Cost-Justifying Usability

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In today's competitive and fiscally constrained business environment, the need to cut costs and justify expenditures is paramount. Usability engineering is still not universally accepted or integrated into software engineering, leaving usability advocates in need of support to secure funding for their initiatives. This book addresses the critical question of how usability professionals and their managers can effectively cost-justify their proposals and efforts. It provides specific techniques for quantifying costs and benefits, enabling readers to build a compelling business case for investing in usability engineering. The book features a comprehensive collection of chapters from experienced usability experts, offering readers a framework for cost-justifying usability engineering programs applicable across various contexts. It explores unique factors and issues related to cost justification in three distinct types of organizations: vendor companies, international development organizations, and contractor companies. Additionally, it includes case studies of successful cost-justification efforts and discusses special issues such as "discount" usability techniques, success factors for integrating usability into development, and specialized tools for cost justification. This resource delivers practical insights for human factors professionals, interface designers, software development managers, and educators in the field.