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Quantifying the value of UX
How to demonstrate ROI and defend design decisions.
Why should we go with this design? How do we know if we’re on the right track? How do we measure success? What value does UX bring to the company? These are all too common questions that I’m sure we’ve all heard at some point. While UX professionals understand the value and impact of research and design, it can be hard to communicate and quantify this value to executives and other stakeholders. In order to measure high-level design impact and prove ROI, you need to develop an ecosystem of metrics to evaluate designs and track progress over time.
Choosing The Right Metrics
When deciding which metrics work for you and your company, think about how you can make design a strategic asset. What does your team care about? What do your clients care about? What does your company care about? Position yourself as a valuable partner, not an adversary.
Focus on metrics that are valuable across the board, are easy to understand, and will help others do their jobs better. Choose metrics that are easy to communicate and comprehend, so they can inspire action and help guide decision making. Consider constraints and goals other teams are facing, meet them where they are, and speak their language. Involving your stakeholders in metric selection discussions will increase their engagement and buy-in, which will increase the initiative’s likelihood of success.
It’s best to combine quantitative and qualitative measures to get a comprehensive view of your products’ health. Have customers provide numerics around various product measures while supplementing these ratings with qualitative free response feedback to explain and elucidate their reasoning.
Be sure to collect a diverse range of measures. This will help you get a more holistic sense of how your designs and products are performing. You’ll also need to think about when and how often to measure these metrics — right after users complete the onboarding flow? During the core product flow? After users take a desired action? All of the above? Be sure to work with your stakeholders to understand which business and product goals you care about, so you can tailor your UX metrics program to measure what matters. While…
