The avatar is a digital character that represents a person in a virtual environment, such as the metaverse. It is widely used in games and is also becoming a reality in other domains. Research indicates that the characteristics of a person’s avatar can influence his/her behavior while using a system, improving the sense of presence, immersion, and self-expression. A gap is how to support developers proposing avatar personalization, considering a user’s context, and understanding how context-awareness applied to avatars influences self-expression. In this article, we investigate how to support the development of self-expressive avatars. We present VISHnu, an approach developed to support the formalization of the use of context for avatar personalization. We conducted three evaluations to investigate the potential and feasibility of the VISHnu approach with specialists and developers: a focus group (n=6), interviews (n=6), and a questionnaire (n=12). In addition to guidelines derived from mixed qualitative methods and data triangulation, including insights from the literature review, we present two tangible artifacts—the checklist and glossary. These artifacts provide a robust initial foundation for developers and enthusiasts aiming to create avatar customization solutions aligned with advancements in immersive worlds like the metaverse. Our results have the potential to contribute to the creation of avatar personalization solutions that are more inclusive and more representative of human diversity.

中文翻译：

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VISHnu：一种利用情境感知支持自我表达化身个性化的方法

化身是一个数字角色，代表虚拟环境（例如虚拟世界）中的人。它在游戏中被广泛使用，并且在其他领域也正在成为现实。研究表明，一个人的化身特征可以影响他/她在使用系统时的行为，提高临场感、沉浸感和自我表达能力。一个差距是如何支持开发人员提出头像个性化，考虑用户的上下文，并理解应用于头像的上下文感知如何影响自我表达。在本文中，我们研究如何支持自我表达化身的发展。我们提出了 VISHnu，这是一种为支持化身个性化上下文使用的形式化而开发的方法。我们与专家和开发人员进行了三项评估，以调查 VISHnu 方法的潜力和可行性：焦点小组 (n=6)、访谈 (n=6) 和问卷调查 (n=12)。除了源自混合定性方法和数据三角测量的指南（包括文献综述的见解）之外，我们还提出了两个有形的工件——清单和术语表。这些工件为开发人员和爱好者提供了坚实的初始基础，旨在创建与虚拟世界等沉浸式世界的进步相一致的化身定制解决方案。我们的研究结果有可能有助于创建更具包容性、更能代表人类多样性的化身个性化解决方案。