The ROI of UX

Back in 2006, Jon Lax decided he was going to invest in companies that delivered an exceptional User Experience.  He called it the UX Fund.

"We struggle with the notion of ROI of UX. In our industry there is a lot of talk about getting the ROI of UX proven to the C-level executive. In my opinion, these attempts try to draw cause and effect relationships between activities and value. These micro-measurements are ineffective and are often non-existent. Instead, the ROI of UX comes at macro levels. Companies that internalize the values of doing great UX will see it permeate in their performance. This fund is an attempt to illustrate that.

Our difference was we were going to bias to companies who could offer great customer and user experiences and we were going to actually invest in them. We put actual money on the line.

The Criteria
Our investment strategy focused around 4 criteria:

1. A demonstrated care in the design of their products and Web site

2. A history of innovation

3. They inspire loyalty in their customer base

4. Doing business with them is a positive experience

Notice we looked at no financial criteria. We were not looking for value stocks nor did we look at EPS or any real quantitative or technical measures. We invested entirely on subjective criteria.

Performance
In the 365 days we owned our stocks the value of the portfolio increased 39.37%. This outperformed the major indexes (NASDAQ 18.09%, S+P 9.47%, NASDAQ 100 26.81%, NYSE 14.67%).

6 of our 10 stocks gained in value while 4 declined."

Comments

[Ben]

...and while world indices are all showing red in the period since the UX fund was "invested" - the UX fund is down only 5%. So perhaps investments in UX are also highly defensible.

The core portfolio here:
http://www.teehanlax.com/uxfund/