Why Join?

Benefits of Membership

Our organization is a great way to meet new people. Also, some events have limited registration: our members get the opportunity to register before the general public. And once a year, members choose their President, Vice President, and Treasurer through an election process.

What is a Usability Professional?

Usability professionals are part of the user experience community. Some usability professionals do a broad range of work, ranging from interviews and observations to creating wireframes for a product or service. Some have a design background, and some have a library science degree. Many have attended courses towards certification or an advanced degree in Human-Computer Interaction.

Other usability professionals focus on one particular area, doing either research, design or evaluation. Some do a combination of activities, but specialize in a specific industry such as health care or education, or perhaps work only with handheld devices. All of them focus on the user, while taking into account the needs and constraints of the business.

Who are UPA members?

The UPA is a growing international organization with 50 chapters around the world, and members in 60 countries. UPA members come from many different backgrounds, sharing the common interest of creating products that meet the needs of the people who work or play with them. Some work full-time as usability professionals. Others incorporate usability into their work as interface/interaction designers, information architects, developers, and many other fields.

NYC UPA is committed to providing an environment where experienced usability professionals and newcomers to the industry can improve their knowledge of the industry and build social networks at the same time.

What we offer

We host events approximately once a month, featuring speakers, panels, or workshops that cover topics related to the usability industry. Event topics range from e-commerce to social media to research.

What are the requirements?

You must be at least 18 years of age or older to join.

How technical are the events and speakers?

All speakers are asked to keep in mind that the audience consists of varying experience levels. If an event covers an advanced subject matter, we do our best to indicate this in the event description.

Who comes to the events?

Our audience is a mix of professionals from corporations and digital consultancies, creative staff from digital agencies, consultants, freelancers, and students. Recently we've broadened our audience by reaching out to Knowledge Management professionals and industrial designers. We won't turn away anyone from any industry who could benefit from learning more about good usability practices.

In addition to consultants and students, we host employees from the following companies:

JP Morgan Chase Bloomberg GE IBM Google Inc. TD Ameritrade New York Media The Economist Group Roundarch Accenture McGraw-Hill Medco Health Solutions Digitas R/GA frog design, inc.

Flycell Liquidnet Warshaw Group, Inc. Macy's HarperCollins Publishers Dow Jones Misys HUGE Consumer Reports Sony Music Ernst & Young LLP CALVIN KLEIN Merck Human Factors International Thomson Reuters

Razorfish RedCats USA Showtime Networks Warshaw Group The McGraw-Hill Companies AT&T LanguageMate Darleon Inc. Direct Brands, Inc. Food Network Scripps Networks Interactive Infragistics Ralph Lauren New York University