Observatorio (OBS* ) Journal, 5 (2008), 079-097 1646-5954/ERC123483/2008 079 ‘Thick’ personas – Using ethnographic Methods for Persona Development as a Tool for Conveying the Social Science View in Technological Design An Jacobs, Katrien Dreessen, Jo Pierson, IBBT Research Group SMIT - Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Belgium Abstract Designing and developing successful technological innovations requires interdisciplinary research teams, where engineers and social scientists profoundly interact with each other. In this kind of co- operation it is often the challenge for the latter to present the social science findings in such a way that they are understandable and actionable for engineering. One of the tools to bridge both worlds is the use of ‘personas’. In this paper we want to explain our experience with the development of well functioning personas. We believe that an optimal approach is multi-methodological. Based on the scope of two research projects this paper will first elaborate on the advantages and limitations of using personas in an interdisciplinary environment. Second it will also discuss the ways in which a combination of different (quantitative and qualitative ethnographic) methods of data collection served as input for the construction of efficient personas and the added value of this approach. The different methods make it possible to obtain ‘thick descriptions’ (Geertz, 1973) about the different user practices. To communicate these results without losing the advantages of ‘thick descriptions’, ‘thick’ personas are necessary. 1. I ntroduction Together with other applied social scientists (e.g. Hughes et al. 2000), we experienced the problem to embed our user insights early in the development process. Communication is the main obstacle: the different partners often do not or cannot read the classical, extensive reports with the output. A possible solution is making use of personas, as introduced by Cooper (2004). However there is still too little information available concerning the practical implementation of this approach for sharing key research findings in an interdisciplinary way. The paper takes a closer look at the creation process of personas, based on two different projects within the IBBT (Interdisciplinary Institute for Broadband Technology) framework. The key question is whether this creation process is easily transposable to different research projects in different phases of the product development process. In other words, has the phase in the development process wherein the research project is situated an impact on the actual creation process of personas? How does creating personas coincide with the research and the scenario development? Before discussing these projects and the different approaches in creating personas, we introduce some theoretical aspects of personas and how they are created. Copyright © 2008 (An Jacobs et al.). Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial No Derivatives (by-nc-nd). Available at http://obs.obercom.pt.