title: Appreciating the Persona paradox: lessons from participatory design sessions with HIV+ gay men.
abstract: Eliciting user requirements from HIV-positive gay men who smoke can be challenging. This is because of the complex relationship between social stigma and gender identities (e.g., gay, masculine, HIV+, and smoking status). Inspired to engage HIV-positive gay men in the development of a web-assisted tobacco intervention, we used personas as a main communication tool in our participatory design sessions. Personas are characters created by users that embody part of their own behaviours, thoughts, and motivations. In an apparent paradox, this article is a description of how the use of personas to ensure less realistic self-representation provided an impetus for more self-disclosure. Findings and feedbacks from this study reveal that personas are an effective design tool to engage users in sensitive topics. Implications for future work are also discussed.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC Canada.
authors.forename: Jae-Yung
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Kwon
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, University of Ottawa, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Craig
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Phillips
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC Canada.
authors.forename: Leanne M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Currie
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002170:Canada; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000523:psychology*; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000458:organization & administration; D018451:Homosexuality, Male / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D020380:Needs Assessment / Q000458:organization & administration; D010358:Patient Participation / Q000523:psychology*; D012381:Role Playing; D012907:Smoking / Q000523:psychology*; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000379:methods / Q000523:psychology*; D000074606:Smoking Prevention