Persona adoption in software development is inconsistent, often neglecting user diversity.

Why It Matters

This research highlights a critical gap between the intended purpose of personas—to foster user empathy—and their actual implementation. Designers and developers must critically evaluate their persona creation and usage processes to ensure they genuinely represent a broad spectrum of users and their unique needs, rather than relying on superficial or incomplete representations.

Key Finding

The study found that while many software teams use personas, their effectiveness and the depth of user representation vary greatly. A significant issue is that crucial user groups, like those with disabilities, are frequently overlooked in the persona creation process.

Key Findings

• Persona usage varies significantly across different software projects and organizations.
• Practitioners face numerous challenges when creating and utilizing personas.
• The needs of users with disabilities are often not considered in persona development, despite the perceived importance of personas for understanding user needs.

Research Evidence

Aim: To investigate the current practices, methods, and challenges associated with using personas in software development, with a specific focus on whether diverse user needs, such as those of users with disabilities, are adequately considered.

Method: Mixed-methods research (interviews and survey)

Procedure: Conducted semi-structured interviews with 26 software development practitioners and distributed a survey to 203 practitioners to gather data on persona usage, effectiveness, challenges, and reasons for non-adoption.

Sample Size: 230 (26 interviewees + 203 survey respondents)

Context: Software development and requirements engineering

Design Principle

Ensure personas represent a diverse user base, actively including marginalized or often-overlooked user needs.

How to Apply

During the persona development phase of a design project, explicitly dedicate time to research and incorporate the requirements and challenges faced by users with disabilities.

Limitations

The study's findings may be influenced by the specific IT companies and project types included in the sample, potentially limiting generalizability to all software development contexts. Self-reported data from surveys can also be subject to bias.

Student Guide (IB Design Technology)

Simple Explanation: Lots of people use 'personas' (like fictional user profiles) in software design, but they don't always do a good job. Sometimes, they forget to think about users with disabilities, which is a big problem for making things usable for everyone.

Why This Matters: Understanding how personas are actually used (and misused) helps you create more effective and inclusive designs. It shows that simply having a persona isn't enough; it needs to be well-researched and representative.

Critical Thinking: If personas are meant to represent users, why do practitioners so often fail to include the needs of users with disabilities? What systemic issues in the design process might contribute to this oversight?

IA-Ready Paragraph: Research indicates that while personas are a common tool in requirements engineering, their practical application often falls short, particularly in representing diverse user needs such as those of individuals with disabilities (Wang et al., 2024). This highlights the importance of moving beyond superficial persona creation to actively integrate insights from underrepresented user groups to ensure truly inclusive design outcomes.

Project Tips

• When creating personas for your design project, go beyond basic demographics and consider a wider range of user characteristics and needs.
• Actively seek out information about users with disabilities relevant to your product and integrate these insights into your personas.

How to Use in IA

• Reference this study when discussing the limitations of generic persona creation and the importance of inclusive user representation in your design project's research section.

Examiner Tips

• Demonstrate an awareness of the potential pitfalls of persona usage, such as superficiality or lack of diversity, and explain how your design project addresses these.

Independent Variable: Persona usage practices, methods, and challenges.

Dependent Variable: Effectiveness of personas, consideration of diverse user needs (e.g., disabilities).

Controlled Variables: Type of software project, company size, role of practitioner.

Strengths

• Combines qualitative (interviews) and quantitative (survey) data for a comprehensive view.
• Investigates a practical and widely used design tool (personas) in its real-world application.

Critical Questions

• How can design teams be incentivized or trained to prioritize the inclusion of diverse user needs in persona development?
• What alternative or supplementary methods can be used alongside personas to ensure a deeper understanding of all user requirements?

Extended Essay Application

• An Extended Essay could explore the development and validation of a new persona creation framework specifically designed to ensure the systematic inclusion of accessibility requirements.

Source

Who uses personas in requirements engineering: The practitioners’ perspective · Information and Software Technology · 2024 · 10.1016/j.infsof.2024.107609