Constructing Personas for Digital Health Interventions for the Prevention and Management of Childhood Obesity

Introduction: In the field of technology development Personas (i.e., imaginary persons describing a user group) are becoming increasingly important and widely adopted, as they assist with aligning technology with user values and needs. This is especially important in the realm of digital interventions targeting childhood obesity, as children’s lower ability to self-regulate can result in low adherence. Consequently, effectiveness of health intervention can be lower and rehabilitation less successful. Good user research (i.e., Persona development) can help tailor the intervention to the user’s or patient’s needs and consequently improve engagement rates. 

Goals and Methods: As part of the Horizon Europe BIO-STREAMS project study (https://www.bio-streams.eu/), a qualitative method was adopted to develop the Personas. In the first phase, we defined the potential users of our digital solution. Next, we collected basic information on motivations, needs, and goals of potential users by distributing open-ended questionnaires among experts from different backgrounds. In the third phase, we mapped gathered information into 19 categories or draft Personas, then, we reduced the categories into initial list of 12 Personas and finally defined eight Personas based on experts’ discussion in an interactive digital environment.  

Results: The procedure resulted in the following eight Personas; Child, Parent, Teacher, Principal, Doctor, Dietitian, Biomedical Data Scientist and Policy Maker, with extensive descriptions of their goals, needs and motivations. Additionally, we have defined the benefits and the functionalities each Persona seeks in the digital intervention.  

Conclusions: The process of collecting information for the Persona creation and the Persona creation itself brings a valuable insight into users’ needs and expectations early in the planning process. This offers invaluable assistance in our next step; the development of an effective digital solution to address the epidemic of childhood obesity.