The ROI of UX: A Living Document

It’s probably not surprising that we spend a good 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 value of investing in a good customer experience is obvious to most people. The problem is many business leaders want that value translated into an exact dollar figure. That part can be a little bit tricky, especially because every use case is so different.

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

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!

Our goal is to add more resources to this list over time, so if you notice something is 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. There are a multitude of other assets out there that do a good job of presenting empirical evidence that demonstrates the power of a CX-centric approach to product and application design.

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 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 actively avoid marketing lists!)

Additionally, from a high level, we’re going to bucket UX-impact into a few broad categories. We’ll call out which of those 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. Designing for Success: Creating Business Value with Mobile User Experience

• Publisher: Worcester Polytechnic Institute
• Focus Areas: Increased Market Share, Customer Retention / Satisfaction
• Type: Scholarly Article
• Cost: Free

9. Achieving Enterprise Software Success

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

10. 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

11. UX Design ROI Calculators

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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. The ROI of Web Redesigns Made Simple

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

18. The State of Customer Experience 2012

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

19. 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 

20. 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.