UXPA Boston Conference 2018

Taboos are a global phenomenon. Some cultural. Some universal. They change with time and seasons. Are they good? Are they bad? Or are they something else entirely? Taboos will be broken during this talk. Are you ready to be a little uncomfortable?

Taboos help set the standards by which we live as a society. There are even niche taboos within communities (e.g. Comic Sans, Bevel & Emboss etc. among designers). But do these boundaries help or hinder us? Do they protect or enslave us? How can we tell?

This talk explores the history and nuance of taboo in society at large and in the design community, and challenges them all. I present four standards by which you can judge taboos, challenge them, and use them to better yourself and your work.

With more than 3.000 people certified since its launch in 2014, CPUX is a successful European UX certification program driven by volunteers.

This presentation will tell you what you should demand of a serious and useful UX certification program. It will openly discuss CPUX’s successes, the challenges we are facing, and what our students are saying.

Certified Professional for Usability and User Experience (CPUX) is available at two levels: Foundation level (CPUX-F) and Advanced Level, which currently includes User Requirements Engineering (CPUX-UR) and Usability Test and Evaluation (CPUX-UT). About 95% of our certifications are at the foundation level.

Most of the people that we certify at the Foundation level are people who work together with UX professionals and who want to learn at least a bit of the UX-language. We don’t claim that certification will bring you fame, wealth and honor. We don’t train “UX experts”. CPUX-F is for people who want to have more productive discussions with UX professionals. Essentially, if a CPUX-F candidate is asked "Do you speak UX?" they can confidently answer, “Yes!”.

Key characteristics of CPUX are:

• Certification is possible based on self-study without expensive, vendor-supplied training
• Curricula are freely available (www.uxqb.org/en/)
• CPUX curricula are used as UX Books of Knowledge by some organizations (with or without certification)
• Complete sets of public exam questions are freely available
• Certification training is de-monopolized; most UX professionals can qualify as trainers
• Foundation level certification is available in English, German, French and Russian. Advanced level certification is available in English and German.