The ROI of UX: A Living Document

It’s probably not surprising that we spend a reasonable amount of time looking around the web for data surrounding the benefits of investing in user experience and the problems it can lead to when you ignore it.

The Tangible and Intangible Benefits of UX Investment

The value of investing in a good customer experience is evident to most people. The problem is many business leaders want that value translated into an exact dollar figure. That part can be tricky, especially because every use case differs.

This leaves us with the current situation, where many businesses are not dedicating proper resources to UX because they are afraid of losing money.

Compiling a Comprehensive Resource on UX ROI

Regardless, there are still a multitude of resources out there that shed some light on ROI, and the number seems to grow every month. We collect these resources because they’re helpful to our content strategy, and because they help our clients gain buy-in with their colleagues before we begin working together.

That’s why we wanted to make the list public. Everybody should have access to this information, especially anyone who is advocating for stronger focus on UX.

There are way too many poorly designed applications out there. If this article can change the course of any of them, we’ll feel pretty good about it!

Ensuring Accessibility and Relevance of UX ROI Data

We aim to add more resources to this list over time, so if you notice something missing, feel free to suggest it in the comments section. Much of the information I’ve come across is locked away in an expensive report from Forrester or Gartner.

We’ll list those here, too, but the point isn’t to get anybody to pay for this stuff. Many other assets out there do an excellent job of presenting empirical evidence that demonstrates the power of a CX-centric approach to product and application design.

Criteria and Categories for UX ROI Resources

A few notes on the organization of this list before you dive in. All articles posted here match the following criteria:

- They contain empirical data that is related to ROI on UX investment

- The article provides a rigorous citation for its sources

- The publisher belongs to a credible brand or third party

- The content is free of lead gen forms (if you’re like us, you try to avoid marketing lists actively!)

Additionally, from a high level, we’re going to bucket UX impact into a few broad categories. We’ll call out which areas each source contains so you can find what you’re looking for at a glance. Those buckets are listed below:

- Increased Market Share

- Customer Retention / Satisfaction

- Customer Acquisition Cost- Support Cost

- Development Waste & Efficiency

- Employee Engagement (for internal applications)

- Employee Overhead / Productivity (for internal applications)

1. Design-Driven Companies Outperform S&P by 228% Over 10 Years - The ‘DMI Design Value Index'

• Publisher: Design Management Institute
• Focus Areas: Increased Market Share, Customer Retention / Satisfaction
• Type: Blog
• Cost: Free

2. Making a Strong Business Case for the ROI of UX

• Publisher: Experience Dynamics
• Focus Areas: Increased Market Share, Customer Retention / Satisfaction, Customer Acquisition Cost, Support Cost, Development Waste & Efficiency, Employee Engagement, Employee Overhead
• Type: Infographic
• Cost: Free

3. How Design Thinking Transformed Airbnb from Failing Startup to a Billion Dollar Business

• Publisher: First Round Review
• Focus Areas: Increased Market Share, Customer Retention / Satisfaction
• Type: Blog
• Cost: Free

4. 13 Reasons to Invest in UX Design

• Publisher: Invision
• Focus Areas: Increased Market Share, Customer Retention / Satisfaction, Customer Acquisition Cost, Support Cost, Development Waste & Efficiency, Employee Engagement, Employee Overhead
• Type: Blog
• Cost: Free

5. Good UX Is Good Business: How To Reap Its Benefits

• Publisher: Forbes
• Focus Areas: Increased Market Share, Customer Retention / Satisfaction, Customer Acquisition Cost, Support Cost, Development Waste & Efficiency
• Type: Blog
• Cost: Free

6. 4 Reasons to Invest in UX Design

• Publisher: Invision
• Focus Areas: Increased Market Share, Customer Retention / Satisfaction, Customer Acquisition Cost, Support Cost, Development Waste & Efficiency
• Type: Blog
• Cost: Free

7. The ROI of User Experience with Dr. Susan Weinschenk

• Publisher: Human Factors International
• Focus Areas: Increased Market Share, Customer Retention / Satisfaction, Development Waste & Efficiency
• Type: Video
• Cost: Free

8. The Future of Design in Start-Ups Survey: 2016 Results

• Publisher: New Enterprise Associates (NEA)
• Focus Areas: Customer Retention / Satisfaction, Customer Acquisition Cost, Support Cost, Development Waste & Efficiency, Employee Engagement, Employee Overhead
• Type: PDF
• Cost: Free

9. UX Design ROI Calculators

• Publisher: Human Factors
• Focus Areas: Increased Market Share, Customer Acquisition Cost, Support Cost, Employee Overhead
• Type: Blog
• Cost: Free

10. The ROI of UX: Convert the Skeptics with this Infographic

• Publisher: Digital Telepathy
• Focus Areas: Increased Market Share, Customer Retention / Satisfaction, Customer Acquisition Cost, Support Cost, Development Waste & Efficiency, Employee Engagement, Employee Overhead
• Type: Infographic
• Cost: Free

11. Why Software Fails (IEEE)

• Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
• Focus Areas: Customer Acquisition Cost, Support Cost, Development Waste & Efficiency, Employee Overhead
• Type: Blog
• Cost: Free

12. The ROI of UX in Enterprise Software

• Publisher: Headspring
• Focus Areas: Increased Market Share, Customer Retention / Satisfaction, Customer Acquisition Cost, Support Cost, Development Waste & Efficiency, Employee Engagement, Employee Overhead
• Type: Blog
• Cost: Free

13. Do Government Agencies and Non-Profits Get ROI From Usability?

• Publisher: Nielsen Norman Group
• Focus Areas: Customer Retention / Satisfaction, Support Cost, Development Waste & Efficiency
• Type: Blog
• Cost: Free

14. The Six Steps for Justifying Better UX

• Publisher: Forrester
• Focus Areas: Increased Market Share, Customer Retention / Satisfaction, Customer Acquisition Cost, Support Cost, Development Waste & Efficiency, Employee Engagement, Employee Overhead
• Type: Research Report
• Cost: $499

15. The ROI of Web Redesigns Made Simple

• Publisher: Forrester
• Focus Areas: Customer Retention / Satisfaction, Customer Acquisition Cost
• Type: Research Report
• Cost: $499

16. The State of Customer Experience 2012

• Publisher: Forrester
• Focus Areas: Customer Retention / Satisfaction, Customer Acquisition Cost
• Type: Webinar
• Cost: $250

17. The Business Value of Design

• Publisher: McKinsey & Company
• Focus Areas: Increased Market Share, Employee Engagement, Design Analytics, Total Returns for Stakeholders
• Type: Blog
• Cost: Free 

28. The New Design Frontier

• Publisher: InVision
• Focus Areas: Increased Market Share, Design Analytics, Total Returns for Stakeholders
• Type: Research Report
• Cost: Free 

Have something to add? Feel free to do so in the comments section below.