TABLE OF CONTENTS Nigel Bevan Serco Usability Services
This chapter summarizes the benefits that can be obtained from taking a user-centered approach to design and discusses how to select appropriate methods and justify their cost benefits. It includes two case studies of the cost benefits of employing a usability maturity model to improve the usability capability of an organization.
The objective of introducing user-centered methods is to ensure that Web sites and products can be used by real people (not just designers) to achieve their tasks in the real world. This requires not only easy-to-use interfaces, but also the appropriate functionality and support for real business activities and work flows. According to IBM (1999), developing easy-to-use products "makes business effective. It makes business efficient. It makes business sense."
User-centered design can reduce development and support costs, increase sales, and reduce staff costs for employers. The checklist in Table 20.1 can be used to identify the potential benefits, and indicates which chapters give examples of these benefits. Chapters 3 and 4 also include examples of how to calculate benefits.
| Potential Benefits | Chapters | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| A. | Development costs can be reduced by: | ||
| 1. | Producing a product that has only relevant functionality | ||
| 2. | Detecting and fixing usability problems early in the development process | 2, 7, 10, 17 | |
| 3. | Reducing the cost of future redesign or radical change of the architecture to make future versions of the product... |
