Nudging Adoption: Creating Awareness in Antivirus Software

Users often lack awareness of potential security risks on their smartphones and the protective security mechanisms available for securing their devices and information. One way of raising awareness in users is through the use of notifications and nudges. To that end, we designed two notifications for antivirus software, encouraging users to install antivirus software on another platform, namely a smartphone. We first developed the designs through feedback from a semi-structured interview conducted with 12 participants, then further evaluated the designs through a user study with 36 participants. Our preliminary results indicate that notifications on one device, such as a laptop, may be effective in raising awareness of security tools on other device platforms. Our results also highlight the motivators influencing adoption of antivirus software on another device platform and design guidelines for user attention to and implementation of notifications suggesting security behaviors.