A hands-on UX/UI guide for enterprise software development teams, making the business case, what goes into building a strategy for project success and how to calculate the ROI of your next UX project.
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You know that a good user experience will help attract new users, create new functionality and features and make your digital product more cohesive and responsive. It’s also a very smart business move as investment in UX is also measurable in dollars and cents.
Investing in UX/UI at the beginning of a project helps software development teams to prevent or minimize changes later on when it’s too late or too expensive. This section outlines how to show UX investment as a profit centre, rather than a cost.
While some businesses may have a staff of developers on hand, many offices do not have the resources for development and require outsourcing to accomplish the digital needs of their businesses. Development of any application is often a lengthy and costly process.
In addition, making alterations to a completed product will only incur further expenses. On average, programmers spent nearly half of the time on a project reworking issues that were avoidable.
When designing an application or overhauling an existing one, focusing on what user experience will bring to your product will prevent you from needing to change it in the future. Extensive research, testing and analysis of user feedback is one way to ensure you're on the right track toward success.
Implementing design choices that make a product less accessible and create complex navigation problems that inhibit users, as well as adding features that are of no value or are unnecessary, can all detract from user experience. By avoiding development errors early, you can effectively save yourself money and prevent future engineering expenditures.
Increasing your revenue with a better UX is an effective way to boost your customer list, while staving off more expensive advertising and marketing strategies. By increasing the attachment a user has with your product and offering a UX that is more accessible, existing users — as well as new ones — will be attracted to your application.
If an application is difficult to navigate, confusing or doesn't perform the function intended, many potential customers may abandon your product before even making a purchase. This can result in a number of lost sales annually that could have potentially been garnered had the UX been better for your customers.
Customers who trust and enjoy their experience with your application will be more inclined to stick with it, which helps you build your brand and increase loyalty among your users. In addition, by analyzing customer interactions with your product, you can identify what works and what doesn't, which will help you build an even better UX in the future.
Simple changes in a design can go a long way, and by updating and improving your application to fit the latest expectations and trends, you will ensure your business remains competitive in a marketplace with evolving technological demands.
Because user interactions and expectations are constantly evolving, businesses that focus on the user experience can help maintain their competitiveness in the market. Researching what your direct competitors are doing to improve UX may help your business in the long term.
The easier you make it for people to use your product and have a better experience, the more likely they are to conduct business with you in the future. A better UX is one way of getting the upper hand on your competitors and attracting new clients.
By creating a UX that elicits an emotional response from the user as well as being useful, easily accessible and efficient, you can ensure you meet the standards required to create a more successful redesign. In addition to meeting your business’s needs and creating an experience that sticks with the design principles of your brand, effectively measuring the impact of the UX is important for identifying your ROI.
Measuring the ROI of your current UX is important when determining the advantages of creating a better UX. If a development project is completed on schedule and costs stay within the allocated budget, UX is successful in that it meets the expected requirements of the job.
While on the surface this is a great accomplishment, digging into the core of both user satisfaction and how the UX has helped generate revenue is another facet to the success of your application.
Dr. Susan Weinschenk, a behavioral scientists and author of a white paper concerning productivity in IT development, suggests three components to measuring the return on investment of user experience.
By calculating the total number of errors, multiplied by the average repair time, which is then multiplied by the product of the total employee cost and total number of employees, you can discern how much money you can save by improving user experience and reducing errors.
(number of errors) x (average repair time) x (employee cost) x (number of employees) = cost savingsCalculating development and maintenance expenses - As mentioned above, development is often a lengthy and expensive process. You can reduce your maintenance and overall development costs by creating a better UX before the product is completed, thus reducing expenditures in the future.
As mentioned above, development is often a lengthy and expensive process. You can reduce your maintenance and overall development costs by creating a better UX before the product is completed, thus reducing expenditures in the future.
By calculating the number of changes multiplied by the amount of hours needed to make the change, which is then multiplied by the product of developer costs by four, you can discern how much potentially avoidable changes will drain away in expenditures.
(number of changes) x (average hrs/change) x (cost of developer) x (4) = cost savings
A better user experience will also lead to increased productivity. By reducing errors and development changes, your team can focus on additional products, reduce the time needed for customer support and dedicate time to new projects. In order to calculate productivity savings, the time saved in development, multiplied by the total employee cost, should then be multiplied by the number of employees.
(time saved) x (employee cost) x (number of employees) = cost savingsSome other methods of measuring your return on investment come from setting measurable goals and identifying targets for improvement. By reducing the number of errors, you will effectively save on development costs, as well as increase the efficiency and ease of use for your customers. Reducing development costs by focusing on UX during development is essential and will help prevent costly repair, maintenance, training and redesign projects in the future.
In addition, a better user experience can help you increase the number of users, help you retain existing customers and increase traffic to your application — all of which are measurable through analytic tools.
With a better user experience, it’s possible to increase your revenue through product sales that could be lost due a frustrating customer experience.
Get this hands-on UX/UI guide for enterprise software development teams, showing how to make the business case and calculate the ROI of your next UX project.
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We hope the guide helps you plan your next UX/UI project. And remember, we’re always here if you have any questions, or need any help.
