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Landoni et al_2026_ACM_3774935.3806168
Conference paper (in proceedings)

Using anti-personas to model children : how to represent user-system mismatches

  • Tobia, Diletta Micol ORCID Facoltà di scienze informatiche, Università della Svizzera italiana, Svizzera
  • Chakrabarti, Hrishita Web Information Systems - Software Technology, Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands
  • Pera, Maria Soledad Web Information Systems - Software Technology, Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands
  • Landoni, Monica ORCID Facoltà di scienze informatiche, Università della Svizzera italiana, Svizzera
  • 2026
Published in:
  • ACM Conference on User Modeling, Adaptation and Personalization (UMAP '26). - 2026, p. 282-291
Children
Information retrieval
Personas
Search
User modeling
English User models, which represent the needs of users an online informa- tion access system is meant to serve, can facilitate the design and evaluation of the system. However, these models typically rely on assumptions drawn from adult users, such as advanced literacy lev- els or the ability to evaluate retrieved content critically. Hence, they often overlook the distinct needs and search habits of children, de- spite the growing prevalence of information access systems among youngsters. In this work, we introduce a set of child anti-personas, user models representing classes of users for whom the system is not designed. To substantiate these mismatches, we investigate how primary school children’s behaviors when interacting with different search tools diverge from the assumptions of typical user models. Thereafter, we identify recurring patterns of misalignment between children’s behavior and system expectations and link these patterns to the risks identified by adult stakeholders involved in children’s online searching. By representing children as anti-personas of con- temporary search tools, this work contributes to the quest for more informed and less stereotypical user modeling when it comes to information access for underrepresented groups, such as children.
Collections
Language
  • English
Classification
Computer science and technology
Notes
  • UMAP '26: 34th ACM Conference on User Modeling, Adaptation and Personalization
  • Gothenburg , Sweden
  • June 2026
License
CC BY
Open access status
gold
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://n2t.net/ark:/12658/srd1335783
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