The current state of measuring return on investment in user experience design

Abstract

Incorporating user experience (UX) design into system development processes can give an organisation a competitive advantage over its rivals. Embedding UX design into system development processes requires investment in skilled professionals, who in turn, follow a methodical process to make UX design an integral part of the organisation. Despite the value that can be added by UX design, demonstrating the return on investment (ROI) in UX design remains a perennial challenge because of the difficulty associated with explicitly linking UX design with good ROI, to the exclusion of other system development processes. This paper reports on the emerging perspectives on measuring ROI in UX design in a selection of South African organisations. Interviews were conducted with 33 UX professionals from four organisations to get insight into how ROI in UX design is measured in their respective organisations. The results showed that some participants were aware of the metrics that could be used to measure ROI in UX design. However, none of the four organisations were specifically calculating ROI in UX. Rather, ROI was being calculated on an entire project.