Cost-Justifying Usability Engineering: A Real World Example
Human factors practitioners involved in designing graphical user interfaces (GUI) are constantly challenged with design compromises. These include the need to create an interface that contains maximum functionality and power, while striving to maintain sound human-computer interaction design principles. In a large client-server environment, subtle GUI changes to increase usability can have a significant impact on the bottom line. This paper describes a cost-benefit study comparing performance of two groups of test participants from a large wireless communication carrier. Each group performed test scenarios which isolated the effects of a single window both before and after it was redesigned. Results indicated that a single redesigned window will save an estimated $20,000 during the first year. These benefits were derived from estimating changes in end user productivity, errors, training time, and from savings obtained through decreased late design changes.