Constructing multidimensional personas of older adults based on behavioral, cognitive, and perceptual abilities

The increasing aging of the population necessitates the design of products that meet the needs of older individuals. Persona is a user-centered design approach often employed to understand a user’s requirements. The primary contribution of this study lies in the proposal of a persona development methodology for older users that is suitable for large-sample and multivariate analyses. By clustering behavioral, cognitive, and perceptual abilities—and alternating between manual screening and the two-step clustering method—34 distinct older user persona clusters were identified from a dataset of 4213 individuals aged 60–90. Each persona cluster was defined on the basis of a combination of demographic characteristics, health conditions, psychological traits, behavioral performance, cognitive and perceptual capabilities, and social background. This framework provides a clear and practical pathway for persona construction, offering a generalizable methodological reference for future studies aiming to develop user personas from other perspectives or on the basis of different user characteristics. The findings of this study can provide a basis for sample selection in design research for older users and offer a fundamental reference for sample characteristics for design decisions that meet the needs of the target user group.