One way of demonstrating the importance of good ID is by showing tangible benefits that can be talked about in cash terms. Within a business, good ID can lead to benefits such as higher staff productivity, lower staff turnover, higher staff morale and increased job satisfaction. Economically, these benefits should translate into lower operating costs. Bad ID, on the other hand, may result in stress and unhappiness among staff, leading to high staff turnover and reduced productivity. Consequently, this may lead to financial losses for the business. As you will see later, it is easy to give examples of the effects of bad design, but showing the financial benefits of good ID can be more difficult - invariably, many factors are involved and this makes it difficult to attribute success directly to good ID.

Good ID encourages an easy, natural and engaging interaction between a user and an interactive product, and allows the user to carry out the tasks required. Good ID allows users to forget that they are using an interactive product and get on with what they want to do. Just as knowledge of the transmission mechanism of a car is of little concern to most motorists, knowledge of the internal workings of an interactive product should be of little consequence to its users.

Although the adjectives 'good', 'poor' and 'bad' areusedtodescribeID,  it is worth noting that these terms are subjective: each will mean different things to different people. In addition, what is good, poor or bad will vary according to context.