For example, everybody knows that Microsoft Word, Excel, and other popular programs can be maddeningly frustrating, but few take the time to figure out what their shortcomings mean in terms of lost work, lower worker morale, and wasted dollars. Decreasing physical work not only saves time but also decreases incidents of repetitive stress injury.
Good design can eliminate many of the steps that are most damaging to nerves and tendons.
Sometimes we forget that whenever you do exactly what everybody else does, you lose an opportunity for a competitive advantage. IT purchasers tend to go with the big name. Another example is the AutoCAD computer-aided design and drafting package. For many companies, using it would be like getting free engineers. The status quo is hard to change because today's top executives come from backgrounds unlikely to have given them an understanding of the economic advantages of good interface design.