More-than-Human Personas

Summary

In this teaching activity, students learn how to identify, create, and employ more-than-human personas in technology design. More-than-human personas can help ensuring that the needs of both human and non-human actors are considered when making design decisions, and when designers do not have direct access to the stakeholders.

Motivation

To adopt more-than-human perspectives into technology design, the non-human personas can be used in situations where human and nonhuman stakeholders are equally considered as ‘users’. Taking a more-than-human approach, ensuring that the needs of non-human stakeholders are considered when making design decisions can also highlight areas for innovation.

This teaching activity is good to apply after Experiencing Ecosystems and Entanglement, More-than-human stakeholder mapping or similar stakeholder identification and data collection.

Learning outcomes

After the teaching activity students should be able to:

• Identify more-than-human primary and secondary actors in various contexts and situations.
• Create more-than-human personas based on primary and secondary data.
• Employ more-than-human personas in technology design.

Teacher guidance

Preparations
More-than-human actors should have been identified and data about them should have been collected. 

Step 1: Lecture, Group size: All, Time: 40 min
The teacher introduces students to relevant factors for identifying more-than-human actors and creating more-than-human personas.

Step 2: Group work, Group size: 4, Time: 60 min
Students in groups practice analysis of primary and secondary data and create more-than-human personas.

Step: Share with another group, Group size: 8, Time: 20 min
The students share their practice outputs with peers and gain access to peers’ outputs as a model for their practice. 

Step 4: Share in class, Group size: All, Time: 30 min
The teacher chairs a class discussion, asking for reflections on experiences, and consolidating the lessons learned.

Questions for assessment

• Give an example of how the more-than-human persona can be used in technology design.
• How does this more-than-human persona complement the perspectives of other actors?
• What other more-than-human actors did you identify beyond those that the persona represents?

Recommended readings

Tomitsch, Martin; Fredericks, Joel; Vo, Dan; Frawley, Jessica; & Foth, Marcus (2021). Non-human Personas. Including Nature in the Participatory Design of Smart Cities. Interaction Design and Architecture(s). 102-130. 10.55612/s-5002-050-006.