Part 2: Why User Experience is So Expensive? 💸

Every $1 invested in UX impacts a return of $100 (ROI = 9,900%). Shocking, but not really to be honest.

Tomorrow I am having a meeting with a business owner who needs to improve the user experience not only for the users of their e-commerce platform (main business) but also for the employees of the company. My initial thought — how nice! Someone who values and understands how important is User Experience for everyone, not only the users, but the employees that are making things possible.

In the previous article, we covered the first 5 reasons, which you can check here. So let’s pick up from where we left off.

6. Cross-functional collaboration: Successful UX design often involves collaboration between designers, developers, marketers, and other stakeholders. Coordinating efforts among these different teams requires additional resources and time. Meetings to negotiate details around the project’s requirements also take time.

7. Accessibility and Inclusivity: Ensuring that a product or service is accessible to a diverse range of users, including those with disabilities, can involve extra work and cost to meet accessibility standards and guidelines. Which means more research, planning and testing.

8. Prototyping and Testing: Building prototypes and conducting user testing can be resource-intensive, especially if physical prototypes or detailed usability labs are required (on-site projects). Iterations take time but are very rewarding.

9. Customization: Businesses very often have unique requirements that require custom UX solutions, which inevitably are more costly than using off-the-shelf solutions.

10. Long-Term Benefits: While UX design may have upfront costs, it leads to long-term benefits such as increased user satisfaction, higher retention rates, improved brand perception, and ultimately, better ROI.

Tailor-made outfits cost more. That’s a fact. The same goes for design. Nowadays, there are even services for just telling you what colours best suit your facial and body structure, your skin tone etc. Those people are called colour consultants and they provide colour analysis services. Imagine, this is specialisation only in regard to colour. So, don’t be surprised when you hear a quote range for a UX project, rather be interested and ask what it includes and covers. Your business will thank you later.

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