Four approaches to user modelling—a qualitative research interview study of HCI professionals' practice

In this paper, four types of experienced HCI Professionals are interviewed about their different ways of describing users. By use of the qualitative research interview technique of thematizing the dialogue as explicit, implicit and constructive conversations about users, these differences are explored. The research shows that the traditional usability engineering approach to user description produce person descriptions that are filled with idiosyncratic information about the individual in the particular test situation. Less traditional approaches to user modelling give other kinds of schematic user typification in terms of the users' roles, users' social events or users' self-concepts. Despite the obvious fallacies in these approaches, typification of users appears unproblematic for the experienced HCI professional, because in practice user types are rich conceptual structures that support professional user modelling. Accordingly, we suggest that it might not be that important to discuss why user types exist, but rather to study their application and change and under which conditions they become user stereotypes, and how we may counteract the negative effects of user stereotypes on design.