Personas In Design Research Articles

User Personas for a "Better Design" of Nation-Wide EHRs Based on Thorough Expert Evaluation and Field Analysis: Modeling Users as Individuals Plus Family Members for an Enhanced Mapping of Healthcare Situations.

Electronic Health Records (EHRs) are pivotal in prevention, therapy, and care. Their design necessitates the representation of users, activities, context, and technology. Among various participative and ethnographic design methods, user personas are an effective tool for encapsulating users in the design process. Goals and methods: This research focused on the creation of user personas for the design of a nation-wide EHR, specifically the German "elektronische Patientenakte" (ePA). We employed qualitative methods, such as field analysis and expert workshops, to generate, assess, and refine a set of user personas that can cover the complexity of real-life familial care environments. We used an innovative bottom-up approach applying a whole new process for persona generation especially in the context of family management. Results: The research yielded an initial set of five personas that accurately represent fictional user types. Importantly, at least two of these personas encapsulate the unique challenges inherent in family care work. These results provide a foundation for future work, which can utilize these personas for EHR design, as well as for further evaluation and refinement.

Skunkworks: The design of casual creative environments for social innovation

Casual Creative Environments (CCEs), such as coworking spaces, enable new work practices and workspace sharing across different urban places, aiming to foster innovation and new collaborations. However, many CCEs still struggle to fulfil their potential. This article reports on an inductive study examining social, spatial, and temporal insights from two CCEs in Australia with a social innovation focus. Through participant observations and interviews, we explore how these CCEs are designed to facilitate innovation using Lefebvre’s triad of social space. We present design personas representing user archetypes of tribes that form within these CCEs. We characterise these CCEs as skunkworks for their perpetual messiness and organised chaos. Our findings inform policy makers, CCE organisations, and managers seeking to nurture a culture conducive for vernacular creativity and innovation. Additionally, we suggest further research to inform the design of different skunkworks spaces tailored to the needs of a diversity of creative practitioners and innovation communities.

Developing User Personas as a way of Managing Knowledge About Ecolabnet Project Participants

One of the vital elements that decide about a success, or a failure of a project is adjusting its offer to the requirements of the beneficiaries. Various methods and tools are used in this respect to make the project’s offer consistent with these requirements and guarantee that they are satisfied. One of the methods used in this area is application of user personas. The idea is extensively used in the field of computer-human interactions, as it allows to improve user experience as well as the whole communication in the process of developing IT systems. However, the use of personas is not limited only to designing computer-based systems and solutions. The concept of personas has been also exploited in the Ecolabnet project, financed by Interreg, and implemented in six partner countries in the years 2019-2021. The process of knowledge management in the project assumed gathering the knowledge on its future beneficiaries - manufacturing SMEs from the Baltic Sea Region – and adjusting the offer of the project consortium (RDIs and Intermediary Organisations) to the signalled needs of these enterprises. To facilitate the management of knowledge on the enterprises investigated in the project the concept of persons was used. The underlying objective of the paper is to present the process of transforming the knowledge on project participants into the concept of personas. It consists of two parts. The first part, the theoretical one includes the results of a literature review that provides essential knowledge on utilising the concept of personas in design and management processes. The second part, the empirical one, is based on the empirical research that was conducted at the initial stage of the project. The answers provided in the survey questionnaire allowed for identification of primary needs and barriers in the area of eco-innovations development. This knowledge has led to determining main personas of the project. The analysis of the process of mapping the project users’ needs and objective is supposed to answer the following research question: Does the application of personas concept in service design positively contributes to management of knowledge in international projects?

Human-centered design exploration with Kenyan health workers on proposed digital mental health screening and intervention training development: Thematic analysis of user preferences and needs.

BackgroundHealth providers' perceived sense of knowledge, competency, and self-efficacy to support the needs of their patients contributes to optimal patient health outcomes. With regards to mental health service delivery in Kenya, this area needs further exploration. Guided by the e-health technology acceptance mode, the needs and preferences of health care providers around mental health training for clinical management and their ability to intervene in peripartum adolescent mental health care are explored. We probed how well-equipped service providers are, their engagement with technology to learn and offer services. The health care provider's technology use preferences were also explored.MethodGuided by a human-centered design-focused qualitative inquiry we interviewed 20 specialists around their needs, perspectives, and preferences for digitized mental health screening and intervention. Mean age was 44.2 years, (range of 32–58 years), 25% (5) males and 75% (15) females. After a written consenting process, the online interviews (30−45 min) were conducted in April 2021, once personal information was de-identified interviews were transcribed and coded. Thematic analysis was used and we combined rapid appraisal of Google Jamboard online storyboards to do individual human-centered design personas alongside.ResultsOur participants were well-exposed to digital technologies. Prohibitive costs of data bundles, lack of funds for consistent online engagement, high workload, and instability of access to appropriate gadgets were found to be barriers to e-health training. Emerging opportunities were well-identified adolescent mental health service and intervention needs, willingness to take online courses offered on learning platforms, and wish for these to be disseminated through diverse social media. Other recommendations were the need to have a user-friendly interface such as data-light engaging and practical materials including animations, short, group-based learning.ConclusionUnderstanding contextual factors that influence perceived usefulness and ease of use of the remote/digital components would be critical for e-training development and its uptake.

Early Development and Design of Crowdsourcing Agriculture Mobile Application for Lambsquarters

As big data has become increasingly necessary in modern farming techniques, the dependence on high quality and quantity of ground truth data has risen. Collecting ground truth data is one of the most labor-intensive aspects of the research process. A crowdsourcing platform application to aid lay people in completing ground truth data can improve the quality and quantity of data for growers and agricultural researchers. In this study, a user-centered design process was used to develop a prototype of a mobile application which will teach people how to classify certain characteristics of lambsquarters in the District of Columbia. Focus group results demonstrated that the greatest motivation for the participants was having opportunities to develop their skills and access to educational resources. From the focus groups, design personas were created and wireframe prototypes were produced. The prototypes were evaluated by users using the System Usability Scale and qualitative feedback. The design received an average score of 75.95, which indicates an acceptable design. From the feedback of the users, improvements to the design were made in the mobile application development of the system.

Chris and Sally's House: Adapting a home for people living with dementia (innovative practice).

How can domestic housing be adapted to support people living with dementia staying in their own homes for as long as they choose? This paper describes the innovative practice of using evidence-based design personas in a building refurbishment project (Chris and Sally's House) with a multidisciplinary team of architects, ergonomists, psychologists and experts. A 100 sqm Victorian two bedroom house was adapted to help educate house builders, carers and relatives on how to better support those living with dementia to live in their own home for longer. The design principles include clear sight lines, mobility support and provision for overnight carers.

DESIGN PERSONAS – NEW WAYS, NEW CONTEXTS

Design personas have, since their origins in the late 1990s, been recognised as a design tool to foster ideation and empathy with different user groups. The method originates from software development and has since its instigation become a widespread method adopted in many design disciplines and processes, such as innovation and ideation of IT products, User Experience design, agile systems developing, communication, and marketing (Nielsen 2012; Pruitt & Grudin 2003). To get product design closer to the everyday lives of the users, design personas are a means to capture the everyday experiences and needs of users and customers. Focusing on the user or customer in the design process is in opposition to an artistic understanding of the designer as someone who, by experimentation with materials and form, gets inspiration to create unique products.

Cooking personas: Goal-directed design requirements in the kitchen

Technology to assist people in the kitchen has become a major research topic as technology becomes more ubiquitous in the home. Research is being carried out in numerous areas to assist with cooking, from solving difficulties in the kitchen to more recently enhancing already good experiences related to cooking. To design solutions that are not only usable, but useful in all related aspects of cooking, we must get a good understanding of the needs of the user. It is important that real needs are identified, so that products or systems designed are adopted and are sustainable. There are various methods that researchers and designers use to gain user insights and there is much debate on different approaches and their effectiveness. Whilst there have been a number of ethnographic style studies in people's homes, there has been little in the way of understanding user goals in the kitchen which could lead to more effective design solutions. In this paper, we present goal-directed research of cooking needs in Singapore. We produce three primary design personas and three secondary personas, describing their goals and needs and where they can be helped through technology. An online survey was carried out to validate our personas, comparing our qualitative and quantitative findings. We provide a general holistic overview of kitchen requirements for these personas, whether in helping correct problems or enhancing positive experiences and how these needs can be connected. The user requirements provided can help guide researchers and help designers produce more meaningful, complete and acceptable technology solutions in the kitchen.

A Case Study on Use of Personas in Design and Development of an Audit Management System

With the ROI of persona methods still being arguable, it is important to understand how personas can be utilized in user interface design. The extensive methods proposed by Pruitt and Adlin (2006), throw light on several ways to use persona methods in user interface design lifecycle and also propose mitigations to several risk factors that can be encountered in this process. However, there is very little research presenting case studies on an entire design lifecycle that utilizes personas. This paper presents design, development and evaluation of a web-based audit management system in aircraft maintenance domain with emphasis on the persona creation process, the design approach followed, and the user testing results obtained. The experiences of a design team novice to personas will be discussed.