How We Make a Difference Contact Us Payback and R.O.I. Grant Consulting strongly believes that user-centered design not only has rewards in terms of software and web site excellence, but in terms of dollars and profits. These benefits accrue over 5 years for only one project. The cost estimate includes one-time costs for establishing a usability lab facility. Of course, any organization building a lab facility would reap benefits and spread costs for more than one project. Therefore, the estimates are conservative in assessing the payback for any company establishing usability testing in the long run.
More information is available detailing the benefits for an internal project .
Information is also available assessing the payback of usability testing for project for a software vendor . Grant Consulting hastens to note that any usability testing we perform would likely cost far less than the figures cited here, unless your company wishes to establish a lab facility and to perform other steps mentioned in the book's cost estimate. Moreover, the benefits cited could easily be far more than shown above for your project if it significantly affects a sizable number of users. User testing took place after heuristic inspection had already identified usability problems and after these problems were corrected. If no heuristic inspection had been done, more benefits would likely have been discovered in user testing.