Social Types and Personas: Typologies of Persons on the Web and Designing for Predictable Behaviors

摘要

Whether we call them "users," "participants," or just "actors," a focus of information science research and practice is invariably human beings. While user studies have grown in scope and volume since the early ARIST chapters in the 1960s, few researchers have approached study populaces from the perspective of social types. A concept with a long and somewhat sordid history in the social sciences, particularly sociology, as Almog (1998) explains referencing the works of Parker, Simmel, Goffman, Klapp, Becker, and other luminaries, social types in essence refer to: A sociological summary of the typical characteristics of a particular group or of a category of human beings usually recognized and typed by the public and often granted a nickname. This group or category may be a secondary group, a community, a profession, a subculture, a status group, a class or a generation unit that is characterized by its look (physical, fashionable or both), life style and philosophy, pattern of interaction (particularly linguistic), attitudes and certain psychological traits.