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Product23 July 2025·3 min read

UX best practices for MFA

Every feature carries a maintenance bill that comes due long after the launch post.

Paycux engineering

Every feature carries a maintenance bill that comes due long after the launch post. The useful discipline is deciding, up front, who is going to pay it.

This piece walks through how we think about it at Paycux, what we have changed our minds about, and where the sharp edges are.

Design a flexible enrollment experience

Design a flexible enrollment experience is where this gets concrete. Defaults are the product. Most people will never open the settings screen, which means the behaviour you chose for them is the behaviour they will experience forever.

Ship the smallest version that is honest about its limits. A feature that does one thing completely beats one that does five things with an asterisk on each.

Offer multiple authentication methods

Consider offer multiple authentication methods. Naming is design work. If the team argues about what to call something, the disagreement is usually about what it is, and shipping before that is settled means shipping the confusion to customers.

Defaults are the product. Most people will never open the settings screen, which means the behaviour you chose for them is the behaviour they will experience forever.

  • Choose defaults as carefully as features
  • Settle the name before you ship the thing
  • Ship the smallest honest version
  • Say plainly what the feature does not do

Let users choose a primary method

Let users choose a primary method is where this gets concrete. Defaults are the product. Most people will never open the settings screen, which means the behaviour you chose for them is the behaviour they will experience forever.

Naming is design work. If the team argues about what to call something, the disagreement is usually about what it is, and shipping before that is settled means shipping the confusion to customers.

Ensure accessible TOTP setup

Consider ensure accessible totp setup. Defaults are the product. Most people will never open the settings screen, which means the behaviour you chose for them is the behaviour they will experience forever.

Defaults are the product. Most people will never open the settings screen, which means the behaviour you chose for them is the behaviour they will experience forever.

Defaults are the product.

Simplify One-Time Passcode (OTP) entry

That brings us to simplify one-time passcode (otp) entry. Naming is design work. If the team argues about what to call something, the disagreement is usually about what it is, and shipping before that is settled means shipping the confusion to customers.

Ship the smallest version that is honest about its limits. A feature that does one thing completely beats one that does five things with an asterisk on each.

Use the right input type

Use the right input type deserves its own treatment. Naming is design work. If the team argues about what to call something, the disagreement is usually about what it is, and shipping before that is settled means shipping the confusion to customers.

Defaults are the product. Most people will never open the settings screen, which means the behaviour you chose for them is the behaviour they will experience forever.

Enable smart autofill and submission

Consider enable smart autofill and submission. Ship the smallest version that is honest about its limits. A feature that does one thing completely beats one that does five things with an asterisk on each.

Defaults are the product. Most people will never open the settings screen, which means the behaviour you chose for them is the behaviour they will experience forever.

Where this leaves us

If there is one thing worth taking away, it is that the expensive decisions are the ones made implicitly. Making them on purpose costs an afternoon.

If you are working through the same problem and want to compare notes, the docs cover the mechanics and the console shows the behaviour on your own data.

Everything here, already built

Sign-in, enterprise SSO, directory provisioning, roles and an audit trail behind one API. Start with the quickstart and have a working sign-in this afternoon.

Start selling to enterprise customers

Create an account, point sign-in at Paycux, and get back to the part of the product that is actually yours.