Usage of personas in the construction industry.

Background: This study on the use of personas was carried out during a building trade related software development EU project. Participants were introduced to the personas tool and encouraged to use it in their work in technical development.

Methods: A questionnaire about the possible usage of personas was delivered three months after remote tool presentation and explanation has been delivered afterwards, inquiring about benefits, drawbacks, intention of using personas in the future, and the role of usage related information as a whole in technical development.

Results: Previous knowledge about the tool, perceptions of the tool and its actual use seemed to influence developers in their decision to use it or not.

Conclusions: Almost half of the organizations in our study use real user-centric design methods in their technical development; this can ease the path for wider adoption of the methods when needed. One possible solution to strengthen the understanding and adoption of the user-centric methods is to spread information among technical developers, by identifying and using efficient communication channels, such as tailored training. User-centric methods seem to have gained followers in the technical development arena, indicating that this may be a feasible way for further adoption of user centricity in product development.