AM+A
Return on Investment for Usable User- Interface Design: Examples and Statistics
Version: 28 February 2002
Author
Aaron Marcus, President Aaron Marcus and Associates, Inc. (AM+A) E-Mail: Aaron@AMandA.com
Experience Intelligent Design
User Interfaces Information Visualization
Return on Investment for UI Design and Usability Introduction: What do We Mean by the ROI of Usability?
Introduction: What do We Mean by the ROI of Usability?
Making computer-based products (and services) more usable is smart business. Usability increases customer satisfaction and productivity, leads to customer trust and loyalty, and inevitably results in tangible cost savings and profitability. Because user-interface (UI) development is part of a product’s development cost anyway, it pays to do it right.
Most software and Website development managers view usability costs as added effort and expense, but the reverse is more commonly true. Because the first 10% of the design process, when key system-design decisions are made, can determine 90% of a product’s cost and performance, usability techniques help keep the product aligned with company goals (Smith & Reinersten). Usability returns many benefits (return on investment, or ROI) to products developed for either internal use or sale (Bias & Mayhew, 1994):
Internal ROI
• Increased user productivity • Decreased user errors • Decreased training costs • Savings gained from making changes earlier in design life cycle • Decreased user support
External ROI
• Increased sales • Decreased customer support costs • Savings gained from making changes earlier in the design life cycle • Reduced cost of providingaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaajjjjjjjjj
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Return on Investment for UI Design and Usability Introduction: What do We Mean by the ROI of Usability? designs. To their regret, the courtroom evaluation of a product’s