Contextual Personas : A Method for Capturing the Digital Work Environment of Users

• It can be hard to understand the context in which a software system is used and how the whole work environment affects the usage of a particular system. In this project, we modified the Persona method to include aspects of the digital work environment and the context to extend the understanding of these aspects during software development. The modified version of the Persona method is based on the traditional Persona method, on theories on healthy work and research on the digital work environment. The objective of proposing the modifications of the method is to give software developers more insights into the complexity of the digital work environment. University students tried the modified Contextual Persona method in a user-centred software development course. Students worked on designing a new system for 12 weeks using the Contextual Persona method during the fourth week of software development. The students gave feedback on what positive and negative aspects they experienced while using the modified Contextual Persona method and their thoughts on how the method could be improved. In the paper, we analyse reports from 30 students and summarise the feedback gathered. We conclude by summarising the possible improvements to the method based on our findings.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Data- och informationsvetenskap -- Människa-datorinteraktion (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Computer and Information Sciences -- Human Computer Interaction (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Data- och informationsvetenskap -- Datavetenskap (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Computer and Information Sciences -- Computer Sciences (hsv//eng)

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Maskinteknik -- Produktionsteknik, arbetsvetenskap och ergonomi (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Mechanical Engineering -- Production Engineering, Human Work Science and Ergonomics (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Persona method

Context of use

Usability

User-centred design

HCI methodology

Computer Science with specialization in Human-Computer Interaction

Datavetenskap med inriktning mot människa-datorinteraktion

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)