Paul, 6 November 2023

Create a business case for user experience design

Convincing stakeholders that they should use user experience (UX) design can be tricky. That’s why writing a business case is a great way to show what UX can do and the value it can bring.

Why you might use a business case

A business case is a 15 to 20-page document that outlines your business’s goals and how you’ll achieve them.

A strong, detailed business case will provide a roadmap for what your business does to achieve goals, for example in the next five years.

You can also share your case with potential investors or other important partners.

What UX is

User experience (UX) design means you put the people who use your products and services first when you develop products and services.

You use evidence of people’s needs and then use that evidence to inform everything you do.

Putting users first has been proven worldwide to lead to products and services that work for everyone. That includes your organisation.

Why UX is crucial for a business case

UX can transform your content strategy and audience engagement. A business case that doesn’t use UX creates massive risk that your products or services will fail.

What UX brings to your business plan is a methodology (a structured way of achieving a goal). That gives you a solid basis to advocate for your plans.

How to make a UX-focused business case

Making a compelling business case to establish UX at your organisation involves several steps.

You need to use a structured process so you can convince stakeholders that a user-centred approach can lead to success.

Create your business case by breaking it down into the following steps.

Start your business case with a pitch

The first page of your business case is called an executive summary.

Think of your first page as your elevator pitch.

Include a:

mission statement (description of what the organisation does and who it serves)
brief description of the problem or problems you need to solve with a plan
summary of the key points of the plan – what you’ll do, when and how

Set the scene by laying out the current state

You can set the scene at the beginning of the main part of your business case by summarising the way your organisation currently works.

Detail the impact of the current state on user experience for the people who use your products and services.

Include evidence of user behaviour

Support your business case with information that identifies your audience. Use valuable insights such as:

interviews
usability testing

Show how user research has helped you to understand:

habits and preferences
what people need to complete tasks
pain points (obstacles to user satisfaction)

Include user feedback and data-driven findings from your research.

Use information you’ve gathered about existing user pain points.

For example:

customer satisfaction from user feedback and reviews
engagement metrics from data analytics
conversion rates (such as how many people fill out a form)

You can also include user feedback, for example negative reviews or data from your call centre.

Find our more about understanding your audience through their online behaviour.

Define objectives and key results

You should definitely join the dots between your current state and what needs to change. You can do this by defining what you need your business to achieve.

Define specific aims (objectives) and measurable outcomes (key results) to show the impact user-centred design could have on your business.

These might include:

improving conversion – making it easier for users to complete tasks
boosting competitiveness so people come to you rather than elsewhere
building positive user experiences to increase loyalty and reputation

You can also include examples of other relevant organisations or businesses that are getting positive results from using UX.

Make recommendations that detail a plan for action

Use evidence of your organisation’s current problems to inform recommendations about:

governance (for example, who owns or manages content, when, where and how)
workflow (how you organise the work your team does)
content (for example, getting specialists to write content)
the level of cooperation provided by the rest of the organisation

You need your business case to help your organisation understand the need for change.

Find our more about showing stakeholders the value of content transformation.

Stress that user testing is essential

Show how user testing new services or ideas will save your organisation time and money.

It’s useful to stress how user testing regularly and from an early stage create usable products and services.

Use a roadmap to show what happens when

A roadmap is a simple visual representation of what is expected to happen at different stages during a project.

Your roadmap should be a clear, actionable plan for implementing UX in your organisation.

This roadmap offers guidance on how to move towards your goals, and identifies:

key milestones
roles and responsibilities
resources

Your plan should inspire by showing what the future could hold.

Frame your business case as a data-driven approach

You need your case not only to detail what UX can do, but how the whole data-driven approach can improve the way the organisation works.

Explain how UX will mean taking into account your audience’s constantly evolving needs.

Outline how UX is an ongoing cycle where you make multiple iterations based on the latest available information.

Give the bonus of a cost-benefit analysis

A key part of your business case is using a cost-benefit analysis to show the potential return on investment (ROI).

Your cost-benefit analysis basically:

lays out how much your current content operations cost
compares with the benefits of putting UX in place

Costs might include:

research
training
content specialists

Benefits can include:

increased revenue
improved customer loyalty
reduced support costs

Address any potential concerns for anyone reading your business case. For example, increased costs or extended timelines.