Yesterday I was sent a powerpoint presentation containing data from one of our recent projects. It was prepared for us by the client—the largest of a number of multinationals in an particular industry sector.

I’m being a bit coy about this data because we have agreed not to release it publicly until Vision Plus 12, the Conference organised by the International Institute of Information Design (IIID) in Austria from July 5 to 7 this year. So until then, I can say very little.

What I can say is that it is important, it fits well into the conference theme of Information Design – Achieving Measurable Results, and it will provide further confirmation of the extraordinary achievements of information design over the last few years.

Now, I’m well aware that the term Information Design does not have the same high profile as terms such as Information Architecture(IA), User Experience Design(UX) or Usability(UB). Ironic, perhaps, as these terms each covers just a part of what information designers do. But the information design tradition of practice, spanning many traditional as well as the more recent media, and in almost every domain of human activity, gives it a much greater depth of practical know-how on which to build, and a wealth of historical examples spanning many generations. Moreover, with this long tradition and breadth there has also been a slow accumulation of methods and research findings on which information designers have been able to draw. Not surprisingly, therefore, Information Design is a mature professional practice and well placed to provide leadership into the future for many of its newer cousins.

As an indication of this, IA UX and UB professionals spend a lot of time agonising about the return on investment (ROI) that their clients might get from what they do. In the ID community, we have had good data on this for over 15 years. Indeed some of that data is quoted in support of claims made by these younger cousins, often without taking account of the full range of activities that lead to this ROI. Our preoccupation in ID has moved on from this. We now ask what level of ROI our clients should expect, and what standard of accesibility, usability, and other features of information people have a right to expect.

The Vision Plus 12 conference will be a landmark event, with some of the most important recent case histories, methods, and teaching on display, much of it concerned with demonstrating the measurable value of information design. I’m told by the organisers that there are a limited number of places left. If you have not already booked a place, do so soon at http://www.iiid-visionplus.net/Registration.aspx

Interestingly, as a research body, we never set out to answer this question. But today this must be the question most frequently asked by organisations that seek our help. Organisations want to know what their return on investment (ROI) will be. They ask us: if we pay the high fees you charge, how long will it take us to recoup the costs of your fees and make a profit?

Here are the answers as they relate to improvements in productivity and profits, based on data from our published research, case histories, and some 20 years of experience.

Minimally, through improvements in productivity, an organisation will recoup the cost of our fees within one year of implementing our recommendations. But the more likely outcome is that for every dollar spent on our fees, the savings will be between $5 and $10. That is an ROI of between 500% and 1000% in the first year following implementation.

This ROI tells us three things. First, the current effectiveness of communication and information design in most organisations is poor. Second, most organisations have little or no idea just how bad their communication is. Third, and reassuringly, we know how to do our job.

But, impressive as these figures on productivity are, they are merely the tip of the iceberg. The effects of good communication and information design on profitability increases the ROI by a further factor of 10, and more. In medium to large organisationss, every dollar spent on our services increases profitability by $100 or more.

In many instances, what we create significantly adds to the capital value of an organisation. In one recent case, an organisation with a market capitalisation of AU$32 billion increased its capital value by $600 million following the introduction of our solution to one of their major communications with their customers.

But there are some important caveats.

1. These results only occur when we are allowed to undertake every aspect of our carefully-integrated communication problem solving method, from scoping through to monitoring. If someone tries to take the bits of our work that they think add value and ignore the rest, or get some of the work done through stand-alone services such as market researchers, agencies or graphic designers, the chances are there will be no ROI. In such circumstances we would issue one of our ‘all-care-and-no-responsibility’ letters, which says that any undertaking we may have given about ROI is no longer valid.

2. The ROI can be significantly eroded if, following implementation, the communication is not routinely monitored. Our experience shows that in as short a time frame as six months from implementation, communication solutions can lose their optimum effectiveness, and they begin to deteriorate quite rapidly thereafter.

We sometimes watch in sadness as an organisation allows these valuable communication assets to deteriorate. Perhaps if we charged higher fees, an organisation might value the investment more and not neglect it! But seriously, and much worse still, we do see organisations—unaware of the value of their communication assets—just abandon them: millions of dollars worth, at the stroke of a pen.

Ironically, as I hinted at the beginning, we never set out to achieve ROI on improved communication, and we still have no real interest in an organisation’s profitability as such. Our principle interest all along has been, and remains, a commitment to improving communication between large organisations and the public, in the public interest.

But we’re happy to exploit the synergy between the public good and high ROI if the result is significant public benefit.