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Salminen, J., Santos, J. M., Jung, S.-g. & Jansen, B. J. (2023). How does an imaginary persona's attractiveness affect designers' perceptions and IT solutions? An experimental study on users' remote working needs. Information Technology and People. 36 (8), 196-225

J. Salminen et al.,  "How does an imaginary persona's attractiveness affect designers' perceptions and IT solutions? An experimental study on users' remote working needs", in Information Technology and People, vol. 36, no. 8, pp. 196-225, 2023

@article{salminen2023_1783350780552,
	author = "Salminen, J. and Santos, J. M. and Jung, S.-g. and Jansen, B. J.",
	title = "How does an imaginary persona's attractiveness affect designers' perceptions and IT solutions? An experimental study on users' remote working needs",
	journal = "Information Technology and People",
	year = "2023",
	volume = "36",
	number = "8",
	doi = "10.1108/itp-09-2022-0729",
	pages = "196-225",
	url = "https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/issn/0959-3845"
}

TY  - JOUR
TI  - How does an imaginary persona's attractiveness affect designers' perceptions and IT solutions? An experimental study on users' remote working needs
T2  - Information Technology and People
VL  - 36
IS  - 8
AU  - Salminen, J.
AU  - Santos, J. M.
AU  - Jung, S.-g.
AU  - Jansen, B. J.
PY  - 2023
SP  - 196-225
SN  - 0959-3845
DO  - 10.1108/itp-09-2022-0729
UR  - https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/issn/0959-3845
AB  - Purpose – 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.
Design/methodology/approach – 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.
Findings – 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.
Research limitations/implications – 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.
Practical implications – 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.
Originality/value – 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.
ER  -