A No Nonsense View on How Application

Usability Saves Money Next Step 2012

© outsystems 2012

Usability

What is Usability?

Usability = Design

Usability = ... + (Design)

What is Usability?

Match Expectations

easy to use

easy to learn

prevent errors

satisfying look&feel

easy to learn easy to use

prevent errors satisfying look & feel

usability cost

=

added effort

Usability & projects

<insert !usability

here>!

Usability & projects

Inception Implementation Deployment

•  Business Vision •  Personas •  User Surveys •  Direct observation •  Context Analysis •  Focus Groups •  System evaluation •  Card sorting •  Task analysis •  Lo-fi prototyping •  Storyboarding •  "Wizard of Oz" •  Pattern libraries

•  Style guides •  Rapid prototyping •  Subjective evaluation •  Script testing •  A/B testing •  Lab testing •  "Wizard of Oz"

•  Post release monitoring •  KPI evaluation •  Critical path

optimization •  Remote evaluation •  User surveys •  Subjective assessment

adapted from http://www.usabilitynet.org/tools/methods.htm

Techniques (you can actually use today)

1. Share the Vision

Level 1 - Ultimate Goal

•  single sentence describing the fundamental nature of what you are trying to achieve

• “to deliver an inspiring presentation that clearly shows that the benefits of usability far outweigh its costs”

Level 2 - Project Vision

•  … •  where will we save money? •  what will be the daily impact? •  how do we do this today? •  what are the top pains we must fix? •  …

•  are a key piece of high usability •  make tons of small decisions every day •  can be business smart •  will find innovative solutions •  will be more motivated

Level 3 - Developers

2. Know your User

How?

•  Field studies o  Interviews o Observation o DIY

•  Persona development

3. Focus on what's Important

Saving 3 seconds - examples

•  Put it on the homepage •  Support keyboard (tab, etc) •  Smart defaults •  Improved performance •  Contextual information

4. Test early and Test often

“Discount” usability testing •  Prepare a script with tasks •  Sit back and learn! •  Test +/- 5 users

No registration required!

$300 million in one year

• 1. Share the Vision • 2. Know your Users • 3. Focus on what is Important • 4. Test early, Test often

usability cost

=

added effort

-

savings

1. Maximize Adoption

2020

2015

2010

2005

Form Function

De facto usability benchmarks

2. Minimize Training

Importance of training

•  Call center application •  Training time 1 week •  Monthly turnover 5%

•  Reduce training time by 20%

•  Save

The research

“(…) AT&T saved $2,500,000 in training expenses by incorporating simple usability practices (…)“ - Bias & Mayhew "a well-designed interface had an ROI of 32% - 35% reduction in training, 30% reduction in supervisory time, and support" - Dray & Karat

3. Reduce Re-work

"63% of large software projects over budget (...) with top four reasons related to usability" - Nielsen Group

"Backlogs of maintenance work show that an 'invisible' backlog is 167% the size of the declared backlog" - Martin & McClure

The research

4. Increase Efficiency

• Saving 3 seconds • For 30,000 users •  In 10 critical screens per day • Each costing $25 per hour

$1,432,000 a year

$100 billion (estimated) productivity lost per year due to poor usability

$100 billion

cost of building a Moon base and maintaining it for 7 years

minimize training maximize adoption

reduce re-work increase efficiency

© outsystems 2012

usability cost benefit

= added effort

-

savings

© outsystems 2012

Q&A

© outsystems 2012