toward risky behaviours, including password reuse and shared credentials. Single Sign-On (SSO) has been proposed as a solution, but previous research has largely focused on technical aspects rather than how users experience access management in practice. The purpose of this study is to contribute knowledge about how an SSO portal can help balance security requirements and usability in organisational access management. Using semi-structured interviews with seven respondents from three organisations, a thematic analysis was conducted identifying four themes. The findings show that fragmented access structures, varying security requirements and a lack of transparency create cognitive load that drives users toward compensatory strategies with real organisational consequences. Respondents express a clear interest in a unified portal, but emphasise that personalisation, transparency and organizational integration are essential for such a solution to provide genuine value. The study contributes empirically grounded knowledge about access friction in practice and identifies three design principles for an SSO portal that balances security and usability. The findings underscore that security and usability are not opposing forces but mutually dependent properties, and that the key to reducing friction lies not in stricter requirements but in smarter design.