Konference User Experiece - Praha 22. 6. 2010

1. Business Value of
User-Centered Design and
Usability
Jeff Johnson
UI Wizards, Inc.
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2. Reasons to Invest in Usability
Market Demand
Cut Customer-Support Costs
Reduce Time to Profitability
Shorten Time to Market
Risk Management
Avoiding GUI Design Bloopers
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3. Market Demand
Faster, easier installation & setup
Easy to learn, use
High responsiveness
Tight product integration
Greater productivity, usefulness
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4. Market Demand (cont.)
Flexibility to accommodate later
functionality
Company brand, style identity
Better visual appeal
Support users who have disabilities
Bottom line: “Retail quality” design
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5. Cut Customer-Support Costs
E.g., CompanyX gets ~180,000
ARs/month
x 12 months/year
x $200/AR
x 45% related to UI and user
requirements
Potential savings: $194 M/year
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6. Reduce Time to Profitability
Time to profitability
Expenses
$$$
Revenue
Time to market Time
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7. Reduce Time to Profitability
Time to profitability shortens
Expenses
$$$
Revenue
Moral:
Improving
usability
before
release can
shorten time
Time to market may lengthen to profitability
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8. User Centered Design Can
Shorten Time to Market!
Gives programmers a clear target
ִWhen you know where you’re going, you get there
faster
Simplifies implementation
ִCoherent, factorable design ⇒ many commonalities
ִJust the functionality users need
Lowers cost of revision
ִPutting more design iteration in revisions of object
model, sketches, low-fidelity prototypes, where it
costs less than changing product code or architecture
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9. Risk Management
Introducing a new product or product
version carries risk: Will it succeed?
ִHowever success is defined
Management wants to minimize risk
ִRisk is about predicting the future
User-centered design & usability testing
are risk-reduction investments
ִLike buying insurance
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10. Risk Analysis Guides
Investment Decision
Users internal or external?
Users homogeneous or diverse?
Use optional or required?
Impact on operations low or high?
Informational or transactional?
Competition: little or much?
Competitive advantage low or high?
Strategic importance low or high?
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11. Risk Analysis Guides
Investment Decision
Case 1: Aircraft maintenance shop
ִOnline manuals to supplement paper ones
Users: internal, homogeneous
Use optional; low impact on operations
Informational, not transactional
Competition N/A; no competitive advantage
Strategically unimportant
ִRisk exposure is low
=> Investment in usability can be low
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12. Risk Analysis Guides
Investment Decision
Case 2: Photography equipment store
ִMoving bulk of business onto Web
Users: external, diverse
Use optional; high impact on operations
Transactional + informational
Much competition; high competitive advantage
Strategically important
ִRisk exposure is high
=> Investment in usability should be high
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13. Prime Source of GUI Bloopers:
Anarchic Development
No design
ִ“We don’t do design specs”
ִBut don’t really follow Agile rec’d practices either
No UI standards or guidelines
ִPublishers & media developers follow style-guides
ִMany software developers don’t realize they are in
that business ==> amateurish products
No oversight
ִLack of management or architectural control
ִResult: no coherent model, many UI inconsistencies
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14. Avoiding Anarchic Development
Don’t hack. Design, develop, test, iterate.
UCD and Agile are compatible. Both value:
ִUnderstanding customer/user requirements
ִEnlisting task-domain experts (aka users)
ִDevising conceptual model (“object model” in Agile)
ִAnalyzing task ==> use-cases
ִFrequent testing & iterative design
Fanatics in both camps need to adapt
ִAgile proponents: up-front design is needed
ִUCD proponents: the UI’s details will evolve
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15. Avoiding Anarchic Development
UCD + Agile/XP
Cycle 2
Code Code UI Code UI
internal for for
objects cycle 2 cycle N
UI design UI design
for cycle 2 for cycle N
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16. Summary:
Reasons to Invest in Usability
Market Demand
Cut Customer-Support Costs
Reduce Time to Profitability
Shorten Time to Market
Risk Management
Avoiding GUI Design Bloopers
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17. References
Time to Profitability
ִConklin, P. “Bringing Usability Effectively into Product
Development”, in Rudisill et al (eds), Human-
Computer Interface Design, 1996
ִHouse, C. & Price, R. “The Return Map”, Harvard
Business Review, Jan-Feb, 1991
Risk Management
ִAltom, T. “Usability as Risk Management”,
Interactions, Mar-Apr 2007
GUI Bloopers
ִJohnson, J., GUI Bloopers 2.0, Morgan Kaufman,
2007
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18. Questions?
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