Animal personas
Jessica Frawley, Laurel Evelyn Dyson · 2014
This paper describes the development and application of a non-human animal persona in designing to support co-operative and free-range animal agriculture. This work is grounded in case study research of a small free-range egg farm, through which field and interview work were undertaken. We demonstrate how existing user-centred design tools, such as the persona, can be used to better reflect co-operative farming philosophies and more meaningfully represent both farmer and animal stakeholders within the design process. This approach is theoretically orientated within sustainable HCI and Animal Computer Interaction (ACI), which is itself an extension of HCI. The species-specific persona of a chicken allows representation and ensures that the animal, which is made deliberately invisible within factory and intensive farming, is made visible through and within the design of an online system. By making explicit the implicit assumptions we hold about an animal, such personas provide a tool for thinking, design, and further discussion.