像Facebook這樣的社交網站已成為人們互相聯繫及表達自己的場所。雖然個人頭像被認為是人們營造線上形象的一個重要管道，但是對於更換頭像的原因及如何決定更改或維護個人頭像的理解卻很有限。目前社交網站的設計也僅提供上傳頭像等基本功能，而缺乏更多可以滿足人們需求的輔助設計。在本研究中，我們使用問卷法和訪談法去了解Facebook使用者更換其個人頭像的行為。結果顯示人們更換及選擇個人頭像的動機包括展示自己心目中的自我形象、個人生活的紀錄、更新自己當前的狀態、及提高自己的存在感。由於社群網路的使用者已經意識到個人頭像對於線上的形象管理及線下的人際關係維護的重要性。因此，某些使用者會經常審查和管理過去的個人頭像以建立一個正面的形象。本研究結果建議設計一些功能以輔助個人頭像管理。

Social network sites like Facebook have become a venue for people to network with one another and present themselves in the ways they want. While profile pictures are arguably one important channel for people to manage their online images, there is limited understanding on why and how people decide to change or maintain their profile pictures. The current designs of social network sites also only provide low-level functions like image uploading for profile picture management, lacking more advanced support for meeting people needs. In this work, we presented a survey study and interviews to investigate Facebook users’ profile picture changing behavior qualitatively. The result revealed a number of key driving motivations for people to change and choose profile pictures, including showing one’s desired self-image, recording personal life document, updating individual’s current appearance in consistency with how they currently look like in the real world, and to raise people’s awareness of one’s status and presence. Social network users have acknowledged of the importance of profile picture in term of impression management on online society and relationship maintenance with people in offline environment. Therefore, some users regularly reviewed and managed previous profile photos to support positive image construction. The findings inform the designs of functions to support profile picture management needs.

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