5 ways to reduce costs with User Centred Design

User centred design can be a useful and speedy way of increasing efficiency and hence reducing costs. More often that not, design is seen as a way of increasing sales, attracting eyeballs or retaining customers. However at Frontend we've noticed that some of our most successful projects concentrate on cost-reduction and business efficiency. Here's a few ways we've used user centred design to help our clients save money:

1. Re-design paper-based application forms

We all know that the cheapest to facilitate applications to a service is online, but that takes time to implement and often requires a good deal of organisational change. In addition some types of application must be on paper for legal reasons. Recently Frontend worked with AIB Bank to redesign some paper forms. We applied a user centered design approach that included some detailed user research, iterative design phases and user testing on the redesigned forms. The first reliable results back from the client are that this simple and cost effective exercise has improved the performance by 67%, reducing call-centre support costs and back office workload. This represents a phenomenal return on investment (ROI) in a very short time, the project was turned around in about 6 weeks.

2. Refine set-up process

As the cost of consumer electronic products drops the relative cost of providing technical support is rising. For many electronic products the majority of support calls occur during the initial set-up. Frontend have worked with several manufacturers and service providers to improve installation software, instructional material and even packaging to ensure an excellent "Out of Box" experience and reduce the cost of providing customer support. In one case user testing convinced a service provider to cancel the rollout of a networking product due to a poor Out of Box design, as the cost of support would have wiped out any profit from sales of the device

3. Migrate customers to low cost channels

Many organisations have developed low-cost self-service channels mostly using IVR and the web however uptake is mixed. Many customers, particularly those who are less comfortable with technology, are reluctant to entrust important transactions to an automatic system. It is these customers that organisations must focus on if they are to increase the proportion of self-service customers and hence reduce the cost delivery. Including the more challenging user groups in a user centred design process will ensure a design that widens the potential user base of the service. And the good news is that this more inclusive approach to design rarely risks alienating the technophiles and early adopters, making stuff easier is an almost universally popular move.

4. Review working practices

Many of the systems we are asked to look at are a reflection of years of legacy work practices and work arounds. More often than not internal staff are not aware of how inefficient (and sometimes bizarre) these practices are as they have become the accepted 'norm'. In most cases these inefficiencies are removed as part of the design of a new optimised system. However this is a costly and time consuming exercise and the return on investment, while huge, is often a few years down the line. If short term cost reduction is you goal try using the user centred design process to optimise your existing working practice within the constraints of the current systems. Investment in task analysis research and minor modifications to working practice and systems can provide significant cost reductions in the short term for a modest outlay.

5. Show users an early prototype

One of the most effective ways of saving money is to cancel projects or features that nobody wants or that won't be used. For this all you need is a reasonable visualisation of what you intend. Paper or a few PowerPoint slides should be enough. Run a small user test or depth interview and make sure that what you intend is worthwhile and meet the users real needs. Unfortunately if you try the direct approach and ask users "would you use this?" they tend to give overly positive answers so you'll need to be a bit more cunning. A good technique is to ask them to estimate how much it would cost and also how much they would pay for it. This often gives some indication of real world adoption rates. If the results are looking bad it may be better to put effort into something else.

Frontend offer a full range of Out of Box Experience consultancy services for clients such as D-Link International, O2 and HP. For more information contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it