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Understanding culturally distant end-users through intermediary-derived personas

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SAICSIT '11: Proceedings of the South African Institute of Computer Scientists and Information Technologists Conference on Knowledge, Innovation and Leadership in a Diverse, Multidisciplinary Environment

Pages 314 - 317

https://doi.org/10.1145/2072221.2072266

Published: 03 October 2011 Publication History

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Abstract

In this paper we present the use of a persona creation process for gathering information from intermediaries for information and communication technology for development (ICT4D) projects. Our approach represents a departure from traditional persona use in that it does not organise pre-existing data about potential users, but is itself a data gathering process. We present a case study of our use of the process on an ICT4D project, during which time we observed the combined benefits of using personas and of working with a non-governmental organisation (NGO) intermediary materialise. We attribute these outcomes to our persona creation workshops. Information which the NGO furnished regarding sensitive personal circumstances typical of our end users greatly improved our understanding of our users. This information would likely not have come to light had we interviewed the users ourselves, which we believe demonstrates the validity of relying on intermediary information for persona creation rather than first-hand information.

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Cited By

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Jansen BJung SSalminen J(2024)Finetuning Analytics Information Systems for a Better Understanding of Users: Evidence of Personification Bias on Multiple Digital ChannelsInformation Systems Frontiers10.1007/s10796-023-10395-526:2(775-798)Online publication date: 1-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10796-023-10395-5
Ssozi-Mugarura FBlake ERivett U(2017)Codesigning with communities to support rural water management in UgandaCoDesign10.1080/15710882.2017.131090413:2(110-126)Online publication date: 7-Apr-2017
https://doi.org/10.1080/15710882.2017.1310904
Jegede GDensmore M(2016)Using Co-Design to Discern and Overcome Barriers to Employment in Cape TownProceedings of the 7th Annual Symposium on Computing for Development10.1145/3001913.3006641(1-4)Online publication date: 18-Nov-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3001913.3006641
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Index Terms

Understanding culturally distant end-users through intermediary-derived personas
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)
    1. HCI theory, concepts and models
  2. Interaction design
    1. Interaction design theory, concepts and paradigms
2. Software and its engineering
  1. Software creation and management
    1. Software development process management
      1. Software development methods
        Rapid application development

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Published In

October 2011

352 pages

ISBN:9781450308786

DOI:10.1145/2072221

Conference Chair:
Irwin Brown
University of Cape Town
,
Program Chairs:
Kosheek Sewchurran
University of Cape Town
,
Hussein Suleman
University of Cape Town

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

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Published: 03 October 2011

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SAICSIT '11: South African Institute of Computer Scientists and Information Technologists Conference

October 3 - 5, 2011

Cape Town, South Africa

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Jansen BJung SSalminen J(2024)Finetuning Analytics Information Systems for a Better Understanding of Users: Evidence of Personification Bias on Multiple Digital ChannelsInformation Systems Frontiers10.1007/s10796-023-10395-526:2(775-798)Online publication date: 1-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10796-023-10395-5
Ssozi-Mugarura FBlake ERivett U(2017)Codesigning with communities to support rural water management in UgandaCoDesign10.1080/15710882.2017.131090413:2(110-126)Online publication date: 7-Apr-2017
https://doi.org/10.1080/15710882.2017.1310904
Jegede GDensmore M(2016)Using Co-Design to Discern and Overcome Barriers to Employment in Cape TownProceedings of the 7th Annual Symposium on Computing for Development10.1145/3001913.3006641(1-4)Online publication date: 18-Nov-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3001913.3006641
Cabrero DWinschiers-Theophilus HAbdelnour-Nocera J(2016)A Critique of Personas as representations of "the other" in Cross-Cultural Technology DesignProceedings of the First African Conference on Human Computer Interaction10.1145/2998581.2998595(149-154)Online publication date: 21-Nov-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2998581.2998595
Ssozi-Mugarura FBlake ERivett U(2016)Supporting community needs for rural water management through community-based co-designProceedings of the 14th Participatory Design Conference: Full papers - Volume 110.1145/2940299.2940311(91-100)Online publication date: 15-Aug-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2940299.2940311
St. Peter H(2015)Communicating User ExperienceInternational Journal of Sociotechnology and Knowledge Development10.4018/IJSKD.20150401027:2(14-26)Online publication date: 1-Apr-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.4018/IJSKD.2015040102
Kerr STan OChua J(2014)Cooking personasInternational Journal of Human-Computer Studies10.1016/j.ijhcs.2013.10.00272:2(255-274)Online publication date: 1-Feb-2014
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2013.10.002

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Personas, people and participation: challenges from the trenches of local government

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