Hypothesis 1
The usability of emoji passwords will be higher for those who used the same type of device across both surveys than those who used different devices. This is because users of the same type of device will have already had experience creating and typing out an emoji-based password on that device and the experience will not be completely novel to them.
Hypothesis 2
The usability of passwords will be higher on mobile devices than on a desktop or laptop computer. In general, technology users are more used to utilizing the emoji keyboard feature on their phones to send messages to their friends than on their desktop, where the emoji keyboard can be difficult to even locate, let alone subsequently use.
Hypothesis 3
The breadth of emojis used (i.e. entropy) will be larger on a desktop device than if a mobile phone were used for emoji password creation. When using a phone, a person likely has a mental list of their commonly used emojis and is likely to use the same ones for password creation for memorability. On a desktop, on the other hand, a person has a more extensive view of the emojis available to them and less experience with using their favorite emojis and hence, the range of emojis used is likely to be greater on this platform.
Hypothesis 4
STEM students (computer science, economics, physics, etc) will create more usable and secure passwords than non-STEM students. This is perhaps due to the fact that STEM students work more regularly with online resources and technologies and have a higher need to protect their information and data on the Internet.
Hypothesis 5
Students who use emojis more frequently will create more usable emoji-based passwords than those who only use emojis ‘rarely’ or ‘never’.
Hypothesis 6
Students in the emoji group are more likely to use strategies such as ‘convenience of placement’ and ‘telling a story’ whereas students in the comp8 group are more likely to use common names and familiar words in their passwords.
