Persona Perception Scale: An Instrument for Evaluating Individuals’ Perceptions of Personas

In this research led by Joni Salminen, we develop valid constructs for assessing personas.

Although personas are widely used in many domains, the evaluation of personas is difficult mainly due to the lack of validated measurement instruments. 

To tackle this challenge, this research undertakes the development of the Persona Perception Scale (PPS), which is a survey instrument for evaluating how individuals perceive personas. (See here for the items.)

We develop the scale by reviewing relevant literature from social psychology, persona studies, and human-computer-interaction domains in order to find relevant constructs and items for measuring persona perceptions. Following an initial pilot testing, we validate the scale with 412 respondents and find that the constructs and items of the scale perform satisfactorily for scale deployment. 

The research has implications for both academic researchers and persona developers. Using the PPS, researchers can evaluate how different persona attributes affect individual perceptions of personas, including investigating persona users’ perceived credibility of the persona and their willingness to use it. 

In turn, persona developers can use the PPS to understand how the personas they developed are perceived by persona users (e.g., designers, marketers, software developers). 

Because persona perceptions are associated with persona acceptance and adoption, a robust measurement instrument provides a useful tool for improving the chances of persona adoption and use in real organizations.

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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, (141), Article 102437.