This tutorial focuses on how more-than human personas has been used in different domains and how AI is changing the method. The focus of the tutorial is on chatbots. Research shows that storytelling and interactive systems can enhance empathy towards other species than humans. The aim of the tutorial is to discuss how the chatbots can be used for future scenarios examining and preventing harm to nature. The objectives are to present planetary chatbot personas based on different platforms, narrative techniques, the Non-Human Persona Perception Scale, (NH-PPS), and discuss if the planetary personas method is applicable. The participants will gain an understand of how and if future narratives can introduce planetary personas to the design process. Participants will leave with an understanding of a new wave within personas and a chance to test different platforms’ ability to prompt for planetary personas. Finally, they will be presented with two specific methods: futuring and (NH-PPS)
- Introduction
Despite broad recognition of the environmental harm caused by human activity, to mention a few climate change, pollution, biodiversity loss, and species extinction—design practices still largely prioritize human needs at the expense of other species [8].
In contrast, non-human, other-than-human, and more-than-human perspectives highlight how other species are deeply intertwined with human social worlds [9,14], inviting designers and researchers to attend to how multiple forms of life co‑produce landscapes, practices, and futures [10].
Within this shift, personas have been proposed as a practical method for operationalizing other species’ perspectives. Recent research shows how designers adapt traditional persona templates—originally developed to understand human target groups—to represent animals, species, and ecosystems [6]. In the following, we use the term planetary personas to describe personas that represent both human and non-human beings.
These personas vary narratively along a spectrum from factual, encyclopedic descriptions to anthropomorphic, empathy‑oriented storytelling. Anthropomorphic personas help evoke empathy, while factual personas support ecological understanding and informed decision-making [7]. Ecological storytelling more broadly can foster empathy for the planet by presenting multispecies perspectives [13]. Findings also suggest that dialogue‑based formats, where users interact with planetary personas over time, can deepen empathic engagement by enabling continuity, perspective‑taking, and iterative reflection [13].
Building on these insights, we propose the use of chat‑based systems, where conversational interaction allows planetary personas to respond dynamically to human actions and decisions.
- AI Generated Personas
GenAI can reliably create persona descriptions that are coherent, believable, and useful for design work [12] and the descriptions are perceived as informative, believable, positive, relatable, and not stereotyped.
GenAI have the potential to enhance immersion with AI agents that represent actual or intended target groups such as personas [11]. Furthermore, GenAI tend to attribute personas with empathy-building traits, which are required in some design contexts [12]. It can be employed to make personas more interactive [2] and a study on AI-based animal chatbot personas shows that animal personas, which include emotional verbalization and authentic details, increase empathy and support prosocial behavioral intentions toward animals [5].
In line with this we have developed animal chatbots depicting animals not easily relatable to humans e.g. snakes, bat, snails, wolfs. Some bots rely on text-based conversations, others use speech input. The question is how to integrate these experiments into design cases to overcome the large crisis our planet faces? And if this is a useful tool to provide information and empathy towards other species and their needs in design processes.
- Non-Human Persona Perception Scale
The Non-Human Persona Perception Scale (NH-PPS) builds upon the Personas Perception Scale (PPS) [12] and is designed to evaluate user perceptions of personas depicting non-human species such as different types of animals, other living organisms including plants and viruses, as well as non-living entities e.g. AI agents and robots.
The PPS includes the concepts of clarity, completeness, consistency, credibility, empathy, likability, similarity, and willingness to use. The NH-PPS is introduced in the paper “Reconceptualizing the Persona Perception Scale for Non-Human Personas” (in review) and might be further developed. It covers eight constructs that will be presented.
- Futuring and Scenarios
We face profound challenges stemming from climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, social inequality, and related pressures. Addressing them, and creating fair, inclusive, and equitable environments, is therefore crucial. Overcoming this requires creative approaches that help us imagine alternative futures. The term futuring describes a range of approaches and practices that investigate, reflect on, envision, and actively shape possible futures. Futures are understood as uncertain, open-ended, and multiple, rather than as predictable or fixed destinations [4]. Futuring differs from foresight that typically relies on professional futurists who analyze current trends to produce projections and also from scenarios that relies on narrative structures towards a specific goal [1]. While the end, or the resolution as it is termed in storytelling, is different both futuring and scenarios relies on narratives [3].
- Tutorial Agenda
The tutorial will 1) present the recent research 2) show how to create planetary personas, what prompts to use, and the pitfalls of using chatbots to create empathy for other species than humans. 3) presentation of NH-PPS 4) discuss how to include chatbots for planetary design in industrial design settings.
The tutorial lasts 2×90 minutes and consists of seven parts:
1. Introduction to the tutorial and the participants (20 min)
2. Presenting planetary personas (30 min)
3. Presentation of different chatbots, how to create them, and hand-on experiences (30 min)
4. Introduction to scenarios and future scenarios (30 min)
5. Presentation of NH-PPS (30 min)
6. Discussion of if planetary personas can solve real-life problems and how to integrate the chatbots into future design. (20min)
7. Discussion of ethics and reliability of chatbot use in design settings. (20 min)
- Intended Audience
Researchers interested in how to communicate the needs of all species in design projects and industrial participants working with aspects of the planetary crisis, such as environmental issues, biodiversity etc. The attendants need to have an introductory understanding of chatbots and an interest in solving planetary crisis. The goal is to discuss how to include planetary persona into design processes and design decision and the attendants will at the end get an understanding of both what is possible and how to integrate planetary personas.
The participants need to bring own laptops with access to their preferred GenAI tools (Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude etc.)
Registration
- Facilitators
Dr. Lene Nielsen, is Associate Professor at the IT University Copenhagen, Section for Digitalization, Democracy and Governance. Her main research and teaching are on user experience and service design, in particular personas. Lene Nielsen has worked as a usability and persona consultant. She is a member of the Reflact (Reflection and Action) research group. She has written books and numerous scientific articles on personas as well as been a consultant and persona coach for Danish companies and organisations. Together with Olivia Thomassen Harre, she has recently received an impact grant to further industry awareness of planetary personas.
Olivia Thomassen Harre is Post Doc at the IT University Copenhagen, Section for Digitalization, Democracy and Governance. She is a member of the Reflact (Reflection and Action) research group. Her research focuses on service design, organizational transformation, digitalization, and design practice including futuring and the use of artistic practices. She has an interdisciplinary background across design, management, and information systems.
- Literature
1. John M Carroll. 1999. Five Reasons for Scenario-Based Design. Proceedings of the 32nd Hawaii International Conference on System Science.
2. Paluck Deep, Monica Bharadhidasan, and A. Baki Kocaballi. 2025. “She was useful, but a bit too optimistic”: Augmenting Design with Interactive Virtual Personas. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 205: 103646. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2025.103646
3. Olivia T. Harre, Lea Holst Laursen, and Hans Jørgen Andersen. 2025. Mapping narratives of livable, inclusive futures. CoDesign: 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/15710882.2025.2578736
4. Olivia T. Harre, Lea Holst Laursen, Hans Jørgen Andersen, Rike Neuhoff, and Luca Simeone. 2025. Framing artistic practices through new materialism to ensure multispecies futuring in the built environment. Futures 166: 103532. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2024.103532
5. Jingshu Li, Aaditya Patwari, and Yi-Chieh Lee. 2025. How animal-persona chatbots enhance empathy and positive attitudes toward animals. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 205: 103647. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2025.103647
6. Lene Nielsen and Rike Neuhoff. 2025. The design of non-human personas. In Proceedings of International Conference IADIS Information Systems 2025, 434–438.
7. Lene Nielsen and Rike Neuhoff. 2025. Different Narrative Techniques in More-Than-Human Personas. In Proceedings of the 16th Biannual Conference of the Italian SIGCHI Chapter, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1145/3750069.3750111
8. NTNU, Norway and Berilsu Tarcan. 2022. Making-with the environment through more-than-human design. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2022.347
9. Catherine Price and Sophie Chao. 2023. Multispecies, More-Than-Human, Nonhuman, Other-Than-Human: Reimagining idioms of animacy in an age of planetary unmaking. Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal 10, 2: 177–193. https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v10i2.1166
10. Anton Poikolainen Rosén, Antti Salovaara, Andrea Botero, and Marie Louise Juul Søndergaard. 2024. More-Than-Human Design in Practice. Routledge, London. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003467731
11. Joni Salminen, Lene Nielsen, Ali Farooq, and Bernard J. Jansen. 2026. AI-Generated Personas: Representing User Needs with Generative AI Models. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies: 103745. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2026.103745
12. Joni Salminen, Joao M. Santos, Haewoon Kwak, Jisun An, Soon-gyo Jung, and Bernard J. Jansen. 2020. Persona Perception Scale: Development and Exploratory Validation of an Instrument for Evaluating Individuals’ Perceptions of Personas. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 141: 102437–102437. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2020.102437
13. Elise Talgorn and Helle Ullerup. 2023. Invoking ‘Empathy for the Planet’ through Participatory Ecological Storytelling: From Human-Centered to Planet-Centered Design. Sustainability 15, 10: 7794. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15107794
14. Bill Tomlinson, Bonnie Nardi, Daniel Stokols, Ankita Raturi, and Andrew W. Torrance. 2022. Returning ecological wealth to nonhuman species through design: the case for ecosystemas. Ecology and Society 27, 2: art34. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-13324-270234