A tweet from @whitneyhess about UPA’s value proposition (“I’m sorry, but I’m not renewing my UPA membership. It’s $100 a year, and I don’t get anything for it”) made me acutely aware (again) of this underlying problem with professional associations, and UPA in particular: just what do people want from UPA? What do they want the association to do for them?
And more to the point: what should the UPA *be*? Since I joined in 2000, I have always seen it as an organization that supported people who created user experiences; i.e., not solely the organization for people who *do* usability testing. Do others share this perception?
And since I became a board member in 2004, the question took on more urgency. Unfortunately, I’ve never really heard any definitive answers to these fundamental questions.
So Whitney’s tweet – and it’s not the first one like that I’ve seen (@matto said the same thing a few weeks back) – makes me want to just put the questions out there.
So, UsabilityBlog readers and hopefully visitors via Twitter – what should the Usability Professionals’ Association do for its constituents? For the UX community as a whole? And what should the UPA *be*?
Thanks @whitneyhess and @matto for bringing these questions up.
{ 7 comments }
As someone who has been an outsider to the UPA community I can just say that UPA to me is part of what UX Practice used to be & not where UX is today, nor where it
But to be more clear I think your perception of UPA as representin more than Usability is the source of your inaccuracy. While I know good people in UPA who are like you that is not the image UPA promotes.
But further UPA has a bigger problem, which is that it's value statement isn't about representation at all. And because of that, when there are more accessible and valuable communities out there, it begs the question of why UPA?
- dave
I've attended 2 UPA conferences and I got a lot out of both of them. However, I don't need to pay $100 a year to go to a conference every now and again.
Something Dave said triggered this: I attended Bill Buxton's keynote at UPA 2007 and thoroughly enjoyed it — his talk was inspiring. However, I was amazed to hear that there was an undercurrent of dissatisfaction amongst other conference goers. I don't remember the details of the complaint, but it had something to do with Buxton's definition or use of “usability”.
I think Dave has a point. There's something in the UPA that isn't aligned with part of the membership or wider usability/design/UX/fill-in-your-fav-term community.
Dave's other point is certainly valid and important. UPA offers very little outside of a couple publications and the conference. There is nothing to gel or grow the community during the rest of the year.
Today, communities grow and communicate on the web. UPA offers nothing (?) in that space.
I don't see any value in being a national UPA member when I still have to pay $15/year for an NYC-UPA membership, which gets me discounts to local events, and I believe preferential RSVP if an event is full. So my thought was, besides being able to put the UPA on my résumé (which I can honestly do with or without paying the membership), why bother?
> “I'm concerned about this too… If we are to really embrace “beyond
> just usability testing”, we need to pull in a lot more variety in our
> thinking, websites, conferences, etc. Designers generally don't know
> about the organization, and often feel like it doesn't pertain to
> them. User Researchers who are more broad than just usability are also
> sometimes marginalized. We have an image problem. Should use design
> thinking to solve this problem…”
Good discussion and thanks for getting it going Paul. Also like the points already raised.
There is a perception of what UPA is from the outside and what is actually happening inside UPA (some good stuff). There is also a perception of what “Usability” is from industry that we need to understand, in that within this, some perceive “usability” as just testing and not part of a larger process. Note — Not going to get into a definitions discussion as I think we often all say the same thing in different ways.
So the UPA community needs to better define who it wants to serve and suggest part of this is opening its arms to folks in Product Management, Design and Design Research which is already started to happen based on the presentations I have seen at the UPA conferences over the last 4 years or so.
Personally, I value the UPA membership because of the people in the Usability community, the conference and suggest we need to continue to look at what value means to others both in the USA and internationally to feel more connected organizationally. Note I am also a member of IAI and IXDA as part of a larger strategy to help promote and grow UX. We all need to do this much more with the public (outside of our own community safety zones)
I also see merit in a hybrid membership model where people get local and international benefits.
Sorry, I came across this discussion point a couple months late. But, I'd like to share my reasoning on why I didn't choose to join UPA.
First of all, the UP/UI/UX sphere of influence is growing leaps and bounds and I was searching for a proper avenue to share my experience and insights with like minded professionals. My initial search brought me to the UPA, but after coming across the annual membership fee, plus in these uncertain times, it was not really worth the investment. And why is that?
Which brings me to what I'm looking for in an Association. Basically, I'm just looking for a professional and focused social and networking channel. The irony of which is that UP/UI/UX professionals are certainly responsible for the social sites phoenemon hitting our web experience today; yet UPA's own web presence seems stuck in 1996 where it's web presence is more of a supporting tool for events, gatherings and validating business cases. Granted there are local UPA chapters around the world, but where I'm located there aren't any – so the ROI on the membership would be negligble. (I'm curious when was the last time the UPA site was refreshed.)
Next, and this is purely subjective speculation on my part, but it does seem the UPA's web presence is too focused on enterprise software and quantifying the value of usability as a viable business case for corporate executives who just don't care about design and usability matters. (Again, especially in these times). In other words, the UPA presence seems to have an identity complex and seems locked in as a mouthpiece of validating Usability as a viable and benefit worthy profession – a, “we just don't get respect sort of thing”.
Well, it's this confinement which basically turns me off to the UPA Association not to mention having to shell out a 100 bucks a year just to join a network when I can do that and more for free with other social tools.
I guess I was looking for something rather similar to LinkedIn or IXDA but with more focus on the wide challenges and broad experiences which a UP/UI/UX career demands. And something more vibrant, sexy and fun – which speaks poetically of the value of experience – rather than a repository of metrics and validations.
Sorry, I came across this discussion point a couple months late. But, I'd like to share my reasoning on why I didn't choose to join UPA.
First of all, the UP/UI/UX sphere of influence is growing leaps and bounds and I was searching for a proper avenue to share my experience and insights with like minded professionals. My initial search brought me to the UPA, but after coming across the annual membership fee, plus in these uncertain times, it was not really worth the investment. And why is that?
Which brings me to what I'm looking for in an Association. Basically, I'm just looking for a professional and focused social and networking channel. The irony of which is that UP/UI/UX professionals are certainly responsible for the social sites phoenemon hitting our web experience today; yet UPA's own web presence seems stuck in 1996 where it's web presence is more of a supporting tool for events, gatherings and validating business cases. Granted there are local UPA chapters around the world, but where I'm located there aren't any – so the ROI on the membership would be negligble. (I'm curious when was the last time the UPA site was refreshed.)
Next, and this is purely subjective speculation on my part, but it does seem the UPA's web presence is too focused on enterprise software and quantifying the value of usability as a viable business case for corporate executives who just don't care about design and usability matters. (Again, especially in these times). In other words, the UPA presence seems to have an identity complex and seems locked in as a mouthpiece of validating Usability as a viable and benefit worthy profession – a, “we just don't get respect sort of thing”.
Well, it's this confinement which basically turns me off to the UPA Association not to mention having to shell out a 100 bucks a year just to join a network when I can do that and more for free with other social tools.
I guess I was looking for something rather similar to LinkedIn or IXDA but with more focus on the wide challenges and broad experiences which a UP/UI/UX career demands. And something more vibrant, sexy and fun – which speaks poetically of the value of experience – rather than a repository of metrics and validations.
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