NH UPA September 17, 2008

Topic: The Total Customer Experience: The Road Ahead

Speaker: Bill Gribbons, Bentley

When:
Wednesday, September 17th
Refreshments & Networking: 6-7:00 PM – Food & beverages will be provided.
Meeting: 7:00 PM – 8ish

Where:
Mad*Pow Media Solutions, LLC
(Google map: http://tinyurl.com/5aewd4)

Parking Map: http://tinyurl.com/ytsuz8 (street parking and free parking behind Mad*Pow at Ocean Bank is also available)

Summary:
Usability professionals are uniquely positioned to take advantage of the radical changes occurring in the marketplace for technology products and services. The competitive advantage in this sector is slowly shifting from one defined exclusively by engineering, to that of simplicity, usability and the total customer experience. What are the implications of such a shift for our profession?

To compete and thrive in the constantly evolving high-tech sector, professionals working in this sector must also evolve. Based on market and hiring data, Dr. Gribbon's presentation will highlight the challenges and opportunities we face today and how we must prepare ourselves to take full advantage of these opportunities. He will highlight how the emergence of the experience economy has opened exciting opportunities in new sectors such as healthcare, financial services, e-business, gaming, and consumer electronics.

Professor Gribbons is Director of the Human Factors and Information Design programs at Bentley, where he teaches courses in human factors and information design on the undergraduate and graduate levels. The Information Design Programs at Bentley are among the largest and most respected programs of this type in the country. Bill was also founder of the Design and Usability Center. Over the past twenty-five years, he has consulted with hundreds of companies around the globe on issues related to product design, usability, and the user experience as business strategy.

He received his PhD from the University of Maryland. He is an Associate Fellow of the Society for Technical Communication (STC) and was a member of the Technical Communication Editorial Board. He is also a member of the IEEE, the Association for Educational Communications and Technology, the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, Usability Professional Association, and the ACM SIGCHI. He is a popular speaker at local and national conferences addressing issues of information design, human factors, and the user experience. He is frequently quoted in the national media on issues related to the user experience and product design. His long-term research interests center on the building of a unified theory defining the user experience.

RSVP:
Please send RSVPs to info@nhupa.org so we have an idea of the head count for the venue and refreshments.

***NH UPA meetings are always open to anyone who is interested in attending. Membership to the UPA is NOT required.***

Official Website: http://www.nhupa.org/