Personas to inform cognitive interaction with a digital twin

The usability of Digital Twins will be improved by considering what humans need to know when interacting with them. This paper begins by presenting a human-centric definition of a Digital Twin (DT) which includes a consideration of DT user requirements presented as a requirements levels matrix. There are very few studies considering human cognitive interaction with a DT. To identify and model the information requirements of DT users through a human-centric methodology, a people-led approach is presented. This phased approach consists of applying control task analysis (ConTA) to personas, expressing the control tasks derived as decision ladders and modelling the persona’s cognitive interactions within UML information flow diagrams. To demonstrate the approach a Digital Twin of an Industrial Gearbox Product-Service is considered as it is a relatively simple example which is easy to comprehend. The persona-based approach is shown to be an effective method for understanding human requirements for a DT. The research introduces novel applications of ConTA to DTs and UML-based information flow modelling and provides examples of decision ladders for the manufacturing domain. The accessibility and applicability of the DT user requirements matrix and the People-led approach to gathering information requirements for a DT is confirmed through validation with representatives from industrial organisations which utilize DT technology.