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
User perceptions of personas affect the adoption of personas for decision-making in real organizations. To investigate how experience affects the way an individual perceives a persona, we conduct an experimental study with individuals less and more experienced with personas. Quantitative results show that previous experience increases several important perceptions, including willingness to use, empathy, likability, … Read more
Artificial generation of facial images is increasingly popular, with machine learning achieving photo-realistic results. Yet, there is a concern that the generated images might not fairly represent all demographic groups. We use a state-of-the-art method to generate 10,000 facial images and find that the generated images are skewed towards young people, especially white women. We … Read more
Observing user interactions with interactive persona systems offers important insights for the design and application of such systems. Using an interactive persona system, user behavior and interaction with personas can be tracked with high precision, addressing the scarcity of behavioral persona user studies. In this research, we introduce and evaluate an implementation of persona analytics … Read more
