Certification for Usability and UserCentered Design Professionals

1
Certification forUsability and User-Centered
Design Professionals
Draft 0.28 May 2002

• Report on Activities of the Working Group

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Introduction

• Background
• Current Work
• Approach
• Core Competencies
• Next Steps

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Why Certification?
BACKGROUND

• Driving Issues
• Rapid growth of the field
• Shortage of people with key stills
• Value to potential employers and clients
• Identification of skills required for
  professional work
• Gap in available certifications for professionals
• No certification that focuses on broad skills in
  user-centered design
• Whats already been done
• Investigations and work in the UK
• Formation of international working group

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Stakeholders for Certification
BACKGROUND

• Purchasers of usability services
• Usability professionals
• Usability aware employers
• Entry level practitioners
• Usability consultancies
• Usability training organizations

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Benefits and Drawbacks to Certification
BACKGROUND

• Benefits
• A personal assessment of skills
• A guide for becoming a more skilled professional
• A part of a professional resume
• A part of a professional development plan or pay
  level used by organizations
• To establish the credentials of usability
  vendors/consultants
• Demonstrates the value of work to
  clients/customers
• Promotes professional excellence within the field
• Helps organizations understand the value of UCD
  and usability

• Drawbacks/Common Objections
• Competes with valid degrees
• Cannot guarantee quality work
• Cant take real-world experience into account.
• Someone who is qualified might not pass the
  test for certification.
• Creates barriers to entry
• Adds costs and efforts without enough benefit
• Clients wont know or care about it
• It would be better just to have a curriculum
• Will thwart innovation in methods

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Existing Certifications
BACKGROUND
Comments
Cost
Sponsor
Title

• Commercial firm
• No HF / related degree required
• Take 4 courses exam

4,280
HFI (Human Factors International)
Certified Usability Analyst

• Commercial firm
• No HF / related degree required
• Take 1 4-day course 4 days 1-on-1training

8,650
Weinschenk Consulting Group
Certified Usability Specialist

• Professional services org.
• Masters - HF, Ergonomics, related field
• 4 yrs. experience in the field
• Panel review written exam

190 100 yearly
Board of Certification in Professional Ergonomics
Certified HF Professional Associate HF
Professional

• Professional services org.
• BS5 yrs MA/MS4 yrs Ph.d3 yrs.
• Samples of 2-3 tech. contributions
• Letters of recommendation
• Written exam

300 60yearly
Oxford Research Institute
Certified HF Engineering Professional
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International Working Group
BACKGROUND

• Working group formed at invitation of UPA and met
  in November 2001 in Salt Lake City
• Goals
• Determine whether certification is viable
• Survey members of key organizations to determine
  support for certification
• Understand benefits and drawbacks seen by members
• If usability certification is viable
• Determine the criteria for certification
• Determine the certification process
• Determine the how certification should be
  administered
• First meeting documented in article in
  Interactions
• CERTIFYING USABILITY (PROFESSIONALS) A Scheme
  to Qualify Practitioners by Donald L. Day,
  Intuit (with the assistance of Nigel Bevan, Serco
  Usability Services). January-February 2002, page
  7-9

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Working Group Members
BACKGROUND

• United States
• Alan Colton, Surgeworks
• Donald Day, Intuit
• Julie Nowicki, Optavia
• Stephanie Rosenbaum, Tec-Ed
• Charlotte Schwendeman, Perficient
• Bill Saiff, Fannie Mae
• Eric Strandt, Northwestern Mutual
• Don Williams, Microsoft
• Larry Wood, Brigham Young University
• Whitney Quesenbery, Cognetics

• United Kingdom
• Nigel Bevan, Serco Usability Services
• Jonathan Earthy, Lloyds Register
• Caroline Jarrett, Effortmark
• Japan
• Masaaki Kurosu, NIME
• Organizations Represented
• UPA and UK UPA
• EC UsabilityNet Project
• British Computer Society HCI Specialist Group
• SIG Usability-Japan

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Discussions within the Usability Community
CURRENT ACTIVITIES

• SIGCHI (ACMs Special Interest Group on
  Computer-Human Interaction)
• CHI 2002, Minneapolis, MN, April 20-25SIG A
  Proposed Scheme for Certifying Usability
  Practitioners
• UPA (Usability Professionals Association)
• UPA 2002, Orlando, FL, July 8-12Workshop
  Certifying Usability Professionals How Can
  Competence Be Assessed? Panel A Proposed
  Scheme for Certifying Usability Practitioners
• STC (Society for Technical Communication)
• 2002 Conference, Nashville, TN, May 5-8Panel
  Usability Professional Certification
• HFES (Human Factors and Ergonomics Society)
• BCS HCI (British Computing Society Human-Computer
  Interaction)
• APCHI (Asia Pacific Computer-Human Interaction)
• UK UPA (UK Usability Professionals Association)
• IFIP Congress

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UK-UPA Survey
CURRENT ACTIVITIES

• Should there be a recognized accreditation scheme
  for UK usability professionals?

• What should the UK usability accreditation be
  based on?

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SURVEY OF UPA, SIGCHI and Other Groups
CURRENT ACTIVITIES

• Online survey launched mid-April, 2002
• Jointly sponsored by
• Working group
• The UPA
• Goals
• Gather input from the community on general
  opinions and specific issues

• Individual demographics
• Location
• Position and years of experience
• Degrees and certifications held
• Memberships
• Opinions about certification
• Agree/disagree with statements about benefits and
  drawbacks
• Favored process for certification
• Should a code of conduct be included
• Scope of certification
• Likelihood of seeking certification
• Opinions about governance
• Organization
• Connection to training courses
• Costs

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Types of Certification
APPROACH

• Individual practitioner
• Organization
• Training courses

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General Approach to Certification
APPROACH

• Scope includes entire user-centered design (UCD)
  field not just usability testing and evaluation
• The process should assess the candidates
• Knowledge
• Skills
• Usability aptitude
• Certification process and criteria
• Define a minimum standard
• Inclusive rather than exclusive
• Promote professional development and excellence
• What its NOT Small cadre of elite individuals
• Process includes an ethical code of practice
• Software Engineering Code of Ethics and
  Professional Practice

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Concepts for Certification Process
APPROACH

• Based on core competency elective specialties
• Points for
• Sufficient background / experience equivalent to
  a threshold score
• Industry experience
• University programs in HF and related fields
• Work experience peer references
• Possible process
• Submission of a brief describing the use of UCD
  on a project
• How / why UCD principles / techniques were or
  were not used
• Written exam
• Problem solving style questions
• Essay responses
• Structured interviews with multiple assessors
  approved by the consortium

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Certification Core Competencies
COMPETENCIES

• Based on ISO 13407, Human-centred Design
  Processes for Interactive Systems (1999)
• Plan and manage the human-centered design process
• Understand and specify user and organizational
  requirements and context of use
• Produce design solutions
• Evaluate designs against requirements
• Builds on work done in UK and Europe
• Technical Report Technical Competencies for
  User-Centered Design Professionals

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Skills Framework for the Information Age
COMPETENCIES

• The SFIA is used as a model for structuring
  levels of competencies
• A common reference model for the identification
  of skills
• All skills mapped in two dimensions
• The complete IS model maps to a British Computer
  Society model

• Seven levels from trainee to mastery
• Each level has four dimensions
• Autonomy
• Influence
• Complexity
• Business skills
• Skills are defined to be comparable at each level
• Not every skill is practiced at each level

www.e-skillsnto.org.uk/sfia
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Levels of Competency in the SFIA
COMPETENCIES
Level
Status
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Follow Assist Apply Enable Ensure,
advise Initiate, influence Set strategy, mobilize
Student or Trainee
Practitioner
Professional
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Definition of Level 4 Professional
COMPETENCIES

• Autonomy
• Works under general direction within a clear
  framework of accountability. Substantial personal
  responsibility and autonomy. Plans own work, to
  meet given objectives and processes.
• Influence
• Influences team, and specialist peers internally.
  Influences customers at account level and
  suppliers. Some responsibility for work of others
  and allocation of resources. Participates in
  external activities related to specialization.
  Decisions influence success of projects and team
  objectives.
• Complexity
• Broad range of complex technical or professional
  work activities in a variety of contexts.
• Business Skills
• Selects appropriately from applicable standards,
  methods, tools. Demonstrates analytic and
  systematic approach to problem solving.
  Communicates fluently orally and in writing. Is
  able to plan, schedule and monitor work
  activities in order to meet time and quality
  targets. Is able to absorb rapidly new technical
  information and apply it effectively. Good
  appreciation of wider field and how it relates to
  the business activities of client. Takes some
  responsibility for personal development.

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Technical Competencies
COMPETENCIES

• 1. Plan and Manage the Human-Centered Design
  Process
• 2. Understand and Specify User and Organizational
  Requirement and Context of Use
• 3. Produce Design Solutions
• 4. Evaluate Designs Against Usability
  Requirements
• 5. Demonstrate Professional Skills

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Draft Technical Competencies
COMPETENCIES

• 1. Plan and Manage the Human-Centered Design
  Process
• Competencies in this section demonstrate an
  ability to specify how human-centered activities
  fit into the system development process
• 1.1 - Identify and plan stakeholder and user
  involvement
• 1.2 - Select human-centered methods and
  techniques
• 1.3 - Provide human-centered design support for
  other processes

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Draft Technical Competencies
COMPETENCIES

• 2. Understand and Specify User and Organizational
  Requirement and Context of Use
• Competencies in this section demonstrate an
  ability establish the requirements of the user
  organization and other interested parties for the
  system, taking full account of the needs,
  competencies and working environment of each
  relevant stakeholder in the system. Identify,
  clarify and record the context of use in which
  the system will operate
• 2.1 - Clarify and document system goals
• 2.2 - Analyze stakeholders
• 2.3 - Assess risk to stakeholders
• 2.4 - Identify, document and analyze the context
  of use
• 2.5 - Define the use of the system
• 2.6 - Generate the stakeholder, user and
  organizational requirements
• 2.7 - Set usability objectives

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Draft Technical Competencies
COMPETENCIES

• 3. Produce Design Solutions
• Competencies in this section demonstrate an
  ability to create potential design solutions by
  drawing on established state-of-the-art practice,
  the experience and knowledge of the participants
  and the results of the context of use analysis
• 3.1 Allocate functions
• 3.2 Produce composite task model
• 3.3 Explore system design
• 3.4 Use existing knowledge to develop design
  solutions
• 3.5 Specify system and use
• 3.6 Develop prototypes

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Draft Technical Competencies
COMPETENCIES

• 4. Evaluate Designs Against Requirements
• Competencies in this section demonstrate an
  ability to collect feedback on the developing
  design. This feedback will be collected from end
  users and other representative sources
• 4.1 - Specify and validate context of evaluation
• 4.2 - Evaluate early prototypes in order to
  define and evaluate the requirements for the
  system
• 4.3 - Evaluate prototypes in order to improve the
  design
• 4.4 - Evaluate the system in order to check that
  the stakeholder and organisational requirements
  have been met
• 4.5 - Evaluate the system in order to check that
  the required practice has been followed
• 4.6 - Evaluate the system in use in order to
  ensure that it continues to meet organisational
  and user needs

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Draft Technical Competencies
COMPETENCIES

• 5. Demonstrate Professional Skills
• Competencies in this section demonstrate an
  ability to enable HCD to be done in the
  organisation through working at a professional
  level
• 5.1- A degree of autonomy in the control of their
  own work.
• 5.2- Having some influence on other people, a
  project or an organisation.
• 5.3 - Cope with a degree of complexity (intricacy
  or complication) in their work.
• 5.4 - Understanding of and skill in role within
  the working and professional environment

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Possible Next Steps
NEXT STEPS

• Refine concepts based on feedback from these
  sessions
• Complete competencies
• Create draft of certification process
• Create personas of different stakeholders
• Create grand-fathering scheme
• Develop governing body
• Set up non-profit consortium
• Obtain startup funding
• Write informational material
• White paper for standard responses to inquiries
• Create scenarios using personas
• Identify training to develop competencies
• Develop model for HR departments

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Governing Body
NEXT STEPS

• Consortium
• Not-for-profit
• International
• Representatives of professional bodies
• Representatives of major companies

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Ideas
Suggestions or To-Dos

• Questions