ROI (or return on investment) refers to the returned value in profit, savings, or productivity that can be attributed to a given investment. When the investment is lower than the resulting gains, a positive ROI is achieved. For example, if a company spends $10,000 on advertising efforts that result in increasing profits by $50,000, the ROI is $40,000.
The returns generated from investments in website and software development are measured in both quantitative and qualitative of ways. Investments in usability can be put to the same tests. While usability improvements have often focused on qualitative metrics, they can be measured in quantitative terms as well. Improving the usability of a website can increase sales, reduce customer service calls, and increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. For internally used software and websites, like intranets and timesheets systems, improving usability can increase productivity by reducing the time to complete a task, reducing the error rate, and increasing satisfaction. Most of these improvements can be quantified by measuring saved time, gained revenues, and increased productivity.
When usability is included into development and production processes, even greater returns are possible. It is always better to design something right to begin with rather than fixing it later. Building usability into your processes can reduce development costs, reduce development time, and ultimately improve the end product. Keeping end-users in mind during every step of development and production processes from requirements analysis, conceptual design, prototyping, and production ensures that products will not just be used once but again and again.
- Measuring ROI
This page discusses how to measure return on investment and provides examples of metrics and measurements.
- Case Studies
This page offers abstracts and links to case studies in which companies have incorporated ROI calculations into their usability reviews and redesigns.
- Additional Resources
On this page you'll find a listing of abstracts and links to additional resources cover the topic of usability ROI.
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