Personas#

What is a user persona? Personas are tools in which an audience segment is represented by a fictional person. Our brains can more easily empathize with members of our audience when they are represented this way. The following personas represent the audience segments for IDM tools and research. When designing tools or communicating about our work, focus mostly on the needs of the primary personas but keep those of the secondary personas in mind. Each persona may be from an HIC or an LMIC and should be modified for the resources available in those contexts.

For a PDF download of the personas, click here.

LMIC considerations#

Those from LMICs have valuable first-hand knowledge of the health systems and populations we aim to serve. However, they may also have the following resource limitations we need to be aware of and accommodate:

  • Limited network bandwidth

  • Limited compute resources

  • Limited funds for travel

Primary personas#

These personas represent the main consumers of IDM’s work.

Shelley: Academic#

Background

  • Physics PhD

  • Associate professor in disease modeling

Strengths

  • Strong math/stats skills and programming in R and Python

  • Experience building and teaching dynamic models

Weaknesses

  • Less familiar with biology and social determinants of health

Motivations

  • Answering interesting research questions

  • Publishing high-impact papers

Needs

  • Well-tested and documented code that can be run independently with minimal technical assistance

  • Ability to modify the model code or adapt the model for her own research

Robin: Biostatistician#

Background

  • Master’s in public health

  • Biostatistician at a public health department

Strengths

  • Comfortable analyzing data using R and constructing compartmental models

Weaknesses

  • Not well-versed in computer science or Python

Motivations

  • Providing accurate estimates of disease burden to inform health policies

Needs

  • Introductory support for programming concepts and installation troubleshooting

Amari: Policy advisor#

Background

  • Bachelor’s in social sciences

  • Advisor in the ministry of health

Strengths

  • Extensive experience working within government and making trade-offs for cost, logistics, etc.

  • Deep understanding of the population served

Weaknesses

  • Lack of experience interpreting disease models and their uncertainty

Motivations

  • Setting health budgets and policies that save lives and promote well-being in the population

Needs

  • Straightforward synopses of work, dashboards, and clear visuals that convey uncertainty

Secondary personas#

These personas are not the target audience for our research, but are important consumers of our work and results. They are important to keep in mind when crafting visuals and messaging. Further, they may later become a primary consumer!

Fatima: Undergrad#

Background

  • Undergraduate student in epidemiology

Strengths

  • Coursework in epidemiology, programming, and statistics

Weaknesses

  • Broad but shallow experience in most fields

Motivations

  • Completing a research project in disease modeling to see if she enjoys the field

Needs

  • Conceptual documentation describing why, not just how, to do something

Andrew: Parent#

Background

  • Concerned parent and citizen interested in IDM’s work

Strengths

  • First-hand knowledge of the impact that public health policies have on his family

Weaknesses

  • No specific experience with disease modeling or epidemiology

Motivations

  • Wants safety recommendations for his friends and family but is skeptical of the foundation

Needs

  • Direct, empathetic, and honest communication around what is known, what is uncertain, what current recommendations are, and what is being done