Axure RP can be a helpful tool for improving the user experience and usability of an application. User experience and usability are important parts of application design and improving them can lead to better ROI and more satisfied customers.
There are a number of articles/essays/blog posts on the web discussing the value of usability and user experience. Below is a list of some articles that might be interesting to you (and your managers) when determining when to and how much to invest in usability and user experience design.
The UPA (Usability Professionals' Association) has a number of great resources on this subject:
“Benefits of Usability”: Discusses a number of business benefits gained from usability and ways of calculating its value including increased productivity, decreased training time, and increased sales.
“Selling Usability”: A collection of resources including presentations, white papers, publications, and websites on selling usability.
"The ROI of Usability": Supported by statistical evidence, this article explores the increased revenue and reduced costs associated with usability engineering.
Jakob Nielsen (in a 2003 study) concludes that projects should spend 10% of budget on usability which on average will result in a 135% increase in desired metrics such as sales and productivity: “Return on Investment for Usability”
Frank Spillers at Experience Dynamics sums up the importance of user experience in a poster and highlights the key factors involved in establishing a positive user experience.
More links to articles on this topic are also available online.
Rashmi Sinha has a collection of links here.
Luke Wroblewski at Functioning Form has a set of links under the topic of “Business & Design”.
These are just a handful of the growing number of studies and articles written on the value of usability and user experience. As always, if you know of any that you think would be of interest to Axure RP users, feel free to post your findings here in our comments section or send us an e-mail at contactus@axure.com.
