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The Austin Chapter of the UPA

An interview with Kerrie Green, the President of the Austin chapter of the Usability Professionals' Association

Conducted via email by John S. Rhodes (20-October-2001)

What is the Austin UPA? Please give us some details!

The Austin UPA is actually a local chapter of the international Usability Professionals' Association (UPA). In 1991, Simply Usable through Designs' Janice James founded the organization to provide a more practical outlet for professional skill development and networking. And in March 2001, I began announcing events around Austin to see if we had interest to support a local chapter. By early May we'd met the necessary requirements for formation (a very simplistic, user-friendly process!), and we made it all official.

The great thing about the UPA is that it gives local chapters plenty of room to develop their own personalities. In Austin we cranked up the emphasis on networking and sharing professional experiences. Currently we meet bimonthly for guest speakers, workshops, roundtables, and the popular networking happy hours held around Austin. We really try to keep things fun, interesting, and educational. We're a lively bunch.

As President, what is your role? What are your responsibilities?

My presidential role (that sounds so formal) is always morphing, but that's another fun thing about starting the chapter and running it. I do everything from compiling the mailing list and sending out event notices and newsletters to booking venues for our events and guest speakers. I'm continually challenged to act as administrator, recruiter, marketer, organizer, educator, and fellow usability geek. All of these roles are wonderful training for enhancing in-house positions; growing clientele; marketing your services and expertise; and for developing your own business, managing it, and keeping it fresh. So I'm already finding the experience thoroughly invaluable. And, of course, it helps if you're having a ball in the meantime!

Describe the members please. Who are they? What do they do? How many members are there?

Membership is open to professionals who practice, conduct research, or teach in a usability-related profession, as well as to fulltime students enrolled in a usability-related field of study at accredited universities. To date, we have more than 30 local members and a mailing list with about 150 names, many of whom are industry leaders. We have a motley bunch, including authors, academicians and instructors, managers, usability practitioners, designers, tech writers, consultants, and even a token marketing director or two. So we have a wide range of experience and expertise, all of which makes the interactions particularly rich. That's the wonderful thing about the UPA in general-we all have a lot we can teach each other. We like to keep it all symbiotic.

What are the benefits of being an Austin UPA member? Do you do anything unique?

The main benefit is that you forge strong connections with other professionals in your area, which in turn enables you to grow professionally, enhance your skills, and build your confidence and vision. We're always learning new techniques and practical tips from each other. As for what makes us Austinites unique, that's a loaded question if you know anything about Austin. We're a particularly experimental bunch that truly enjoys challenging and interacting with each other-typical Austin fare. I think it's also fairly unique to have so many well-known usability practitioners in such a small city, relatively speaking. Austin's fortunate enough to offer many opportunities for usability professionals since. As the moniker Silicon Hills illustrates (in reference to Texas Hill Country), we do have a lot of technology-related businesses, including Dell, IBM, Tivoli, and Trilogy.

As for UPA benefits, they include a members and consultants directory, job listings, the Essays on Usability collection, the UPA Voice Newsletter, and the biannual User Experience magazine. Also, the UPA is currently redesigning its site to offer exclusive members areas.

What are the hot topics right now? What is on the agenda?

The topics vary in temperature, but those that continually emerge include "Have you heard of any jobs?" and the standard questions associated with selling usability, preserving your position, cost-justifications, remote testing, internationalization, and accessibility. We've had a range of speakers on the topics, including Austin Usability Chief Usability Officer and local guru Dr. Randolph Bias, who naturally led a fun cost-justification workshop. Also, BMC's Scott Isensee, another local talent and author, led us on a tour of BMC's user lab and also delivered a fantastic interactive workshop that let participants "walk in executive shoes" as they went through a mock development project. This activity was particularly beneficial since it helped us develop new strategies for selling usability and refining the UCD process. We've also got some upcoming roundtables (we vote for the topic du jour) and guest speakers who include Dr. Andrew Dillon. He's relocating to Austin this winter to serve as the University of Texas dean of the graduate school of library and information sciences. That's a mouthful-maybe I should've just said the GSLIS program.

How can people learn more?

They can write me at austinupa@yahoo.com or at kgreen@hoovers.com, or they can call (512) 374-4683. I'm more than happy to offer information on joining the local group, delivering presentations, and starting local chapters in other cities. The process is especially painless and certainly a wonderful tool for meeting and connecting with other professionals. I also encourage anyone who's interested in developing a local chapter to explore the topic on the UPA chapters site, where you can locate chapters in your area as well. And, for a final note, the local Austin chapter needs a vice president, so if anyone who's innovative and energetic would like to help me out, I'd love to talk.

Editor's Comments

Thanks Kerrie. I'm certain that a lot of people will enjoy this interview. 

-- John S. Rhodes 

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