Improving Profitability

Goals or benefits of testing for your organization are;

- Creating a historical record of usability benchmarks for future releases. By keeping track of test results, a company can ensure that future products either improve on or at least maintain current usability standards.

- Minimizing the cost of service and support calls. A more usable product will require fewer service calls and less support from the company.

- Increasing sales and the probability of repeat sales. Usable products create happy customers who talk to other potential buyers or users. Happy customers also tend to stick with future releases of the product,

rather than purchase a competitor's product.

-Acquiring a competitive edge because usability has become a market separator for products. Usability has become one of the main ways to separate one's product from a competitor's product in the customer's

mind. One need only scan the latest advertising to see products described using phrases such as "simple" and "easy" among others. Unfortunately, this information is rarely truthful when put to the test.

-Minimizing risk. Actually, all companies and organizations have conducted usability testing for years. Unfortunately, the true name for this type of testing has been "product release," and the "testing"

involved trying the product in the marketplace. Obviously, this is a very risky strategy, and usability testing conducted prior to release can minimize the considerable risk of releasing a product with serious usability

problems.