Short answer
Be aware that your emotional response to a persona, influenced by its perceived attractiveness, can affect your engagement and the expressive qualities of your design, but critically evaluate if this bias impacts the core functionality and user needs.
- Field
- User-Centred Design
- Source
- Information Technology and People (2023)
- Method
- Experimental study
- Sample
- 235 participants
- Evidence
- Moderate effect
The perceived attractiveness of a user persona can significantly impact a designer's engagement and perception of the persona, but this bias may not directly translate to improvements in the functional quality of the designed IT solutions. This user-centred design research insight is drawn from a 2023 study published in Information Technology and People. Using Experimental study with 235 participants, researchers explored how this design variable affects real-world outcomes. The key design takeaway: Be aware that your emotional response to a persona, influenced by its perceived attractiveness, can affect your engagement and the expressive qualities of your design, but critically evaluate if this bias impacts the core functionality and user needs.
Persona Attractiveness Influences Designer Engagement, Not Necessarily Task Outcomes
The perceived attractiveness of a user persona can significantly impact a designer's engagement and perception of the persona, but this bias may not directly translate to improvements in the functional quality of the designed IT solutions.
Information Technology and People · 2023
Key Findings
- 01Perceived attractiveness of user personas positively correlated with their completeness, credibility, empathy, likability, and usefulness.
- 02More attractive personas were perceived as more agreeable, emotionally stable, extraverted, and open.
- 03Designers spent more time engaging with more attractive personas.
- 04IT solutions for more attractive personas showed a higher degree of affect, but task outputs (functional quality) did not significantly vary by persona attractiveness.
Application
Design takeaway
Be aware that your emotional response to a persona, influenced by its perceived attractiveness, can affect your engagement and the expressive qualities of your design, but critically evaluate if this bias impacts the core functionality and user needs.
How to apply
When creating or selecting user personas, consciously consider if their attributes (including visual representation) might be introducing unconscious bias. Develop criteria to objectively assess the functional suitability of designs, independent of persona appeal.
Project actions
- 01When creating personas, consider how their presentation might influence your own perception.
- 02Develop clear criteria for evaluating the success of your design that are not based on subjective appeal.
Method & Evidence
Variables
Strengths & Limitations
Strengths
- +Experimental design allows for causal inferences regarding attractiveness and perception.
- +Large sample size provides statistical power.
Limitations
The study's focus on IT and remote work might limit its applicability to other design fields. The measurement of 'affect' in solutions could be subjective.
Reliability & validity
The study's reliability would be supported by consistent measurement of designer perceptions and engagement. Validity is enhanced by the experimental manipulation of persona attractiveness and the analysis of both subjective perceptions and objective task outputs.
Think critically
To what extent should 'hedonic' qualities be incorporated into user personas, and how can designers ensure these qualities enhance empathy without introducing detrimental biases?
Design Principles
"Strive for objective persona evaluation, recognizing that subjective appeal can influence engagement but should not dictate functional design decisions."
This research highlights a subtle but pervasive psychological bias in the design process. Designers need to be aware that their emotional and cognitive responses to user personas, influenced by factors like attractiveness, can shape their interaction and potentially their design choices, even if the final product's core functionality remains unaffected.
What This Means for Your Design
When designers create things for people, they sometimes like people who seem more attractive more. This makes them pay more attention to those people, but it doesn't always mean they make better products for them.
How to use in your project
- 1.Reference this study when discussing the creation and use of user personas, particularly concerning potential biases and the importance of objective evaluation.
- 2.Use the findings to justify methods for ensuring that design decisions are based on user needs rather than designer preconceptions.
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Quick Cite
Paragraph starter
The 'what is beautiful is good' effect, as demonstrated by Salminen et al. (2023), suggests that perceived attractiveness of user personas can positively influence designer engagement and perceptions of persona credibility and usefulness. However, this study found that while designers spent more time with attractive personas and produced solutions with higher 'affect,' the functional quality of the IT solutions did not significantly improve. This highlights the need for designers to be critically aware of how subjective persona attributes might influence their design process and to implement objective evaluation methods to ensure that functional user needs are met.
Source
Information Technology and People
How does an imaginary persona's attractiveness affect designers' perceptions and IT solutions? An experimental study on users' remote working needs
journal · 2023
View sourceQuestions About This Research
- What does the research say about persona attractiveness influences designer engagement, not necessarily task outcomes?
- Be aware that your emotional response to a persona, influenced by its perceived attractiveness, can affect your engagement and the expressive qualities of your design, but critically evaluate if this bias impacts the core functionality and user needs. Evidence: Information Technology and People (2023).
- Why does "Persona Attractiveness Influences Designer Engagement, Not Necessarily Task Outcomes" matter for design?
- This research highlights a subtle but pervasive psychological bias in the design process. Designers need to be aware that their emotional and cognitive responses to user personas, influenced by factors like attractiveness, can shape their interaction and potentially their design choices, even if the final product's core functionality remains unaffected.
- How can designers apply this research?
- Be aware that your emotional response to a persona, influenced by its perceived attractiveness, can affect your engagement and the expressive qualities of your design, but critically evaluate if this bias impacts the core functionality and user needs.
- What were the main findings?
- Perceived attractiveness of user personas positively correlated with their completeness, credibility, empathy, likability, and usefulness.. More attractive personas were perceived as more agreeable, emotionally stable, extraverted, and open.. Designers spent more time engaging with more attractive personas.. IT solutions for more attractive personas showed a higher degree of affect, but task outputs (functional quality) did not significantly vary by persona attractiveness.
- What research method was used?
- Experimental study with 235 participants.
- How strong is the evidence?
- Evidence strength is rated Moderate effect, based on a 2023 journal from Information Technology and People.
- What should I do differently in my next project?
- When creating or selecting user personas, consciously consider if their attributes (including visual representation) might be introducing unconscious bias. Develop criteria to objectively assess the functional suitability of designs, independent of persona appeal.
- What are the limitations?
- The study focused on IT solutions for remote work and may not generalize to all design contexts. The 'affect' in IT solutions was linguistically analyzed, which might not fully capture the user experience.