By Marty Carroll, Director of the Usability Practice.

With an uncertain economic climate and tightening budgets the time has come to cost justify usability activities. While most site owners intuitively feel that commissioning usability research is a fundamentally sound strategy it is becoming increasingly difficult to release budgets when the value it brings is often dubious.

However, the advent of sophisticated web analytics tools means that a demonstrable return on investment is now obtainable when performing usability research. A framework can be implemented that allows for the measurement of site improvements over time with the focus constantly on identified core metrics for the site. By measuring the impact usability changes make to these metrics it is possible to apply monetary values to changes as they impact the site.

This paper proposes an approach whereby web analytic packages and usability research complement each other to align site improvements to commercial goals. You can download a copy by following the link below. If you have any questions regarding these issues please contact me via our website

(PDF, file size 264KB)

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