UI/UX design or audit - how to measure the costs?

Question

hi,

lately I've been asked to do a UI or UX audit and to be honest I truly don't know how to charge people for this... The story is that I've used some portal X and I've started complaining about how unfriendly it is and they asked me to do a full audit for them... so I did... It took me 8h of writing a doc about what things are good and what are bad - just in general, since we've agreed to sign a new contract for a detailed audit (with graphics, talking with people etc.) if they'd like the general one.

In short:

How to charge it? I can do something like: price * hours. But it's like I've used that portal for about two months so I didn't have to get to know it and I don't even know how to measure that. It took me 8h of writing the doc... I've charged them about $200 but I didn't do that kind of stuff before (not in commercial space) so I can't show any recomendations or anything... and I'm feeling like that's gotta be worth a some real cash since this is really hard and often people get it wrong... like... really really wrong...

Would be great to hear what people in the UI/UX business have to say about it. TIA.

Answer 1

I am not an UI/UX expert, however I think, that if this is a way for getting a bigger contract, I would not charge anything now and let it be part of costs for doing the full audit. This might show a good intention from your position and may build trust. If you are able to do a good audit and even maybe changes to the design of that portal for reasonable price, they might not even think about giving the work to anybody else than you. Other thing is, that if by some chance usability testing results show that some of your points are not totally correct, the customer will not feel as having paid for something that is not true, but they will think about it as a suggestion, which you prooved to be wrong and it can be reconsidered for the good of the customer.

Answer 2

I am a professional UI developer, and I can tell you that we handle this many different ways depending on the situation at hand. If the job is "in the bag" then we will do a lot of the pre-planning work (not user surveying) for "free" up front then make it back on the cost of the actual work. On smaller jobs I will even go so far as to do several wireframes as part of the planning and bidding process. For some clients, I'm asked for semi-working mockups, in which case there will be separately charged "spec" and "design" phases. One million dollar account I worked on hired my team to develop the requirements to begin the planning process, which seemed a bit overboard.

I'm often asked to design or build something I've never done before, so don't let that hang you up in pricing. The important thing is to put out a quality product in the end that you're happy to put your name on. Experience is nothing compared to results.

One hard and fast rule I follow. If I can see a "challenging" client coming, which I've gotten very good at, then the charge is always billed at an hourly rate with no exceptions. I have the flexibility to "give" them a few extra hours if things are going well, but if the client begins to take advantage of the situation, I can still get paid in the end.

Regardless of the process you take, the key to success in this business is documentation. Put in writing your fee, change management strategies, warranty period, etc. GET IT SIGNED! I've been burned by clients trying to use me for a site and then inserting a low-ball contractor into the equation, so don't be afraid to spell out who will do what, when it will happen, and when deliverables are due from each person.

There are hundreds of resources about this subject on smashingmagazine.com. It's the UI person's go-to for this sort of information.

Good luck!