UPA Becomes UXPA: Why It Is Important

This year, at its 2012 conference in Las Vegas, the Usability Professional Association announced that it was changing its name from UPA (Usability Professional Association) to UXPA (User Experience Professional Association).

There was much response to the name change at the conference.  There was even more conversation after the conference.

Personally, I had a number of reactions to this change-all of them positive.  

For me:

• the name change was surprising to hear because, prior to the conference, I didn’t realize that there was a larger conversation happening within the association itself.  The fact that this conversation is going on is important for us to be aware of and to pay attention to because it points to the overarching work that we do.
• the name change was affirming because it mirrored the journey we have taken as an organization as we’ve waded through user-centered design principles and usability practices, user experience courses and white papers and reports, each of which called out different aspects of what we came to see as a concern for and a commitment to the overall user experience.
• the name change was compelling in that it identified the unique and inexplicably important role user experience professionals play in the workplace.  Ronnie Battista, Director of Certification & Treasurer for the new UXPA shared that “businesses finally get the fact that no matter how much of the        market they’ve cornered, or what flashy new technology, product or service comes, they have come to a conclusion that’s innate to us. That people matter. Customers matter. Employees matter…UX professionals have been and remain the voice for the human side of business and technology.” 
• Finally, I see the name change as a great act of leadership. Merriam-Webster.com  defines leadership as “the act or an instance of leading”.  There was also conversation at the conference about leadership being visionary.

In taking this step, I believe UXPA modeled for the field what leadership is. UXPA can see the vision that is forming, a vision of a reality that not quite everyone connected to this world can see or grasp just yet. But it’s there. And now, its name as an association encompasses that which every discipline and every person in a related field is aimed at ultimately affecting, this is, the overall user experience.

Thank you and congratulations to the new UXPA!