Let's face it -- when it comes to measuring the return on investment for user experience (UX), all the traditional metrics fall down flat. For today's organizations, you simply can't put a price on the value of delivering an incredibly satisfying and rewarding experience to customers and users. That value percolates across all parts of the enterprise -- well beyond customer service.
Photo: Joe McKendrick
The debate about the ROI of UX has been heating up lately. Alan Cooper, an ancestry thinker and software alchemist, recently posted[1] that the question about the ROI of UX is "the most idiotic question ever asked." Why? Because organizations really don't pay attention to or even care about the value of superior UX, he states.
The proof is in the pudding, he writes:in this scathing indictment:
"There are far, far more 'UX designers' employed today than there were 20 years ago, and yet most of the newly created software I use today suffers from the same interaction errors that were around 20 years ago. The failures of contemporary software include some of the most basic, elemental, and egregiously unnecessary violations of good interaction design principles that were called out and vanquished by the '90s..... These are well- and widely-known user interaction failures and it is inexplicable and unforgivable that they continue to resurface in new products today."
The problem, Cooper continues, is that managers and executives outside of the bubble remain skeptical about investing any more than they have to in UX -- to them, it's a dark art. So, they ask: "What is the ROI of UX?" Asking about ROI, of course, is a manager's way of expressing doubts. "They aren't seeking enlightenment," Cooper says.
Is Cooper on to