jjansen@acm.org One of the reasons for using personas is to align user understandings across project teams and sites. As part of a larger persona study, we conducted 16 qualitative interviews with media producers, the end users of persona descriptions. We asked the participants about their understanding of a typical AJE media consumer, and the variety of … Read more
To more effectively convey relevant information to end users of persona profiles, we conducted a user study consisting of 29 participants engaging with three persona layout treatments. We were interested in confusion engendered by the treatments on the participants, and conducted a within-subjects study in the actual work environment, using eye-tracking and talk-aloud data collection. … Read more
We report findings and implications from a seminaturalistic user study of a system for Automatic Persona Generation (APG) using large-scale audience data of an organization’s social media channels conducted at the workplace of a major international corporation. Thirteen participants from a range of positions within the company engaged with the system in a use case … Read more
Personas are widely used in software development, system design, and HCI studies. Yet, their evaluation is difficult, and there are no recognized and validated measurement scales to date. To improve this condition, this research develops a persona perception scale based on reviewing relevant literature. We validate the scale through a pilot study with 19 participants, … Read more
In 2014-2015, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) commissioned a study to assess consumers’ ability to recognize ads and other paid content in online search results and news/article feeds. The co-authors designed the study, oversaw its execution, and analyzed the results, with support from FTC staff. The goals of the research were to assess the … Read more
In this research, we investigate if and how more photos than a single headshot can heighten the level of information provided by persona profiles. We conduct eye-tracking experiments and qualitative interviews with variations in the photos: a single headshot, a headshot and images of the persona in different contexts, and a headshot with pictures of … Read more
Predicting user confusion can help improve information presentation on websites, mobile apps, and virtual reality interfaces. One promising information source for such prediction is eye-tracking data about gaze movements on the screen. Coupled with think-aloud records, we explore if user’s confusion is correlated with primarily fixation-level features. We find that random forest achieves an accuracy … Read more
We analyze the effect of a smile in personas pictures on persona perceptions, including credibility, likability, similarity, and willingness to use. We conduct an online experiment with 2,400 participants using a 16-item survey and multiple persona profile treatments of which half have a smiling photo and half do not. We find that persona profiles with … Read more
In an experiment, we present 38 marketing and data analysts professionals with two online AI-driven persona interfaces, one using numbers and the other using text. We employ eye tracking, think-aloud, and a post-engagement survey for data collection to measure perception and visual engagement with the personas along 7 constructs. Results show that the use of … Read more
Personas are a well-known technique in human computer interaction. However, there is a lack of rigorous empirical research evaluating personas relative to other methods. In this 34-participant experiment, we compare a persona system and an analytics system, both using identical user data, for efficiency and effectiveness for a user identification task. Results show that personas … Read more
