Did you know that November 10th is World Usability Day (WUD)? Established in 2005 by the User Experience Professionals Association (formerly the Usability Professionals Association, UPA), World Usability Day (WUD) occurs annually to promote the values of usability, usability engineering, user-centered design, universal usability, and every user’s responsibility to ask for things that work better. The goal of the World Usability Initiative (WUI) is to connect the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and the User Experience (UX) communities and everyone who believes that great design is inclusive and usable by all, to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals by establishing World Usability Day as an internationally observed day, listed on the United Nations calendar. In this year’s theme “Our Health” we explore …

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Hello, fellow UXPA members and members of the UX community! The New Jersey chapter of UXPA, in conjunction with UXPA International, is leading an effort to create a dozen ready-to-use lesson plans for middle school and high school teachers in the coming months. Here in NJ, computer science is required to be taught in grades K through 12, but our curriculum standards say almost nothing about UX. As a result, the few teachers who are teaching UX topics don’t have the proper resources to do it well and easily. We aim to change that narrative. UX is a career path that many don’t find out about until college or later, so this opportunity is to educate teachers and students in …

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By: UXPA Austin The UXPA Austin Chapter is launching their Fall ’22 UXPA Austin Mentorship Program and are accepting applications for mentors and mentees! This is a 12-week mentorship program beginning Monday, September 12th (09/12) through Thursday, December 8th (12/08), and this timeframe takes into account the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. The mentorship program has many benefits for building your UX practice and expanding your professional network. The deadline to apply is Monday, August 22nd (08/22). Sign up for the Fall ’22 Mentorship Program: https://forms.gle/nw9XLPjT8qiY1E1h9 Learn more about the program: https://sites.google.com/view/austin-uxpa-mentorship/mentors Follow UXPA Austin on: Twitter – @AustinUxpa Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/AustinUXPA/

The Journal of Usability Studies (https://uxpajournal.org/) has a long history (our first issue was in the fall of 2005) of publishing high quality articles focused on research-based usability best practices. The time has (finally) come for the journal to join UXPA in reflecting the broader focus for the publication. Going forward, the publication will be renamed the Journal of User Experience (JUX).  We will continue to publish usability-focused research articles with a continued expansion into the diverse topics associated with user experience. Are you looking to publish research that you think would fit the broader scope of user experience? Consider publishing your article with JUX (https://uxpajournal.org/call-for-papers/). JUX is a peer-reviewed, international, online publication dedicated to promoting and enhancing the practice, research, …

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We sat down with our Pre-Conference Course chair, Rajesh Kalidindi to learn a little more about one of our favorite UXPA family members. https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajeshdesign/ 1) How did you get started in UX? One day, during the Dot Com boom, I presented a design to a client, and their question about usability opened my eyes to user experience. Then, I started learning about usability by taking courses and observing users’ behavior. 2) What was your first volunteer role with UXPA International? Conference volunteer at the Austin 2007 UPA Conference. As a volunteer at the conference, I got a chance to meet with leaders and newbies. Here’s my picture as a volunteer from the 2007 conference with a colorful poncho. Isn’t it …

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