2025
Lo, Priscilla Y., Veldhuis, Annemiek, Antle, Alissa N., DiPaola, Steve
Noel: A Chatbot Persona to Support Children Designing for Others Proceedings Article
In: Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Association for Computing Machinery, 2025, ISBN: 9798400713941.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: artificial intelligence, chatbot, children, design thinking, education, empathy, large language model, personas, visual impairment
@inproceedings{nokey,
title = {Noel: A Chatbot Persona to Support Children Designing for Others},
author = {Lo, Priscilla Y. and Veldhuis, Annemiek and Antle, Alissa N. and DiPaola, Steve},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3706598.3713836},
doi = {10.1145/3706598.3713836},
isbn = {9798400713941},
year = {2025},
date = {2025-04-25},
urldate = {2025-04-25},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems},
publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
series = {CHI '25},
abstract = {Designing for others encourages children to empathize with and consider different perspectives and needs. A chatbot persona could allow children to design for stakeholder groups that are challenging to involve directly in educational activities, such as people with disabilities. In this paper, we explore how an artificial intelligence chatbot persona leveraging the GPT-4 large language model can support children’s design empathy while designing for others. We report the design, development process, and implementation of a chatbot persona representing a 12-year-old child with low vision named Noel. The exploratory case study consisted of three 90- to 120-minute workshop sessions with nineteen students (ages 11 to 13) in a grade 6/7 classroom. Results illustrate ways that Noel supported students throughout the design process, their expressions of design empathy, and their experiences. We present implications for developers and educators along with future directions for research},
keywords = {artificial intelligence, chatbot, children, design thinking, education, empathy, large language model, personas, visual impairment},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
Designing for others encourages children to empathize with and consider different perspectives and needs. A chatbot persona could allow children to design for stakeholder groups that are challenging to involve directly in educational activities, such as people with disabilities. In this paper, we explore how an artificial intelligence chatbot persona leveraging the GPT-4 large language model can support children’s design empathy while designing for others. We report the design, development process, and implementation of a chatbot persona representing a 12-year-old child with low vision named Noel. The exploratory case study consisted of three 90- to 120-minute workshop sessions with nineteen students (ages 11 to 13) in a grade 6/7 classroom. Results illustrate ways that Noel supported students throughout the design process, their expressions of design empathy, and their experiences. We present implications for developers and educators along with future directions for research
2006
Antle, Alissa Nicole
Child-Personas: Fact or Fiction? Proceedings Article
In: Proceedings of the 6th Conference on Designing Interactive Systems, pp. 22–30, Association for Computing Machinery, University Park, PA, USA, 2006, ISBN: 1595933670.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: children, interaction design, personas, user abstraction, user-centred design
@inproceedings{10.1145/1142405.1142411,
title = {Child-Personas: Fact or Fiction?},
author = {Alissa Nicole Antle},
url = {https://doi-org.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/10.1145/1142405.1142411},
doi = {10.1145/1142405.1142411},
isbn = {1595933670},
year = {2006},
date = {2006-01-01},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 6th Conference on Designing Interactive Systems},
pages = {22–30},
publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
address = {University Park, PA, USA},
series = {DIS '06},
abstract = {This paper introduces a practice-based, child-centric method of creating child-user archetypes which extends adult-based persona theory to interaction design with children. Persona construction can help interaction designers better understand real child-users and result in rich child-user archetypes which are developmentally situated and contextually valid. Key differences between adult-personas and child-personas are highlighted. A description of an online mentoring application created for CBC4Kids.ca illustrates the value of child-personas in design practice.},
keywords = {children, interaction design, personas, user abstraction, user-centred design},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
This paper introduces a practice-based, child-centric method of creating child-user archetypes which extends adult-based persona theory to interaction design with children. Persona construction can help interaction designers better understand real child-users and result in rich child-user archetypes which are developmentally situated and contextually valid. Key differences between adult-personas and child-personas are highlighted. A description of an online mentoring application created for CBC4Kids.ca illustrates the value of child-personas in design practice.