Combine Qualitative and Quantitative Methods to Create Persona

Persona as a user archetype is widely used in interactive design process. Persona is created with qualitative methods such as user observation and interview. This approach has met some criticisms for its reliability. We propose to combine the qualitative approach with quantitative methods. We use cluster analysis to group the users into subgroups. We select subgroups of users that have similar goals. We abstract Persona with information obtained from user observations and interview. We illustrate the steps of this approach through a case study. Finally, we discuss a few key points in Persona creation and outline some future research directions.