Towards formal usability approach for BIM applications

Building Information Modelling (BIM) is claimed to be the first truly global digital construction technology, which started becoming deployed widely. Hence, applications supporting BIM are in continuous development to support various activities involved in a construction project. However, effective development requires sufficient usability considerations to ensure a value-delivery to the end-user. Current research efforts demonstrate limited emphasis of usability considerations in relation to BIM technology, which can have an influence on the usefulness of this technology in the construction industry. This paper aims to inquire into the usability considerations given to the BIM technology, exploring some of the potential complexities associated when conducting the usability tests. Evidence has been demonstrated using both existing literature and semi-structured interviews with one of the BIM software vendors. The gathered results demonstrate the need for formal usability considerations, which require multi-disciplinary construction stakeholders. The practical implications suggest that incorporating multidisciplinary stakeholders can support further developments of BIM technology. Future work involves examining the analysis proposed within this paper.