Automatic Persona Generation (APG)

News & Social Media Analytics Team

Social Computing GroupQatar Computing Research Institute

Hamad Bin Khalifa University

Information

architecture: Choosing

the correct information

elements and layout for

a given user or industry.

Comments: Finding

representative, relevant

and non-toxic comments

describing the persona.

Evaluation: Validating

accuracy, consistency,

and usefulness of

personas for individuals

and organizations.

Topics of interest:

Classifying topics of online

content and discovering

probable interests across

social media platforms.

APG: Platform for research

Description: Generating

fluent text descriptions of

the personas.

Discovering better ways to computationally process

and choose useful representations from vast

amounts of online data (”giving faces to data”).

Image: Using neural

networks to generate

persona profile pictures.

Story selection: predicting

and choosing content for

personas or content

creators.

Temporal analysis:

Observing change in

personas over time.

Information

architecture: Choosing

the correct information

elements and layout for

a given user or industry.

Comments: Finding

representative, relevant

and non-toxic comments

describing the persona.

Evaluation: Validating

accuracy, consistency,

and usefulness of

personas for individuals

and organizations.

Topics of interest:

Classifying topics of online

content and discovering

probable interests across

social media platforms.

APG: Platform for research

Description: Generating

fluent text descriptions of

the personas.

Discovering better ways to computationally process

and choose useful representations from vast

amounts of online data (”giving faces to data”).

Image: Using neural

networks to generate

persona profile pictures.

Story selection: predicting

and choosing content for

personas or content

creators.

Temporal analysis:

Observing change in

personas over time.

Validating personas

1. Personas as ”objective truth”

2. Personas as ”subjective truth”

For objective truth => accuracy metrics, predictive ability, stability analysis of personas

For subjective truth => case studies, ethnography, surveys

Validating personas

1. Personas as ”objective truth”

2. Personas as ”subjective truth”

For objective truth => accuracy metrics, predictive ability, stability analysis of personas

For subjective truth => case studies, ethnography, surveys

Persona Perception Scale:Toward systematic measurement of personas

Research Objective: Personas are notoriously difficult to validate and evaluate (Chapman & Milham, 2006). As fictive user representations based on real data, personas can be seen subject to interpretations from end-users of personas. These interpretations can be multi-dimensional and include elements such as empathy, perceived accuracy, and liking. We develop a persona perception scale and validate it among business professionals.

Chapman, C. N., & Milham, R. P. (2006). The Personas’ New Clothes: Methodological and Practical Arguments against a Popular Method. Proceedings of the Human Factors and

Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 50(5), 634–636.

Persona Perception Scale:Toward systematic measurement of personas

Plan: Develop the scale, validate with pilot study, and then conduct a large-scale survey for persona users. Once the scale has been published in journal, it can be referred to in other studies.

How does a system change affect persona perception?

Research process

1. Selecting dimensions and items => Literature review

2. Pruning them down => Expert feedback (contentvalidity)

3. Pruning them down => Pilot survey

4. Validating the scale => Large-scale survey (N > 300)

5. Publishing

6. Measuring impact of system changes to persona perception.

Research process

1. Selecting dimensions and items => Literature review

2. Pruning them down => Expert feedback (contentvalidity)

3. Pruning them down => Pilot survey

4. Validating the scale => Large-scale survey (N > 300)

5. Publishing

6. Measuring impact of system changes to persona perception.

Tips for scale development

Construct

Dimensions

Items

Remember: you’re trying use questions to reveal a hidden thing

you can’t directly observe

Remember: you’re trying use questions to reveal a hidden thing

you can’t directly observe

Persona Perception

Construct

Credibility

Consistency

Completeness

x1

x2

x3

x4

x5

x6

x7

Dimensions

Items

Tips for scale development

1. Start by collecting more items than you need in the end

2. Most sources seem to suggest a 7-point scale (but youcan use a 5-point scale as well)

3. Figuring out what you’re measuring is important (e.g., what is ’persona perception’?)

4. ”Would people answer these items in a similar way?” (simulate factor loadings in your head :)

5. Wording matters a lot…

1. Don’t mix positive and negative statements

For example,

”This persona seems useful”

”I don’t think this persona is very useful.”

Better is to have all the questions pointing at thesame ”direction”.

2. Avoid long sentences and complicated words

Even your mother should be able to answer with ease!

For example,

”I think I would have no trouble engaging in exhilaratingdiscussions with this particular persona.”

”I would enjoy talking to this persona.”

3. Avoid redundancy(=asking the same thing twice)

For example,

”The persona seems like a kind person.”

”I would see this persona as a kind individual.”

(However, the initial pool of items can have redundancy.)

4. Avoid combining two or more statements in one sentence

For example,

”This persona seems credible because it has the right picture and text content.”

”This persona has credible picture content.”

”This persona has credible text content.”

Checklist to consider for each construct/item

• Is it relevant? ✓

• Is it simple? ✓

• Is it clear? ✓

So that

1 = Not relevant

2 = Needs some revision

3 = Needs minor revision

4 = Relevant Can be used for calculating

content validity index (CVI)

Good constructs give you basis for hypothesis testing

E.g., structural equation modeling (SEM)

Persona Perception

Credibility

Consistency

Completeness

x1

x2

x3

x4

x5

x6

x7

Usefulness

Industry

Use case

Willingness to use

Too many tips to share…

A good reference book:

DeVellis, R. F. (2016). Scale Development: Theory and Applications (4 edition). Los Angeles: SAGE Publications, Inc.

Best is to try it out yourself!

And now… survey time!

Please go to: __________(also have print copies if someone doesn’t have a laptop.)

The beautiful team :)

Prof. Jim Jansen Dr. Jisun An Dr. Haewoon Kwak

Dr. Joni SalminenMSc. Soon-Gyo Jung