Categories of Return on Investment and Their Practical Implications

Publisher Summary When user-centered design (UCD) practitioners conduct usability research, they normally observe and measure both user behavior and user perceptions of a product, system, or website. User behavior is usually convincing evidence, although they gain insight, supporting data, explanations, rationale, and new ideas from users' perceptions and opinions. Usability research findings have the most effect when user behavior and perceptions both point to the same conclusions. The categories of usability return on investment (ROI) have a similar model. Measuring direct ROI, whether internal or external, is like observing user behavior and just as in usability research, confounds can make measurements more challenging. In internal ROI, it can measure the amount of reused code or the time to market saved by an effective UCD infrastructure. In external ROI, confounds can measure the decreases in dropout rate for user registrations, increases in sales, or the reduction in customer support costs. This chapter discusses internal, external, and social ROI, and suggests methods for achieving and measuring these three components of usability ROI. The underlying message is that UCD practitioners and teams can convince stakeholders that their efforts produce ROI.