Investing in usability is the best way to create a design that is simple and intuitive for the customer. The trouble is that usability design is not cheap, and therefore, it’s difficult to justify the costs associated with creating a more seamless experience. This gets especially complicated for established websites that have to pay more to make the adjustments.
However, usability is so much more than just an enhanced experience for the user. It can lead to a greater return on investment, which equals dollars in your pocket. Instead of simply looking at the hard-to-measure benefits of the customer experience, focus on the quantitative benefits that can’t be ignored.
Let’s take a look at some of them.
Lowered Development Costs
By carefully planning your website layout and design in the beginning, you can save time and money from having to make usability changes in the future. Fixes and redesigns are much more costly and complicated at the later stages of a project, so investing a small amount of money initially is the better move.
Lowered Support Costs
It’s impossible to avoid support issues entirely, but you want to minimize them when possible. By creating a site with high usability, there will be fewer customer support issues down the line. Less issues means more satisfaction from your customers, as well as fewer problems to address. Imagine the money your business will save from not having to pay customer service reps for recurrent issues.
Increased Sales
It’s not surprising that a better customer experience will lead to more sales. People are always more likely to buy from a brand that they feel connected with. And, they will be more likely to return if the experience is a positive one. The small investment you make on the front end will pay for itself with increased revenue.
It’s never easy to determine where your time and money should go since nearly every area of web design and development is deserving of both. But when it comes to having a simple, user-friendly design, it’s best to make the investment on the front-end of the project when the costs are less and the potential for greater ROI is present.
