6.1 What Is Persona?

"Persona" is defined as the role that we assume to display our conscious intentions to ourselves or other people. In the world of voice user interfaces, the term "persona" is used as a rough equivalent of "character," as in a character in a book or film. A more satisfying technical definition of "persona" is the standardized mental image of a personality or character that users infer from the application's voice and language choices. For the purposes of the VUI industry, persona is a vehicle by which companies can brand a service or project a particular corporate image via speech.