Work

Constructing multidimensional personas of older adults based on behavioral, cognitive, and perceptual abilities

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: The increasing aging of the population necessitates the design of products that meet the needs of older individuals. Persona is a user-centered design approach often employed to understand a user’s requirements. The primary contribution of this study lies in the proposal of a persona development methodology for older users that is suitable for large-sample and multivariate analyses. By clustering behavioral, cognitive, and perceptual abilities—and alternating between manual screening and the two-step clustering method—34 distinct older user persona clusters were identified from a dataset of 4213 individuals aged 60–90. Each persona cluster was defined on the basis of a combination of demographic characteristics, health conditions, psychological traits, behavioral performance, cognitive and perceptual capabilities, and social background. This framework provides a clear and practical pathway for persona construction, offering a generalizable methodological reference for future studies aiming to develop user personas from other perspectives or on the basis of different user characteristics. The findings of this study can provide a basis for sample selection in design research for older users and offer a fundamental reference for sample characteristics for design decisions that meet the needs of the target user group.

Source: Humanities and Social Sciences Communications

DOI: 10.1057/s41599-025-06117-8

Authors: Aihui Yang, Yutian Jia, Xuechun Wang, Hao Fan

Institutions: Tiangong University, Southeast University

Language: English

Topic: Persona Design and Applications

Subfield: Human-Computer Interaction

Field: Computer Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,890