The ROI of Usability How User-Centered Design Supports your Agency December 5, 2008 Spencer Gerrol Executive Director Human Factors International.

The ROI of UsabilityHow User-Centered Design Supports your Agency

December 5, 2008

Spencer GerrolExecutive DirectorHuman Factors International

User-Centered Design Methodology

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User-Centered Design Methodology

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User-Centered Design Methodology

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User-Centered Design Methodology

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User-Centered Design Methodology

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User-Centered Design Methodology

Why should we care about usability?

• 63% of software projects exceeded their development budgets because of

– frequent requests for changes by users– overlooked tasks and/or functionality– users lack of understanding of their own requirements– insufficient user-to-analyst communication and understanding

– i.e. because of a lack of customer-centered design methods

Lederer and Prassad, 1992. “Nine management guidelines for better cost estimating:” Communications of the ACM, 35(2), 51-59.

How usability supports your agency

863 Projects Reviewed

Clients paid 10% for usability work.

Their ROI was:

• Sales/conversion 100%

• Traffic 150%

• Performance 161%

• Use of functions 202%

“It is common for usability efforts to result in a hundred percent or more increase in traffic or sales.” - Jakob Nielsen

How usability supports your agency

• Wixon & Jones’ case study shows– an increased revenue in the usability-enhanced product by more

than 80% over the first release– the revenues of the usability-enhanced system were 60% higher

than projected– many customers cited usability as a key factor in buying the new

system

How usability supports your agency

• Every $1 invested in usability returns between $2 and $100 (between 100% and 9,900% increase)

• 80% of software life cycle costs occur during the maintenance phase• 60% of that maintenance phase is due to re-work because user

requirements were not clear in the beginning

Pressman, R. S. (1992). Software engineering: A practitioner's approach. New York: McGraw Hill

The earlier, the better…

Hidden costs of shortcutting the process

Help Desk

Training

User/TaskAnalysis

UI Structure

Detailed Design

Implementation

Rush throughthese steps

Radical Product Revision

Discoverhidden costs

Efficiency of investing in the full process

Reducedhidden costs

A smart investmentin Usability

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Product Revision

User/TaskAnalysis

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Return on Investment Benefits

ROI Measurement CriteriaDecrease in # of calls to help desk # or %

Reduction in training # of days / hours reduced

Increase in usage # of people, # of sessions, or % increases

Savings of user’s time # of minutes / hours and / or multiplied by labor rate

Savings of programmer’s time # of minutes / hours and / or multiplied by labor rate

Error reduction # or % or resulting $$ amount if any

Increase in pages viewed # or % increase

Decrease in drop-off # of people or % reduction

Conversion rate # of visitors who buy or % increase

Average order value or net dollar per visitor

% increase in $$

ROI – but government?

Drop-Off Reduction

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73% drop-off reduction

Saved 40,000 visitors and $6,000,000 per month

ROI for Government

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8 hours of training, reduced to 15 minutes = $365,000 saved/year

ROI for Government

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The FAA now saves $2.2 million per year

ROI for Government

• 2001 – Imposed standard• Cost to California = $64,000,000• • 2007 – Institutionalized standard• Cost to California = $8,000,000

• Savings across agencies : ~ $56M

ROI of Institutionalized Standard, CA

First we must educate people on the process and the benefits…

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Thank You

Ed Frease 1-800-242-4480elf@humanfactors.com

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Sample Clients