UX research provides significant ROI for a business by improving revenue growth from satisfied customers while reducing overhead costs. Incorporating UX research can also improve the organization’s ability to deliver a positive—or even exceptional—user experience.
Consider that 54% of US consumers report most brands fail to meet their expectations. Add to that, developers reportedly spend 50% of productive time doing avoidable re-work, for example, re-coding a second time because the first design missed the mark. Having to re-design layouts or re-write code takes significant time and resources for coding, re-testing, and re-deployment of the product.
This guide describes how UX research boosts ROI by influencing the quality of user experience, building user loyalty, and providing cost savings across the business.
Key Takeaways
- What is UX Research?
- Discover how UX Research differs from UX Design
- What are the Benefits of UX Research?
- Learn how UX Research boosts ROI, improves the bottom line and delivers higher customer satisfaction
What is UX Research?
UX research differs from UX design. The purpose of UX research is to direct product design around the customer’s needs and desires. UX research provides the necessary data to build a product that meets customer expectations on time, every time. By performing UX research, organizations reduce the impact of usability issues experienced by customers.
UX research actions include:
- Prototype creation
- Non-coded prototype creation that represents the expected functionality and behaviors of the new product
- User Interviews
- Discussions with users on what they need from the product and the functions they expect to perform
- Usability Testing
- Testing of the prototype by potential customers
- Guerilla Testing
- Testing of the prototype by anyone in the organization to flush out potential issues or problems
- A/B Testing
- The creation of two or more different prototypes based on the user interview data. Each is tested and the results are used to choose the better design prototype.
The goal of executing UX research tasks is to uncover insights about customers and leverage that data to create the product design and functionality that works best for the customer.
What are the Benefits of UX Research?
The benefits of UX research include:
- Improved customer experience
- Product design that serves the customer
- Cost savings from the reduction of wasted design and development work
- A positive increase in brand image
- Customer-focused design that increases business revenue
- Improved ROI on the overall product development process
Businesses that invest in UX research save money across the entire product development cycle. Delivering the product customers want requires the organization to fully understand what customers expect through UX research.
Why is ROI Important?
ROI stands for Return on Investment and is a globally accepted KPI for evaluating the financial impact of any type of business investment. Projects that generate optimal ROI build the business and make it successful.
For UX research, ROI indicates whether customers are using the product and if they are embracing it or leaving it behind. UX research evaluates customer data and finds where products can be improved. UX research ROI includes new customer conversions and the creation of a healthy customer base made up of loyal and satisfied existing customers.
Investing time, energy, and money into UX research creates a better user experience overall and saves costs on product development. Loyal customers purchase more products and refer more new customers. In fact, 65% of a company’s business comes from existing customers. Keeping them happy is essential to business success.