Hi all persona fans out there!
This post includes the interview questions for Persona Perception Scale (PPS). PPS is a “measurement instrument” (a fancy word for a survey or questionnaire) with 28 items (again, a fancy word for statements or questions) measuring 8 user perceptions (“constructs”) of personas.
In short, the answers to the survey will what the end-users of personas think about the persona(s) they are shown.
The perceptions with their items are listed below. If you use the scale, please cite the following article:
Salminen, J., Santos, J. M., Kwak, H., An, J., Jung, S.G., and Jansen, B. J. (2020) Persona Perception Scale: Development and Exploratory Validation of an Instrument for Evaluating Individuals’ Perceptions of Personas. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies.
Persona Perception Scale: Constructs and Items
| Item | Item content |
| Consistency 1 | The quotes of the persona match other information shown in the persona profile. |
| Consistency 2 | The picture of the persona matches other information shown in the persona profile. |
| Consistency 3 | The persona information seems consistent. |
| Consistency 4 | The persona’s demographic information (age, gender, country) corresponds with other information shown in the persona profile. |
| Completeness 1 | The persona profile is detailed enough to make decisions about the customers it describes. |
| Completeness 2 | The persona profile seems complete. |
| Completeness 3 | The persona profile provides enough information to understand the people it describes. |
| Completeness 4 | The persona profile is not missing vital information. |
| Willingness to use 1 | I would make use of this persona in my task of [insert task]. |
| Willingness to use 3 | I can imagine ways to make use of the persona information in my task of [insert task]. |
| Willingness to use 4 | This persona would improve my ability to make decisions about the customers it describes. |
| Credibility 1 | The persona seems like a real person. |
| Credibility 2 | I have met people like this persona. |
| Credibility 3 | The picture of the persona looks authentic. |
| Clarity 1 | The information about the persona is well presented. |
| Clarity 2 | The text in the persona profile is clear enough to read. |
| Clarity 3 | The information in the persona profile is easy to understand. |
| Similarity 1 | This persona feels similar to me. |
| Similarity 2 | The persona and I think alike. |
| Similarity 3 | The persona and I share similar interests. |
| Similarity 4 | I believe I would agree with this persona on most matters. |
| Likability 1 | I find this persona likable. |
| Likability 2 | I could be friends with this persona. |
| Likability 3 | This persona feels like someone I could spend time with. |
| Likability 4 | This persona is interesting. |
| Empathy 1 | I feel like I understand this persona. |
| Empathy 2 | I feel strong ties to this persona. |
| Empathy 3 | I can imagine a day in the life of this persona. |
How to Use?
- Select the constructs that matter for your use case (if not sure, you can include all of them – even with all items, answering time should not be more than 10 minutes, which is very reasonable)
- Create the survey (e.g., using Google Forms)
- Recruit respondents (these are people who will be using the personas in your organization — i.e., end-users of personas)
- Collect the responses
- Analyze the results — a simple way is to take the average of each item to calculate a score for a given perception (e.g., average of Similarity 1-4 will tell the Similarity score, meaning how similar the respondent thinks the persona is to him or her).
Why is this a Big Deal?
Publication of PPS matters because adoption of personas is a huge issue in the field. End-users and organizations spend tremendous amounts of money for personas which are then left in desk drawer rather than being integrated into day-to-day decision making. One way to understand why this happens is to measure perceptions such as credibility and completeness of the developed personas, and associate these with willingness to use.
Moreover, personas are associated with stereotyping (perhaps the number one risk of deploying personas for decision making), so again, it is crucial to understand how people perceive the personas (how empathetic they are and how likable the personas seem).
Systematic understanding and quantitative measurement of user perceptions of personas is a step towards developing better personas. That is why we consider PPS as a major milestone in persona research.
Further enquiries: Dr. Joni Salminen, email: jsalminen@hbku.edu.qa
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