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Save on Product Life Cycle

Where's the ROI?

Computer or network breakdowns — that's not the only work for a help desk. A large portion of support service duties are user requests about the application — how a feature works or why it doesn't work. Even though most applications have manuals or help documents, they're not a panacea — some users never read them, and some of these documents are not easy to understand.

User interface modeling, design, and specification are the way to reduce support costs. Inasmuch as user interface questions are the largest portion of support requests, the fewer the questions, the lower support costs are. And that's only the first source of savings. Faster and cheaper learning about how to work with the application leads to savings on training and documentation. Optimized user interface for certain functions leads to reduced network traffic and hardware running costs. And that's not the end of the list.

That's why money spent on user interface modeling and design results in cheaper product support.

Business Cases

“One well-known study found that 80 percent of software life cycle costs occur during the maintenance phase. Most maintenance costs are associated with 'unmet or unforeseen' user requirements and other usability problems.” (Pressman, 1992)

“With its origins in human factors, usability engineering has had considerable success improving productivity in IT organizations. For instance, a major computer company spent $20,700 on usability work to improve the sign-on procedure in a system used by several thousand people. The resulting productivity improvement saved the company $41,700 the first day the system was used. On a system used by over 100,000 people, for a usability outlay of $68,000, the same company recognized a benefit of $6,800,000 within the first year of the system's implementation. This is a cost-benefit ratio of $1:$100.” (Bias & Mayhew, 1994)

“At Microsoft several years ago, Word for Windows' print merge feature was generating a lot of lengthy (average = 45 minutes) support calls. As a result of usability testing and other techniques, the UI for the feature was adjusted. In the next release, support calls 'dropped dramatically'; Microsoft recognized 'significant cost savings'.” (Bias & Mayhew, 1994)

“'A certain printer manufacturer released a printer driver that many users had difficulty installing. Over 50,000 users called support for assistance, at a cost to the company of nearly $500,000 a month. To correct the situation, the manufacturer sent out letters of apology and patch diskettes (at a cost of $3 each) to users; they ended up spending $900,000 on the problem. No user testing of the driver was conducted before its release. The problem could have been identified and corrected at a fraction of the cost if the product had been subjected to even the simplest of usability testing,' wrote the researcher.” (Bias & Mayhew, 1994)

“In another company, business representatives did a cost-benefit analysis for a new system and estimated that a well-designed GUI front end had an Internal Rate of Return of 32%. This was realized through a 35% reduction in training, a 30% reduction in supervisory time, and improved productivity, among other things.” (Dray & Karat, 1994)

Read more business cases in the article “Return on Investment for Usable UI Design” by Aaron Marcus (published in the Winter 2002 User Experience Magazine).

Have a question? Feel free to contact us.

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