Transport is an enabler for all daily activities in our society and is essential to national economic development. Transport also influences wellbeing directly and indirectly, including enabling access to significant life necessities and activities, promoting physical mobility, and fostering infrastructure development (Delbosc, 2012). Thus, improving the transport system not only enables social and economic development but also enhances wellbeing and equality (Chatterjee et al., 2019). The Government committed to providing public services to all members of society and distributing investment and financial capital to the programmes, places and communities that require it most (Civil Service, 2022; HM Government, 2022). However, expressed sentiments, attitudes, preferences, and behaviour among passengers vary for several reasons (Mooradian & Swan, 2006). To conduct these public engagements, it is necessary to comprehend the behaviour, demands, and preferences of various population groups, to provide the most appropriate intervention, and to identify the most vulnerable groups that should be prioritised.
Persona is a powerful tool for communication and interactive design (Caballero et al., 2014), which could be utilised as a design tool to create user-centric policies and services (Gonzalez de Heredia et al., 2018).
The research aims to examine how data from different sources can be manipulated to comprehend the travel behaviour of distinct demographic groups and support the policy-making process. The two main research questions are:
The research will be explored and developed in partnership with colleagues from Department for Transport (DfT), focussing on the context of the UK domestic transport system. In investigating the relation between policies on personas, policies will shape the transportation system. Analysing the impacts of policies on personas could be accomplished by reverting to the classic problem in human factors: examining the interaction between the personas and the system designed by the policies. The social-technical framework designed by Davis et al.(2014) and the "onion model" revisited designed by Wilson & Sharples (2015) will be applied to analyse the relationship between personas (people) and related elements shaped by policy (technologies, culture, process, infrastructure, goals).
The research will be divided into two parts.
The first section is devoted to investigating the interaction between travellers' personas and other elements in transport system. Multiple data sources including national survey data source (2002 - 2021), the UK census data (to 2022), and other digital footprint data will be used to widen and deepen the narrative of DfT personas.
In the second phase of the research project, a qualitative approach employing human factors methods and policy analysis will be used to examine the application of personas in evidence-based policy making. A framework that measures and compares the impacts of different policy options on different personas will be created. Instead of recommending a particular policy, the research will concentrate on improving decision-making techniques. Thus, the research can fill the gap in knowledge regarding the use of personas in design, particularly how personas can positively impact policy-making processes.
This author is supported by the Horizon Centre for Doctoral Training at the University of Nottingham (UKRI Grant No. EP/S023305/1).