A Survey of 15 Years of Data-Driven Persona Development

Abstract

Data-driven persona development unifies methodologies for creating robust personas from the behaviors and demographics of user segments. Data-driven personas have gained popularity in human-computer interaction due to digital trends such as personified big data, online analytics, and the evolution of data science algorithms. Even with its increasing popularity, there is a lack of a systematic understanding of the research on the topic. To address this gap, we review 77 data-driven persona research articles from 2005-2020. The results indicate three periods: (1) Quantification (2005-2008), which consists of the first experiments with data-driven methods, (2) Diversification (2009-2014), which involves more pluralistic use of data and algorithms, and (3) Digitalization (2015-present), marked by the abundance of online user data and the rapid development of data science algorithms and software. Despite consistent work on data-driven personas, there remain many research gaps concerning (a) shared resources, (b) evaluation methods, (c) standardization, (d) consideration for inclusivity, and (e) risk of losing in-depth user insights. We encourage organizations to realistically assess their data-driven persona development readiness to gain value from data-driven personas.