Cost-Justifying Usability, 2nd Edition

1994). Problems identified late in the development process or even after release

are far more costly to fix than those identified early in the process, and the kinds

of fixes that are practical are typically only the small ones rather than the restruc-

turing that may be needed to add real value to the project (Karat, 1994). Web

design is a slightly special case in this analysis. For many Web applications, the

expectation is that the design will and should change fairly often. These changes,

however, typically are changes in content and in the images on the site. Changes

to the more fundamental information architecture and process flows within

the site ...