Developing Personas in UX Process: A Case Study for a Web-Documentary to Increase Empathy Among Social Groups

Abstract

This paper aims to present the process of personas development for a digital solution to increase empathy among social groups. It is a part of a research focusing on promoting empathy in university students related to external groups through a web-based platform, with the broader concern of contributing to the fight against prejudice and discrimination with immigrants in European countries. Research has demonstrated that empathy can have an important role in decreasing bias related to external groups. Also, developing personas is an important part of the UX process; however, its use is often misunderstood, and developers’ interests bias its development. A reliable and well-prepared data collection comprising tools development – such as interviews and questionnaires- is crucial for personas creation. In this sense, this paper presents a case study of personas creation, from tools development and application to data analysis and personas definition. – As a result of data collection, three personas were developed based on 83 European university students’ respondents.