Does an Individual's Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Preference Influence Task-Oriented Technology Use?

Technology innovators face the challenge of finding representative groups of users to participate in design activities. In some cases, software applications will target an audience of millions, and the characteristics of the vast number of potential users are unclear to the design team. In other cases, a technology is so new that the target market of potential users is not known. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) measures individual personality preferences on four dimensions and is used by psychologists to explain certain differences in human behavior. The definitions of the MBTI dimensions suggest they could be a factor explaining why individuals take different approaches to using software applications. This study explores whether MBTI preferences affect behavior when individuals perform tasks using three different software applications. We find a person’s MBTI type influences how they organize email and the informational features they rely on when using a decision support system.