Measuring end-user satisfaction in the design of building projects using eye-tracking technology

The importance of end-user participation in the design process of building and construction projects has been recognized and addressed by a number of researchers and practitioners. The main goal is to ensure that the project outcome meets the facility users' needs. In order to understand their needs, a variety of approaches (e.g. focus groups, workshops, and questionnaires) for the building end-users participation in the design process have been presented in the literature. Despite the contributions and practical features of these methods, they require a significant amount of time and effort to conduct and interpret the participants' responses. To overcome this limitation, this paper investigates the use of eye-tracking technology to measure and analyze end-user satisfaction. This study is carried out to test the hypothesis that the users' satisfaction of design variations is related to their visual attention. In other words, design alternatives with high level of users' satisfaction attract more attention. An experiment using four alternatives for the design of a façade is performed to test the effectiveness of eye-tracking technology. The design alternatives are developed and displayed in a virtual 3D environment. Participants are asked to rate their level of satisfaction with each alternative, while their interaction with the virtual models is recorded using eye-tracking. The results of the experiment are also demonstrated to domain experts to get a better understanding of the technology's potential and challenges.