A Critique of Personas as representations of "the other" in Cross-Cultural Technology Design

A literature review on cross-cultural personas reveals both, a trend in projects lacking accomplishment and personas reinforcing previous biases. We first suggest why failures or incompleteness may have ensued, while then we entice a thoughtful alteration of the design process by creating and validating personas together with those that they embody. Personas created in people's own terms support the design of technologies by truly satisfying users' needs and drives. Examining the experiences of those working "out there", and our practises, we conclude persona is a vital designerly artefact to empowering people in representing themselves. A persona-based study on User-Created Persona in Namibia contrasts the current persona status-quo via an ongoing co-design effort with urban and rural non-designers. However we argue persona as a design device must ease its implicit colonial tendency to and impulses in depicting "the other". Instead we endorse serenity, mindfulness and local enabling in design at large and in the African context in particular

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Guidelines for DNA recombination and repair studies: Cellular assays of DNA repair pathways

Understanding the plasticity of genomes has been greatly aided by assays for recombination, repair and mutagenesis. These assays have been developed in microbial systems that provide the advantages of genetic and molecular reporters that can readily be manipulated. Cellular assays comprise genetic, molecular, and cytological reporters. The assays are powerful tools but each comes with its particular advantages and limitations. Here the most commonly used assays are reviewed, discussed, and presented as the guidelines for future studies

Bridging the gap between user experience research and design in industry: An analysis of two common communication tools: Personas and scenarios

User experience (UX) research in the design of technology products utilizes human-centered design (HCD) methods to summarize and explain pertinent information about end users to designers. However, UX researchers cannot effectively communicate the needs and goals of users if designers do not find UX research (a) easy to integrate into design processes and (b) perceive it as contributing valuable information that helps them create better designs. Personas and scenarios are examples of FICD summarizations/communication tools employed by UX research. Personas are archetypal characters that represent a group of users who share common goals, attitudes and behaviors when interacting with a product or service. A scenario is a story describing a character using a product/service. In this investigation, scenarios were not explored as artifacts apart from personas; instead, the scenarios that were employed described personas interacting with a product/service. Specifically, this investigation asked are personas (with scenarios) perceived as usable, useful and effective summarizations of UX research by designers; in other words, do they meet the positive claims made of them in the literature and avoid criticisms and concerns? In addition, what should UX researchers strive to understand about designers to maximize understanding of end users; in other words, can personas (with scenarios) be made more useful/usable? This was studied, in part, by using personas (with scenarios) that represented mobile users in Kyrgyzstan. This user population represented an example of an audience with whom local designers (from Seattle, Washington) would have minimal familiarity. As technology expands to new audiences, the chances to encounter unfamiliar users will increase; this lack of familiarity amplifies the importance of useful/usable UX research. Key findings included: (a) personas (with scenarios) were effective in helping designers focus on specific users and facilitating communication regarding the users; (b) personas were less successful at helping designers empathize or avoid ill-informed assumptions about users; and (c) several designer attributes appeared to be associated with persona effectiveness, including professional experience level. Disambiguating variables that contribute to the utility of personas (with scenarios) will help better the communication between UX research and design in industry, ultimately leading to better end user experiences