Does Usability Investment Pay Off for Businesses?

Apps, websites, and computer programs are essential parts of a digital-first world. Behind each of these software products are companies or organizations that earn revenue from the people who use them. But a poor experience drives consumers away, and businesses miss out on revenue because they fail to consider the true value of investing in usability.

With tighter budgets and the need to review business priorities, cutting the budget for optimizing the user experience is often one of the first items on the list. 

But in 2022, the strategies adopted by the biggest companies in the innovation sector showed this to be a mistake. They have now added the management of UX and usability issues to the C-suite. This shift, reported in UserZoom’s “The State of UX 2022” study, shows how usability is a key tactical issue for businesses. The addition of usability and UX to the C-suite is still a nascent trend, with just 13% of organizations having a UX leader on their executive team.

Despite the small number of C-suite executives dedicated to UX, the value of software with good usability is clear: 88% of users won’t return to a website if they have a poor experience, or if they can’t quickly find a solution to their problem, according to Mind Miners. In other words, a poor browsing experience alone can permanently drive away almost 90% of users. The key to preventing them from leaving is to provide a friendly, intuitive, accessible, and enjoyable experience through good design.

“The State of UX 2022” study also shows that good UX design has a positive impact on customer satisfaction, and 62% of respondents said that good usability improves brand perception. This positive experience is a benchmark that boosts KPIs such as the number of active users, page sessions, retention, and conversions.

Measuring the usability of a website or app should be seen as a highly strategic business function. The better a software product’s usability, the easier it is for a company to give customers what they’re looking for. And when a company delivers better results, it sells more.

It’s important to remember that giving customers what they’re looking for involves several factors, such as ease of searching the site, product categorization, item placement, and page response time. The latter is one of the most important criteria when it comes to usability: 53% of visitors to mobile websites leave a page that takes more than three seconds to load.

In other words, in addition to taking care of a page’s desktop experience, you can’t neglect its mobile version. Statista, a German company specializing in market and consumer data, estimates that there are 7.2 billion mobile users worldwide. This number is expected to grow, so mobile should be a priority when designing a page. After all, smartphone traffic is following the same trend and now accounts for more than half of all visits. As a result, users need a good experience on their devices so they can take action on websites with as few clicks as possible. 

Reducing the steps users take between visiting a website or app and completing a valuable action, such as buying a product or requesting a quote, is an optimization that should be guided by usability principles. The faster customers reach the goal that matters to the business, the better. This is where the value of good usability lies.

Time is the biggest obstacle to putting a user-centered culture into practice, according to 55% of respondents to “The State of UX 2022” study. Even so, 70% of respondents say demand for UX has increased in recent years, while budgets for it have remained the same.  

VitaminaWeb can help you overcome the biggest obstacle of all, a lack of time, and bring your business in line with market demand. Your company saves time and improves retention and business volume through usability enhancements. Get in touch to learn more and request a quote.