Short answer

When designing for broad or complex demographics like ageing populations, move beyond purely qualitative persona creation and integrate relevant quantitative data to ensure representation and effectiveness.

Field: User-Centred Design
Source: Proceedings of the ... International Design Conference/Design ... (2018)
Method: Literature Review and Proposed Method Development
Evidence: Moderate effect

Developing personas based on quantitative survey data can create more effective and representative user profiles for designing healthcare policies and systems for ageing populations. This user-centred design research insight is drawn from a 2018 study published in Proceedings of the ... International Design Conference/Design .... Using Literature review and proposed method development, researchers explored how this design variable affects real-world outcomes. The key design takeaway: When designing for broad or complex demographics like ageing populations, move beyond purely qualitative persona creation and integrate relevant quantitative data to ensure representation and effectiveness.

Study

User-Centred DesignHigh ImpactModerate effect

Quantitative Personas Enhance Healthcare Policy for Ageing Populations

Developing personas based on quantitative survey data can create more effective and representative user profiles for designing healthcare policies and systems for ageing populations.

Proceedings of the ... International Design Conference/Design ... · 2018

Key Findings

01Existing surveys provide valuable quantitative data on the effects of ageing.
02Current persona development methods may not adequately represent the complexities of an ageing population without quantitative grounding.
03Integrating quantitative data can lead to more accurate and actionable personas for policy and design.

Application

Design takeaway

How to apply

Identify key quantitative datasets related to your target user group's characteristics, behaviours, and needs. Use statistical analysis to derive key attributes and segmentations for your personas.

Project actions

01When creating personas for a design project, consider if there's any available quantitative data (e.g., statistics, survey results) that could inform their attributes.
02Think about how to represent statistical data visually within your persona profiles.

Method & Evidence

AimHow can quantitative data from surveys on ageing be leveraged to create more robust and representative personas for policy-making and healthcare design?

MethodLiterature Review and Proposed Method Development

ProcedureThe researchers reviewed existing surveys related to the effects of ageing and proposed three methods for integrating this quantitative data into persona creation, aiming to address the lack of holistic and deep representation of the ageing population.

ContextHealthcare policy and design for ageing populations

Variables

IVAvailability and integration of quantitative survey data.

DVAccuracy and representativeness of personas; effectiveness of resulting policy/design.

CVQualitative research methods, persona creation frameworks.

Strengths & Limitations

Strengths

+Addresses a practical need for more data-driven personas in policy and healthcare.
+Proposes concrete approaches for integrating quantitative data.

Limitations

Finding and effectively synthesizing relevant quantitative data can be time-consuming and may require statistical analysis skills. The data might not capture all nuances of user experience.

Reliability & validity

The validity of the personas relies on the accuracy and relevance of the quantitative data used. Reliability would be assessed by whether different researchers, using the same data and methods, could produce similar personas.

Think critically

What are the ethical considerations when using quantitative data to represent diverse user groups, and how can these be mitigated in persona development?

Design Principles

"Data-informed personas provide a more robust foundation for user-centred design, especially for diverse or underrepresented user groups."

This approach bridges the gap between qualitative design tools and the need for data-driven decision-making in public policy and healthcare. By grounding personas in empirical data, designers and policymakers can ensure their interventions are more likely to address the diverse needs and challenges faced by older adults, leading to more impactful and equitable outcomes.

What This Means for Your Design

Using numbers and statistics from surveys about older people can help make better 'pretend' people (personas) to design healthcare and policies for them.

How to use in your project

1.Reference this paper when discussing the limitations of purely qualitative persona development and how you incorporated quantitative data to create more robust user profiles for your design project.

Add to My Project

Quick Cite

Paragraph starter

To ensure our design for [specific context] is grounded in the realities of our target demographic, we moved beyond traditional qualitative persona development. Drawing inspiration from research on quantitative personas for ageing populations (González de Heredia et al., 2018), we integrated statistical data from [mention your data source] to inform the attributes and needs of our user profiles, thereby enhancing their representativeness and the potential effectiveness of our design solutions.

Source

Proceedings of the ... International Design Conference/Design ...

PERSONAS FOR POLICY-MAKING AND HEALTHCARE DESIGN

journal · 2018

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Questions About This Research

What does the research say about quantitative personas enhance healthcare policy for ageing populations?: When designing for broad or complex demographics like ageing populations, move beyond purely qualitative persona creation and integrate relevant quantitative data to ensure representation and effectiveness. Evidence: Proceedings of the ... International Design Conference/Design ... (2018).
Why does "Quantitative Personas Enhance Healthcare Policy for Ageing Populations" matter for design?: This approach bridges the gap between qualitative design tools and the need for data-driven decision-making in public policy and healthcare. By grounding personas in empirical data, designers and policymakers can ensure their interventions are more likely to address the diverse needs and challenges faced by older adults, leading to more impactful and equitable outcomes.
How can designers apply this research?: When designing for broad or complex demographics like ageing populations, move beyond purely qualitative persona creation and integrate relevant quantitative data to ensure representation and effectiveness.
What were the main findings?: Existing surveys provide valuable quantitative data on the effects of ageing.. Current persona development methods may not adequately represent the complexities of an ageing population without quantitative grounding.. Integrating quantitative data can lead to more accurate and actionable personas for policy and design.
What research method was used?: Literature Review and Proposed Method Development.
How strong is the evidence?: Evidence strength is rated Moderate effect, based on a 2018 journal from Proceedings of the ... International Design Conference/Design ....
What should I do differently in my next project?: Identify key quantitative datasets related to your target user group's characteristics, behaviours, and needs. Use statistical analysis to derive key attributes and segmentations for your personas.
What are the limitations?: The effectiveness of the proposed methods depends on the availability and quality of relevant quantitative survey data. The interpretation and synthesis of diverse quantitative data can be challenging.