How does an imaginary persona's attractiveness affect designers' perceptions and IT solutions? An experimental study on users' remote working needs

<h3>Purpose</h3><p dir="ltr">The “what is beautiful is good” (WIBIG) effect implies that observers tend to perceive physically attractive people in a positive light. The authors investigate how the WIBIG effect applies to user personas, measuring designers' perceptio...

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Main Author: Joni Salminen (7434770) (author)
Other Authors: João M. Santos (18282181) (author), Soon-gyo Jung (7434773) (author), Bernard J. Jansen (7434779) (author)
Published: 2023
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author Joni Salminen (7434770)
author2 João M. Santos (18282181)
Soon-gyo Jung (7434773)
Bernard J. Jansen (7434779)
author2_role author
author
author
author_facet Joni Salminen (7434770)
João M. Santos (18282181)
Soon-gyo Jung (7434773)
Bernard J. Jansen (7434779)
author_role author
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Joni Salminen (7434770)
João M. Santos (18282181)
Soon-gyo Jung (7434773)
Bernard J. Jansen (7434779)
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2023-12-18T15:00:00Z
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv 10.1108/itp-09-2022-0729
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/How_does_an_imaginary_persona_s_attractiveness_affect_designers_perceptions_and_IT_solutions_An_experimental_study_on_users_remote_working_needs/26771869
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv CC BY 4.0
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Information and computing sciences
Artificial intelligence
Human-centred computing
Psychology
Cognitive and computational psychology
Social and personality psychology
User personas
What is beautiful is good
Attractiveness
Persona perceptions
IT solutions
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv How does an imaginary persona's attractiveness affect designers' perceptions and IT solutions? An experimental study on users' remote working needs
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv Text
Journal contribution
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
text
contribution to journal
description <h3>Purpose</h3><p dir="ltr">The “what is beautiful is good” (WIBIG) effect implies that observers tend to perceive physically attractive people in a positive light. The authors investigate how the WIBIG effect applies to user personas, measuring designers' perceptions and task performance when employing user personas for the design of information technology (IT) solutions.</p><h3>Design/methodology/approach</h3><p dir="ltr">In a user experiment, the authors tested six different personas with 235 participants that were asked to develop remote work solutions based on their interaction with a fictitious user persona.</p><h3>Findings</h3><p dir="ltr">The findings showed that a user persona's perceived attractiveness was positively correlated with other perceptions of the persona. The personas' completeness, credibility, empathy, likability and usefulness increased with attractiveness. More attractive personas were also perceived as more agreeable, emotionally stable, extraverted and open, and the participants spent more time engaging with personas they perceived attractive. A linguistic analysis indicated that the IT solutions created for more attractive user personas demonstrated a higher degree of affect, but for the most part, task outputs did not vary by the personas' perceived attractiveness.</p><h3>Research limitations/implications</h3><p dir="ltr">The WIBIG effect applies when designing IT solutions with user personas, but its effect on task outputs appears limited. The perceived attractiveness of a user persona can impact how designers interact with and engage with the persona, which can influence the quality or the type of the IT solutions created based on the persona. Also, the findings point to the need to incorporate hedonic qualities into the persona creation process. For example, there may be contexts where it is helpful that the personas be attractive; there may be contexts where the attractiveness of the personas is unimportant or even a distraction.</p><h3>Practical implications</h3><p dir="ltr">The findings point to the need to incorporate hedonic qualities into the persona creation process. For example, there may be contexts where it is helpful that the personas be attractive; there may be contexts where the attractiveness of the personas is unimportant or even a distraction.</p><h3>Originality/value</h3><p dir="ltr">Because personas are created to closely resemble real people, the authors might expect the WIBIG effect to apply. The WIBIG effect might lead decision makers to favor more attractive personas when designing IT solutions. However, despite its potential relevance for decision making with personas, as far as the authors know, no prior study has investigated whether the WIBIG effect extends to the context of personas. Overall, it is important to understand how human factors apply to IT system design with personas, so that the personas can be created to minimize potentially detrimental effects as much as possible.</p><h2>Other Information</h2><p dir="ltr">Published in: Information Technology & People<br>License: <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0" target="_blank">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0</a><br>See article on publisher's website: <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1108/itp-09-2022-0729" target="_blank">https://dx.doi.org/10.1108/itp-09-2022-0729</a></p>
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identifier_str_mv 10.1108/itp-09-2022-0729
network_acronym_str Manara2
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oai_identifier_str oai:figshare.com:article/26771869
publishDate 2023
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rights_invalid_str_mv CC BY 4.0
spelling How does an imaginary persona's attractiveness affect designers' perceptions and IT solutions? An experimental study on users' remote working needsJoni Salminen (7434770)João M. Santos (18282181)Soon-gyo Jung (7434773)Bernard J. Jansen (7434779)Information and computing sciencesArtificial intelligenceHuman-centred computingPsychologyCognitive and computational psychologySocial and personality psychologyUser personasWhat is beautiful is goodAttractivenessPersona perceptionsIT solutions<h3>Purpose</h3><p dir="ltr">The “what is beautiful is good” (WIBIG) effect implies that observers tend to perceive physically attractive people in a positive light. The authors investigate how the WIBIG effect applies to user personas, measuring designers' perceptions and task performance when employing user personas for the design of information technology (IT) solutions.</p><h3>Design/methodology/approach</h3><p dir="ltr">In a user experiment, the authors tested six different personas with 235 participants that were asked to develop remote work solutions based on their interaction with a fictitious user persona.</p><h3>Findings</h3><p dir="ltr">The findings showed that a user persona's perceived attractiveness was positively correlated with other perceptions of the persona. The personas' completeness, credibility, empathy, likability and usefulness increased with attractiveness. More attractive personas were also perceived as more agreeable, emotionally stable, extraverted and open, and the participants spent more time engaging with personas they perceived attractive. A linguistic analysis indicated that the IT solutions created for more attractive user personas demonstrated a higher degree of affect, but for the most part, task outputs did not vary by the personas' perceived attractiveness.</p><h3>Research limitations/implications</h3><p dir="ltr">The WIBIG effect applies when designing IT solutions with user personas, but its effect on task outputs appears limited. The perceived attractiveness of a user persona can impact how designers interact with and engage with the persona, which can influence the quality or the type of the IT solutions created based on the persona. Also, the findings point to the need to incorporate hedonic qualities into the persona creation process. For example, there may be contexts where it is helpful that the personas be attractive; there may be contexts where the attractiveness of the personas is unimportant or even a distraction.</p><h3>Practical implications</h3><p dir="ltr">The findings point to the need to incorporate hedonic qualities into the persona creation process. For example, there may be contexts where it is helpful that the personas be attractive; there may be contexts where the attractiveness of the personas is unimportant or even a distraction.</p><h3>Originality/value</h3><p dir="ltr">Because personas are created to closely resemble real people, the authors might expect the WIBIG effect to apply. The WIBIG effect might lead decision makers to favor more attractive personas when designing IT solutions. However, despite its potential relevance for decision making with personas, as far as the authors know, no prior study has investigated whether the WIBIG effect extends to the context of personas. Overall, it is important to understand how human factors apply to IT system design with personas, so that the personas can be created to minimize potentially detrimental effects as much as possible.</p><h2>Other Information</h2><p dir="ltr">Published in: Information Technology & People<br>License: <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0" target="_blank">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0</a><br>See article on publisher's website: <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1108/itp-09-2022-0729" target="_blank">https://dx.doi.org/10.1108/itp-09-2022-0729</a></p>2023-12-18T15:00:00ZTextJournal contributioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersiontextcontribution to journal10.1108/itp-09-2022-0729https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/How_does_an_imaginary_persona_s_attractiveness_affect_designers_perceptions_and_IT_solutions_An_experimental_study_on_users_remote_working_needs/26771869CC BY 4.0info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:figshare.com:article/267718692023-12-18T15:00:00Z
spellingShingle How does an imaginary persona's attractiveness affect designers' perceptions and IT solutions? An experimental study on users' remote working needs
Joni Salminen (7434770)
Information and computing sciences
Artificial intelligence
Human-centred computing
Psychology
Cognitive and computational psychology
Social and personality psychology
User personas
What is beautiful is good
Attractiveness
Persona perceptions
IT solutions
status_str publishedVersion
title How does an imaginary persona's attractiveness affect designers' perceptions and IT solutions? An experimental study on users' remote working needs
title_full How does an imaginary persona's attractiveness affect designers' perceptions and IT solutions? An experimental study on users' remote working needs
title_fullStr How does an imaginary persona's attractiveness affect designers' perceptions and IT solutions? An experimental study on users' remote working needs
title_full_unstemmed How does an imaginary persona's attractiveness affect designers' perceptions and IT solutions? An experimental study on users' remote working needs
title_short How does an imaginary persona's attractiveness affect designers' perceptions and IT solutions? An experimental study on users' remote working needs
title_sort How does an imaginary persona's attractiveness affect designers' perceptions and IT solutions? An experimental study on users' remote working needs
topic Information and computing sciences
Artificial intelligence
Human-centred computing
Psychology
Cognitive and computational psychology
Social and personality psychology
User personas
What is beautiful is good
Attractiveness
Persona perceptions
IT solutions