Information Design for Personas in Four Professional Domains of User Experience Design, Healthcare, Market Research, and Social Media Strategy

Practitioners in user-centric industries have increasingly recognized the applicability of personas. However, the methods used to create personas in different domains remain inconsistent and unsystematic. We analyzed 51 studies focused on designing personas for professional purposes and found the practice most prevalent in the user experience design, healthcare, market research, and social media strategy domains. Within these domains, user experience design personas are characterized by their focus on user activity goals, health personas on medical patients’ physical symptoms, market research personas on customers’ lifestyles, and social media strategy personas on interactions within and between online communities. We identify and compare the elements in the personas. Based on these, we provide guidelines for professionals interested in developing personas for understanding barriers to positive user experience, recruiting users, and building online communities, including how to represent persona details related to lifestyle and health, contexts of product usage, and scaling of online data

Know thy eHealth user: Development of biopsychosocial personas from a study of older adults with heart failure

BACKGROUND: Personas are a canonical user-centered design method increasingly used in health informatics research. Personas-empirically-derived user archetypes-can be used by eHealth designers to gain a robust understanding of their target end users such as patients. OBJECTIVE: To develop biopsychosocial personas of older patients with heart failure using quantitative analysis of survey data. METHOD: Data were collected using standardized surveys and medical record abstraction from 32 older adults with heart failure recently hospitalized for acute heart failure exacerbation. Hierarchical cluster analysis was performed on a final dataset of n=30. Nonparametric analyses were used to identify differences between clusters on 30 clustering variables and seven outcome variables. RESULTS: Six clusters were produced, ranging in size from two to eight patients per cluster. Clusters differed significantly on these biopsychosocial domains and subdomains: demographics (age, sex); medical status (comorbid diabetes); functional status (exhaustion, household work ability, hygiene care ability, physical ability); psychological status (depression, health literacy, numeracy); technology (Internet availability); healthcare system (visit by home healthcare, trust in providers); social context (informal caregiver support, cohabitation, marital status); and economic context (employment status). Tabular and narrative persona descriptions provide an easy reference guide for informatics designers. DISCUSSION: Personas development using approaches such as clustering of structured survey data is an important tool for health informatics professionals. We describe insights from our study of patients with heart failure, then recommend a generic ten-step personas development process. Methods strengths and limitations of the study and of personas development generally are discussed

Tailoring eHealth design to support the self-care needs of patients with cardiovascular diseases:a vignette survey experiment

Self-care support is a key cornerstone of treatment for patients with a cardiovascular disease. The success of any supportive intervention requires adaptation to the distinct needs of individuals. This requirement also applies to eHealth interventions. This study investigates how experts from multiple fields of science assess the potential success of different eHealth design strategies when matched to key self-care needs. An online vignette survey experiment was conducted. Nine vignettes representing different combinations of self-care needs (maintenance, monitoring, management) and eHealth persuasive design strategies (primary task support, dialogue support, social support) were evaluated. In total, 118 experts from 18 different countries participated in the survey. Their evaluations show primary task support as a promising design strategy across all self-care needs. In contrast, dialogue support and social support showed more promise for specific self-care needs. Above all, according to experts, the success of design strategies could be enhanced by (i) personalising the pacing of the intervention and (ii) tailoring the information to the literacy and culture of the person. Adding to that, self-care support should distinctly (iii) support the three self-care needs, be (iv) patient-centered, (v) support the collaboration with caregivers, and (vi) be aligned to the life goals and values of individuals

Accentuating patient values in shared decision-making:A mixed methods development of an online value clarification tool and communication training in the context of early phase clinical cancer trials

Objective: In the shared decision-making (SDM) process for potential early phase clinical cancer trial participation, value clarification is highly recommended. However, exploration and discussion of patient values between patients and oncologists remains limited. This study aims to develop an SDM-supportive intervention, consisting of a preparatory online value clarification tool (OnVaCT) and a communication training. Methods: The OnVaCT intervention was developed and pilot-tested by combining theoretical notions on value clarification, with interview studies with patients and oncologists, focus groups with patient representatives and oncologists, and think aloud sessions with patients, following the Medical Research Council (MRC) framework for complex interventions. These human-centered methodologies enabled a user-centered approach at every step of the development process of the intervention. Results: This study shows relevant patient values and oncologists’ perspectives on value exploration and discussion in daily practice. This has been combined with theoretical considerations into the creation of characters based on real-life experiences of patients in the OnVaCT, and how the tool is combined with a communication training for oncologists to improve SDM.</p

How Does Personification Impact Ad Performance and Empathy? An Experiment with Online Advertising

This research explores the value of personas for supporting professional advertisers to design adverts for social media. We test if a personified user group (PUG), when provided to online ad designers, results in better ad performance than when using a non-personified user group (NUG) that had no face picture or name. Our experiment has 30 participants that created Facebook ads using both PUG and NUG. We found that using PUG did increase advertising click performance of ads created by people who are more experienced with ads and personas. Moreover, an analysis of the ad texts showed that the use of PUG increased the empathy of the created ads, supporting the foundational empathy benefit cited in HCI literature. However, the use of PUG did not significantly increase purchase intent. The results imply that using PUG for online ad design evokes more empathy and improves click-through performance. More empathetic ads can have a positive impact on social media users, given that they appear to increase relevance

The Effects of a Healthcare Chatbots\u27 Language and Persona on User Trust, Satisfaction, and Chatbot Effectiveness

Healthcare technology is growing in its capabilities and capacity to impact people’s daily lives. One area of interest for growth is the use of chatbots and other telehealth applications that allow people to receive ubiquitous health information. The benefit of these systems is the ability to give access to pertinent, personalized healthcare information and services that could otherwise be inaccessible for some populations. With personalized information, patients may gain the information needed to make efficacious healthcare decisions which ideally will result in quicker recovery times and lower overall healthcare system costs. Chatbots have already been studied in the healthcare domain as resources for smoking cessation, diet recommendation, and other assistive applications. Yet, few studies have examined the specific design characteristics of healthcare chatbots. My research objective was to analyze two characteristics, language and persona, and their effect on outcomes such as effectiveness, usability, and trust in a chatbot. A between-subject study was performed where participants interacted with a chatbot. Each of chatbot conditions had a language of either technical or non-technical, and persona of Doctor, Nurse, or Nursing Student Sarah. Language was found to have a significant effect on effectiveness, but not trust or usability. In particular, participants who experienced technical language improved significantly greater than those who experienced non-technical language. Persona was found to not be significant for any of the outcomes. Overall, this study demonstrated a need to further study and understand how chatbot design characteristics impact users and how they comprehend the information given to them, particularly from a healthcare perspective

Strengths and Weaknesses of Persona Creation Methods:Guidelines and Opportunities for Digital Innovations

Persona is a technique for enhancing user understanding and improving the user-centered design of digital products. Persona creation has traditionally been divided into Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods approaches. However, no literature systematically contrasts the strengths and weaknesses of these approaches. We review the literature to map the strengths and weaknesses of these approaches and evaluate the potential of personas for the domain of digital innovation. We provide insights for better creation and use of personas by both researchers and practitioners, especially those that are new to personas, deploying personas in a new domain, or familiar with only one of the persona creation approaches

A Practical Guide on Behaviour Change Support for Self-Managing Chronic Disease

This open access book is a valuable resource for students in health and other professions and practicing professionals interested in supporting effective change in self-management behaviors in chronic disease, such as medication taking, physical activity and healthy eating. Developed under the auspices of the Train4Health project, funded by the Erasmus+ program of the European Union, the book contains six chapters written by international contributors from different disciplines. Chapter one introduces the competencies necessary for delivering effective behavior change support, based on an established program of work, and related learning outcomes. The four following chapters describe how these competencies can be acquired, focusing on concepts and theories, assessing self-management behaviors, implementing change strategies and person-centered communication, using a practical approach. The last chapter points out supplementary learning resources, developed as part of the Train4Health project.publishersversionpublishe