ANN ARBOR, Mich., October 27, 2009 - ProQuest, an information and technology company, will host the Michigan Chapter of the International Usability Professional's Association's (MIUPA) "Start a UX Movement at Your Company" workshop at its Ann Arbor, Michigan headquarters on Wednesday, October 28. The workshop brings together a group of interface designers, usability engineers, information architects, students, and other information professionals to network and learn from Tec-Ed consultant and usability expert Brian Phelps. The session will showcase strategies and tactics for starting and fueling a user-centered movement inside an organization.

 “ProQuest is proud to be a cornerstone in Michigan’s continuing development in high-tech and information industries, said Bipin Patel, ProQuest’s Chief Information Officer.  “Our R&D and User Experience teams have been recognized worldwide for their innovations.  We’re very pleased to provide a venue for knowledge sharing, and I’m confident that we’ll all be inspired by the user-driven information technology found within our own community.”

The workshop will help participants conquer a common corporate dilemma:  lower internal user experience standards for internal corporate systems than in external-facing systems.  Mr. Phelps will showcase strategies and tactics to help start and then maintain a user-centered movement inside organizations.  He has been designing and researching systems for more than 10 years, with eight years of experience in user-centered design techniques, including usability testing, heuristic evaluation, user interface design and development, field usability studies, and contextual inquiry. As a Tec-Ed consultant, Mr. Phelps has evaluated consumer-oriented wireless phone websites, an in-home wireless hardware product, Web-based educational systems, a volunteer organization’s website, e-commerce workflow, virtual desktops, a test authoring system, and alternative Web-based survey designs. His clients include Campbell-Ewald, McAfee, ETR Associates, VMware, Nextivity, McGraw-Hill, Seagate, Chrysler, IEEE, RightNow Technologies, The American Academy of Ophthalmology, and Monarch Teaching Technologies. Prior to joining Tec-Ed, Brian was a user experience researcher, designer, and evangelist at Pfizer, Inc. where he designed Web-based applications and acted as the user experience lead for more than 15 projects.

The “Start a UX Movement at Your Company” workshop will be held Wednesday, October 28, 6:00 PM - 8:30 PM, at ProQuest’s Ann Arbor headquarters.  The session is $5 for Full-time Students (ID must be presented) $10 for MIUPA and MOCHI members $20 for all others.  All proceeds go to MIUPA.

For more information, visit http://miupa.org/ 
Seating is limited, so please RSVP at Upcoming.org to ensure entrance to this event. You can also send an RSVP to events@miupa.org
ProQuest is best known for the creation of information tools and technologies that support research around the world in schools, libraries, universities and businesses. Last month, the company was ranked by InformationWeek magazine among the top 30 U.S. firms for innovative use of business technology. It was also honored with the 2007 Red Hat Innovation Award for Increased Return on Investment.