Appendix: Tying Profitability to Usability

A quick-reference for firms that are planning and developing user experience:

1. The business case should drive the design and development effort, but the needs of the customer should drive the business case.
2. All team members should understand the goals of a project and how usability impacts those goals
3. The ultimate goal of a project is not to produce a system, but to produce a system that is used in a way that contributes to the success of the firm
4. One a product is launched, the job is not over, and team members should be made aware of its performance to improve it as well as to learn for future projects
5. Even among diverse interdisciplinary teams, common purpose can be achieved if they understand what each contributes to the ultimate user experience
6. Plan for the future and architect for scalability
7. Keep focus on the customer: know their needs and goals, their wants and desires, and work toward satisfying them.
8. If a proposed function or feature does not offer both value to the customer and value to the firm, scrap it.