It’s hard to get people to pay money for a service when they don’t truly understand the value of that service. And, sadly because of this, UX is usually one of the first services to get cut when budgets and timelines are tight.
I won’t reinvent the wheel by writing an article on the value of UX, since there are many great articles and videos out there — like this one…
And this one provided by Career Foundry…
- The Trillion Dollar UX Problem: A Comprehensive Guide to the ROI of UX
However, I will give a quick recap of some key concepts from these great resources.
TL;DR recap
3 of the top 12 reasons projects fail are directly related to UX
— Dr. Susan Weinschenk
And those are…
- Badly defined requirements
- Stakeholder politics
- Poor communication among customers, developers and users
UX methods that can help with that…
- User research
- Stakeholder interviews
- Usability testing
- UX design process
Experience Dynamics made the case for this back in 2014, when they revealed that the input of a UX designer reduces the amount of time developers have to re-work a product by up to 50%, and reduces development time overall by between 33% and 50% by improving decision-making and helping to prioritize development tasks.
— Career Foundry
The key takeaway is that it’s much less costly to work with UX professionals to identify priorities, and catch and fix problems while still in design phase than it is to fix it later after development has already started — or even more so if the project has already launched.
“You can use an eraser on the drafting table or a sledge hammer on the construction site.”
— Frank Lloyd Wright
On average, every dollar invested in UX brings in a $100 return on investment. And as I mentioned in a previous article, “studies show that if a user has a bad experience with a brand new technology, they are more likely to consider all technology within that category to be difficult or terrible and are less likely to adopt it or give it another chance in the future — even when the subsequent experiences are higher quality.”
That’s why I say that it’s imperative to the longer term success of a new technology that the user experience be well-thought-out and well-executed, and therefore potentially detrimental if cut from the project.
Calculating the cost savings of agile vs waterfall
The reality of the matter is that most of the time, budgets and timelines will be tight, so if you have a streamlined UX process in place, you’ll have a better argument for your stakeholders and money-holders to keep UX on the team.
The standard ROI calculations are going to need to be done on the business side of things with the help of people who have access to analytics, statistics and metrics within the company, as mentioned in this article by UX Matters…
That said, I can give you an example of how to calculate the time (and hence cost) savings of using an agile approach like the sprints I wrote about in my previous articles as opposed to the more traditional methods of waterfall UX processes that tend to get cut when budgets and timelines are tight.
In its simplest state, the formula would be…
Cost of waterfall — Cost of agile = Cost savings
To calculate the cost of waterfall and the cost of agile, you would need the following formula.
(Time spent) x (employee cost) x (# of employees)
And it will get a little more complex if your user cost is different from your employee cost.
((Employee time spent) x (employee cost) x (# of employees)) + ((User time spent) x (user cost) x (# of users))
Your numbers will vary per company, but to simplify the math for this example I will use $100 as the employee and user cost. (To clarify, this is the total cost of the employee for the company — not their hourly wage.) For this example we’ll assume that this is a new product — not an existing one.
Stakeholder interviews
You’ll want to spend time with stakeholders and subject matter experts to gain a solid understanding of the scope of the thing being designed, the challenges with the current way of doing things, and their expectations for a successful solution.
This article by UXDesign.CC does a great job explaining why you should start every project with stakeholder interviews — especially if you want to ensure everyone is aligned on expectations BEFORE starting the project…
You could use the basic structure of the UX Field Research Sprint for XR for this step with the exception that since you’re not recruiting and screening users, the prep time should be much less. However, the number of stakeholders will vary by your situation.
If you use the standard stakeholder interview questions mentioned in the above article, this step shouldn’t take any longer regardless of whether it’s waterfall or agile.
So, assuming we have 5 stakeholders, with 2 researchers conducting 1 hour interviews each. Then 1 day for synthesis and reporting with 1 researcher full time and 1 researcher for debriefing maybe 2 hours.…
- Prep and logistics (8 hrs) x ($100) x (1 researcher) = $800
- Research (8 hrs) x ($100) x (2 researchers) = $1600
*not including travel and meals. Easily done remotely. - Stakeholders time (1 hr) x ($100) x (5 stakeholders) = $500
- Synthesis and reporting (8 hrs) x ($100) x (1.25 researchers) = $1000
Total cost for stakeholder interviews: $3900
Up-front research
Skipping up-front research to ensure you’re solving the right problem can be detrimental to your project and could result in costly rework later. So, before starting design and development, I would strongly encourage conducting an up-front research sprint at the very least if you don’t have time or budget for larger research initiatives.
So, based on the UX Field Research Sprint for XR I previously wrote about, we’ll calculate as follows…
Waterfall
Based on my own experience, researchers will typically ask for 1 to 2 weeks for research preparation and logistics with one researcher, 2 to 3 days of research with 2 to 3 researchers, and 1 to 2 weeks of synthesis and reporting with 1 to 2 researchers. The researchers will typically ask for 8 to 10 users to interview or observe for 1 to 1.5 hours each. So assuming a 40-hour week and an 8-hour day…
- Prep and logistics (80 hrs) x ($100) x (1 researcher) = $8,000
- Research trip (24 hrs) x ($100) x (3 researchers) = $7200
*not including travel and meals - Users time (1.5 hrs) x ($100) x (10 users) = $1500
- Synthesis and reporting (80 hrs) x ($100) x (2 researchers) = $16,000
- Total waterfall cost for up-front research = $32,700
Streamlined agile research sprint
Assuming we’re using the method I use in the 4-day UX Field Research Sprint for XR, with a streamlined process and templates in place as mentioned, we would need 2 days for prep and logistics with 1 researcher, and 1 day for research with 2 researchers. Suppose we spend half a day observing 2 users on the job and a half a day conducting short 30-minute interviews with 5 users. Then we would need 1 day for synthesis and reporting with 1 researcher full time and 1 researcher for debriefing maybe 2 hours.
- Prep and logistics (16 hrs) x ($100) x (1 researcher) = $1600
- Research trip (8 hrs) x ($100) x (2 researchers) = $800
*not including travel and meals - Users time ((2-hr observation) x ($100) x (2 users)) + ((0.5-hr interview) x ($100) x (5 users)) = $650
- Synthesis and reporting (8 hrs) x ($100) x (1.25 researchers) = $1000
- Total streamlined agile cost for up-front research = $4050
Up-front research cost savings with streamlined agile: $28,650
UX design
This area is more varied based on the project needs and research findings, so will be a little more difficult to predict without these essential components in place specifically for your project.
However, regardless of whether you’re working with waterfall or agile, having a pattern library of proven successful user interfaces to use as reference and having an established design system can help increase product development efficiency by up to 70 percent. So, it’s very well worth the up-front investment to create these tools for your team.
And again, as mentioned by Career Foundry, involving a UX Designer in the project can reduce the amount of development rework by up to 50%, and can reduce development time overall by up to 50% since you’re helping with decision-making and prioritization of development tasks based on user needs.
Once you have these essential components in place, you would create your design roadmap by breaking down the features, process flows and requirements into smaller chunks for design sprints based on what needs to happen first for other things to happen.
Usability testing
You will still want to conduct some amount of research with people in your target audience to help ensure your product is easy and effective. Again, if you have a streamlined process in place for that, you’ll have a better argument for your stakeholders and money-holders to include usability testing in the project.
So, based on the Usability Testing Sprint for VR I previously wrote about, we’ll calculate as follows…
Waterfall
This is based on my own experience. Researchers will typically ask for 2 to 3 weeks for study preparation and logistics with one researcher, 2 to 3 days of study with 2 researchers and 1 safety spotter, and 1 to 2 weeks of synthesis and reporting with 1 to 2 researchers. The researchers will typically ask for 8 to 10 users to participate in a 1 to 1.5-hour study. So assuming a 40-hour week and an 8-hour day…
- Prep and logistics (120 hrs) x ($100) x (1 researcher) = $12,000
- Usability study (24 hrs) x ($100) x (3 researchers) = $7200
*not including travel and meals - Users time (1.5 hrs) x ($100) x (10 users) = $1500
- Synthesis and reporting (80 hrs) x ($100) x (2 researchers) = $16,000
- Total waterfall cost for up-front research = $36,700
Agile research sprint
Assuming we’re using the method I use in the 5-day Usability Testing Sprint for VR, with a streamlined process and templates in place as mentioned, we would need 3 days for prep and logistics with 1 researcher, and 1 day for research with 2 researchers and 1 safety spotter. We would test 5 users at 1 to 1.5 hours each. Then we would need 1 day for synthesis and reporting with 1 researcher full time and 1 researcher for debriefing maybe 2 hours.
- Prep and logistics (24 hrs) x ($100) x (1 researcher) = $2400
- Usability study (8 hrs) x ($100) x (3 researchers) = $2400
*not including travel and meals - Users time ((1.5-hr interview) x ($100) x (5 users)) = $750
- Synthesis and reporting (8 hrs) x ($100) x (1.25 researchers) = $1000
- Total streamlined agile cost for up-front research = $6550
Usability study cost savings with streamlined agile: $30,150
Total savings of agile: $58,800+
Plus up to 70% savings on design with systems in place
Plus up to 50% reduction in development rework
Plus up to 50% reduction in development time overall
Again, I was using an arbitrary cost per employee to simplify the math for this example. Your numbers will vary per company/project, and by whether or not this is a new or existing product. You would also have variance in cost if you’re using a recruiter for users, or if you have a location contact guiding you for the day during research. You would want to add on those costs to your numbers.
Also, if you have multiple locations with different user needs or demographics, such as different countries or companies as your end users, you may need additional research sprints to cover those diverse needs.
And, as this is not a perfect world, you will want to add on a little bit of a buffer for the unavoidable things that can go wrong.
Learn more
- Skip User Research Unless You’re Doing It Right – Seriously by Joe Munko
- Council Post: Good UX Is Good Business: How To Reap Its Benefits by Andrew Kucheriavy
- A Step-By-Step Guide To User Experience (UX) Patterns by Dawn Schlecht
- The Benefits of Design Systems: Cutting Costs and Creating Competitive Advantage by Distillery Tech
- Why Agile and How to be Good at it as a Designer by Bonni Pratama Nugraha
- What is UX Design, and Why Should You Care? by Matthew Magain
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I’m an Immersive Tech UX Design Professional with over 22 years of experience designing for kiosks, websites, mobile apps and desktop software for many well-known and not-so-well-known companies.
I’m not speaking on behalf of or representing any company. These are my personal thoughts, experiences and opinions.
