[Sigia-l] NH UPA September Meeting: The Total Customer Experience: The Road Ahead, 9/17/08, 6 PM

[Kyle Soucy]

**Apologies in advance to those that have received this announcement  
more than once.**

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)
40 Pleasant Street
Portsmouth, NH 03801

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 at 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.***

Hope to see you there!

Best,

Kyle Soucy
President, NH UPA

---
Kyle Soucy
Founding Principal, Lead Consultant
Usable Interface
Usability and Interface Design Consulting

Phone: (603) 205-0315
Email:kylesoucy at usableinterface.com
Website: http://www.usableinterface.com