Wireframing software has both friends and foes. The Internet is full of discussions on the benefits of investment into wireframing software. Likewise, there are cases against the extensive use of wireframing software as the investment may be too costly. Certainly, without time and money constraints, interface design with the help of wireframing software would be more convenient, collaborative and thorough. But are there enough metrics and data available to estimate the return on investment of the wireframing software and make a decision based on numbers rather than gut-feeling?
The truth is that studies on the ROI of wireframing software have been made. One such study entitled “Usability Return on Investment” was done by Nielsen Norman Group and dates back to 2008. The research included more than 70 case studies and measured the key performance indicators of websites before and after the usability re-design. While certain websites did not have any improvements or, on the contrary, had radical improvements, the average ROI on usability re-design (which included both wireframing software and human effort) was 83%.
A similar study was conducted 6 years before that and revealed the ROI of 135%. Clearly, the return on investment is declining but does it make wireframing software not worth the investment? Compared to the beginning of the 21st century, a lot of experience has been accumulated in the area of usability and user interfaces have become significantly more refined and user-friendly. Ten years ago usability re-design was bound to make significant improvements, but today changes are more subtle and benefits are not always obvious. However, tough competition for users drives user interfaces further to perfection and makes wireframing software as important as before.
