Human-in-the-loop methods for occupant-centric building design and operation

•Multilevel modelling was applied to predict subjects’ thermal preference vote in a dynamic thermal environment.•The beta and ordinal mixed-effects models are both valid alternatives for modelling subjects’ thermal preference votes.•Two procedures were used to implement subjects’ feedback within the occupant-centric building design and operation paradigm.•The population-averaged procedure is suitable for the building design phase.•The cluster-specific procedure is appropriate for the building operation phase.