{"id":1589,"date":"2021-06-04T08:10:15","date_gmt":"2021-06-04T05:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/persona.qcri.org\/blog\/?p=1589"},"modified":"2021-06-04T08:11:40","modified_gmt":"2021-06-04T05:11:40","slug":"measuring-personas-or-persona-sets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/persona.qcri.org\/blog\/measuring-personas-or-persona-sets\/","title":{"rendered":"Measuring personas or persona sets?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Research<\/a> has focused on measuring persona perceptions, i.e., what users think of personas they are shown.<\/p>\n

These efforts can focus on individual personas, i.e., we show a persona or two to the user and ask their opinions about the persona’s usefulness, completeness, credibility, and so (see the Persona Perception Scale<\/a>).<\/p>\n

However, persona sets<\/em> (i.e., groups of personas) are at least of equal importance. How do users assess a set of personas? Is the set diverse enough? Is the set credible? Does it conform to the user’s pre-existing beliefs about their customers? Does it provide something novel and surprising? Does the persona set, as a whole, contain new and valuable information? Do the personas in the set support decision making in customer-facing tasks?<\/strong><\/p>\n

These questions would be hard to answer if focusing on individual personas only.<\/p>\n

Therefore, the measurement of personas should in many ways shift from individual personas to persona sets. However, this involves various challenges, at least the following:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. How to effectively communicate and present the personas to the user? (Showing more than five or so personas becomes difficult to manage if served via paper — interactive persona systems<\/a> can help in this regard)<\/li>\n
  2. How to dissect the impact of an individual persona to the whole? (i.e., which personas are valuable and which ones have problems?)<\/li>\n
  3. How to control for the (un)even use of personas? (i.e., the personas are not viewed or used an equal amount of time; unequal effort and attention is given — does this matter?)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    It appears that from a methodological point of view, showing personas instead of a persona results in loss of control and tractability. Yet, I believe it’s an important research path to pursue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Research has focused on measuring persona perceptions, i.e., what users think of personas they are shown. These efforts can focus on individual personas, i.e., we show a persona or two to the user and ask their opinions about the persona’s usefulness, completeness, credibility, and so (see the Persona Perception Scale). However, persona sets (i.e., groups […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[154,7,130,2],"tags":[539,538],"class_list":["post-1589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hci-and-personas","category-persona-research","category-persona-thinking","category-personas","tag-persona-cast","tag-persona-sets"],"yoast_head":"\nMeasuring personas or persona sets? – The Persona Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/persona.qcri.org\/blog\/measuring-personas-or-persona-sets\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Measuring personas or persona sets? – The Persona Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Research has focused on measuring persona perceptions, i.e., what users think of personas they are shown. 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