Human-Centered Design (HCD) delivers value by raising the quality of a product or service. Users consider a well-designed product to be:
Having a product with these qualities benefits the producing organisation, through its customers and its own employees. Here we list some of the benefits.
Users save time
A well-conceived interface saves users time in their day-to-day job. If designers truly understand the user’s tasks, they design the user interface around these tasks. A well-designed user interface can significantly reduce the number of manual operations.
We know of one case where a very common task in a call center (entering a trouble ticket) took 16 manual operations (scrolling, clicking and selecting) in one user interface and 4 in another user interface. This sort of efficiency gain easily translates into euro value.
Users make better decisions and fewer errors
Appropriate visualisation of data essential to a task results in better decisions and fewer errors. Errors can have far-reaching effects that need to be corrected. Some errors can never be corrected.
Competitive advantage
HCD can make the difference between product failure and success. A user interface that focuses on task execution and hides technical complexity, increases the chances of product uptake. Although a new product can be a success among innovators and early adopters, it is only really successful when it is adopted by the early majority.
In an e-commerce context, HCD results in higher sales as customers find what they need more easily.
HCD helps to avoid resistance to new products in the workplace
As many companies will have discovered, the user interface is an easy target for complaints by employees. It may become the unwanted focus of attention, and be turned into an excuse to resist changes in work practices. Taking into account the user's requirements and needs mitigates the risk of this happening.
Reduced cost of support
Creating user assistance (user documentation, online help or e-learning) and running call centers is costly. Although they are often unavoidable, the volume and cost of user assistance and support can be considerably reduced by designing the product for intuitive understanding from the very start.
Reduced cost of design and development
HCD reduces design and development costs by:
Increased job satisfaction and employee pride
Working with state-of-the-art tools that are adequate for the job can increase employees' pride in their organisation and work. New employees, particularly those fresh out of school, would rather not be confronted with antiquated tools and obscure procedures.
Giving organisations a more human face
Although user-friendly applications can give all organisations a more human face, this is especially the case for governments. Well designed e-government applications benefit all citizens. Governments, more than any other type of organisation, have the pressing duty to behave well towards their customers.
Sources
Good sources of information on the value of HCD are available here: