A Comparative Analysis of Persona Clustering Methods

Current and future information systems require a better understanding of the interactions between users and systems in order to improve system use, and ultimately, success. The use of personas as design tools is becoming more widespread as academicians and practitioners discover its benefits. This paper presents an empirical study comparing the performance of existing qualitative and quantitative clustering techniques at the task of identifying personas and grouping system users into those personas. A method based on Factor (Principal Component) Analysis outperforms two others using Latent Semantic Analysis and Multivariate Cluster Analysis

CLAIM THE NAME: NAMES OF IT SOLUTIONS AND THE INFLUENCE ON OLDER ADULTS

The number of older adults as Information Technology (IT) users is increasing. While attention is already being paid to the design of IT solutions for older adults, the names of IT solutions have received little attention. It is important that the name does not convey negative attributes. In the case of older adults, stereotypes pose a challenge since they can lead to rejection of potentially helpful IT solutions. In this paper, we therefore propose a model for a stereotype-free naming process in the conceptual background of sociotechnical systems. The model will be developed and tested according to a design science research approach. The final model will be adaptable for further target groups to name IT solutions free from stereotypes

Do You Understand Our Understanding? Personas as Hermeneutic Tools in Social Technology Projects

Personas, prevalent in information systems design and implementation, are often positioned as aesthetic creations imitating technology “end users”. As such, there is an inherent assumption that end user outcomes can be known prior to technology usage in practice. This assumption, however, becomes problematic in malleable end user software (MEUS) contexts, in which concrete usage is unknowable a priori. Through an auto-ethnographic account of a unique case of a small consultancy, the Ripple Effect Group, attuned to the nature of MEUS, we explore a novel approach to personas in social technology projects. We turn to the work of Gadamer (1975) to outline two distinct views of “mimesis” for contrasting the dominant portrayal of personas in the literature compared to our empirical context. Our paper challenges conventional thinking surrounding personas, and offers a practical approach, and preliminary theorizing, for personas as hermeneutic tools to convey meaning for those involved in MEUS projects

The design of a game-based training environment to enhance health care professionals’ skills in using eMental health:Study protocol for the user requirements analysis

Background: E–mental health (EMH) offers various possibilities for mental health care delivery, with many studies demonstrating its clinical efficacy. However, the uptake of EMH technologies by mental health care professionals remains to be low. One of the reasons for this is the lack of knowledge and skills in using these technologies. Skill enhancement by means of serious gaming has been shown to be effective in other areas but has not yet been applied to the development of EMH skills of mental health care professionals. Objective: The aim of this paper is to describe a study protocol for the user requirements analysis for the design of a game-based training environment for mental health care professionals to enhance their skills in EMH. Methods: The user requirements are formulated using three complementary outputs: personas (lively descriptions of potential users), scenarios (situations that require EMH skills), and prerequisites (required technical and organizational conditions). We collected the data using a questionnaire, co-design sessions, and interviews. The questionnaire was used to determine mental health care professionals’ characteristics, attitudes, and skill levels regarding EMH and was distributed among mental health care professionals in the Netherlands. This led to a number of recognizable subuser groups as the basis for personas. Co-design sessions with mental health care professionals resulted in further specification of the personas and an identification of different user scenarios for the game-based training environment. Interviews with mental health care professionals helped to determine the preferences of mental health care professionals regarding training in EMH and the technical and organizational conditions required for the prospective game-based training environment to be used in practice. This combination of requirement elicitation methods allows for a good representation of the target population in terms of both a broad view of user needs (through the large N questionnaire) and an in-depth understanding of specific design requirements (through interviews and co-design). Results: The questionnaire was filled by 432 respondents; three co-design sessions with mental health care professionals and 17 interviews were conducted. The data have been analyzed, and a full paper on the results is expected to be submitted in the first half of 2021. Conclusions: To develop an environment that can effectively support professionals’ EMH skill development, it is important to offer training possibilities that address the specific needs of mental health care professionals. The approach described in this protocol incorporates elements that enable the design of a playful training environment that is user driven and flexible and considers the technical and organizational prerequisites that influence its implementation in practice. It describes a protocol that is replicable and provides a methodology for user requirements analyses in other projects and health care areas

Towards a model of quantitative personas

La herramienta Personas es una herramienta extendida en el mundo del diseño de producto y el diseño web. En los últimos años nuevas disciplinas como el diseño de servicios y el diseño estratégico han hecho que las herramientas propias del Design Thinking adquieran un nuevo carácter. Así, se considera que la herramienta Personas puede ayudar a políticos y gestores de los sistemas de salud en el diseño de nuevas políticas sociales y nuevos servicios sanitarios que mejoren la calidad de vida de una sociedad envejecida. La diversidad existente en la sociedad, hace necesarias nuevas herramientas que simplifiquen y soporten la toma de decisiones en datos cuantitativos. En este estudio se propone un nuevo modelo de Personas cuantitativo que se alimenta de estadísticas existentes sobre dependencia y sobre personas mayores. En primer lugar, se analizan distintos métodos de análisis estadístico que pueden ayudar en la identificación de segmentos de población. De esta forma, se seleccionan los métodos más adecuados al ámbito de aplicación. Finalmente, se propone un método de creación de perfiles de Personas a partir de dichos segmentos y se generan perfiles preliminares. En futuros trabajos se contrastarán dichos perfiles con profesionales de la política y de la salud.Personas is an extended tool in the area of product design and web design. In recent years new disciplines such as service design and strategic design have made the tools of Design Thinking acquire a new character. Thus, it is considered that Personas can help policy makers and managers of healthcare systems in the design of new social policies and new health services that improve the quality of life of an aging society. The diversity existing in society, makes necessary new tools that simplify and support decision making in quantitative data. In this study, a new model of Quantitative Personas is proposed. This tool will be based on existing statistics on dependence and on elderly people. First, different methods of statistical analysis that can help in the identification of population segments are analyzed. In this way, the most appropriate methods are selected for the scope of application. Finally, a method of creating profiles of Personas from these segments is proposed and preliminary profiles are generated. Profiles will be contrasted with professionals in politics and health in future works

Advanced Driving Assistance Systems for an Electric Vehicle

This paper describes the automation of a Neighborhood Electric Vehicle (NEV) and the embedded distributed architecture for implementing an Advanced Driving Assistance System (ADAS) with haptic, visual, and audio feedback in order to improve safety. For the automation, original electric signals were conditioned, and mechanisms for actuation and haptic feedback were installed. An embedded distributed architecture was chosen based on two low-cost boards and implemented under a Robotics Operating System (ROS) framework. The system includes features such as collision avoidance and motion planning.Muñoz Benavent, P.; Armesto Ángel, L.; Girbés Juan, V.; Solanes Galbis, JE.; Dols Ruiz, JF.; Muñoz, A.; Tornero Montserrat, J. (2012). Advanced Driving Assistance Systems for an Electric Vehicle. International Journal of Automation and Smart Technology. 2(4):329-338. doi:10.5875/ausmt.v2i4.169S3293382

Creating Rich and Representative Personas by Discovering Affordances

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from IEEE via the DOI in this recordIEEE During the last decade, information system designers have used the persona technique to put user needs and preferences at the center of all development decisions. Persona development teams draw on qualitative data, quantitative data or a combination of both to develop personas that are representative of the target users. Despite the benefits of both approaches, qualitative methods are limited by the cognitive capabilities of the experts, whereas quantitative methods lack contextual richness. To gain the advantages of both approaches, this article suggests a mixed qualitative-quantitative approach to create user personas based on the patterns of the affordances they actualize rather than merely the actions they take. It enriches personas by referring to the purposes fulfilled through affordance actualizations, and it grounds personas in readily available objective log data. This study illustrates the practical value of the proposed methodology by empirically creating personas based on real user data. Furthermore, it demonstrates its value by having practitioners compare the suggested method to that of qualitative-only and quantitative-only methods.Concordia Universit

Using Personas and Scenarios as an Interface Design Tool for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems

When looking at the traditional way of conducting human factors research within the active safety area, focus often tends to be on drivers’ cognitive capacities like; situation awareness, workload and behavioural adaptation. This research is of course invaluable but other important issues that tend to be forgotten are: What are the drivers’ needs and how should an interface be designed to satisfy those needs? This paper describes the process ofdefining requirements for a dynamic graphical interface for ADAS using a rather new method, Personas, as a starting point in the design process. Based on the Personas different scenarios and narratives were created and used in a workshop to specify user needs and requirements in the interface design for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems