25 January 2008
New research by Jakob Nielsen show that the average returns from usability work has fallen "substantially" in the last few years.
The average ROI (return on investment) from the projects surveyed was 83%, down from 135% six years ago, but high enough to show that they are still well worth the effort.
There are two main reasons for the decline, Jakob says:
Less room for improvement - Most of the "truly horrible" websites, which previously have given usability agencies plenty of opportunities to improve their design, have now been fixed, so it is now slightly harder to enhance the user experience.
Budgets have remained constant - Even though the average website has improved over the last 10 years, the share of resources allocated to usability has stayed at around 10%.
The survey measured ROI through typical metrics such as conversion rates, traffic numbers and user performance. Nielsen says that 12% of projects still achieve major improvements, something that echoes the findings of our recent usability survey. In it, 45% of respondents reported that their organisation had netted an ROI of 300% or more from usability investment, proving there is still plenty of need for usability agencies.
Keep up to date with industry and Nomensa news by signing up to Nomensa newsletters.
