UPA Puget Sound

We are an active chapter of the Usability Professionals Association (http://www.upassoc.org/), representing the greater Puget Sound area.

The UPA is a international, non-profit association (501(c)(6)), supporting professionals from a broad family of disciplines which structure and design the user experience in product development.

The goal of our UPA Chapter is to offer usability professionals with similar interests opportunities to meet and share their experiences. Local activities include workshops, presentations and networking events that are conducted by local members for the greater benefit of the chapter.

Meet our 2009 to 2010 Puget Sound Officers

President Ona Anicello Director of User Research, Fifth Element Usability
Ona owns and run a website user research and design business. She has been doing research for over 10 years and is very passionate about creating user friendly products that real people love to use. She is an active member in the community. She is the VP of Operations and Development for BEAN, a nonprofit that for young professionals interested in networking and community service. She also serves on the Diversity Board for Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering at the University of Washington.

Vice President Douglas Pyle UX Program Manager, Microsoft Robotics
Doug has been a user experience professional for more than 11 years. He graduated from the UW in 1998 with an MS in Human Centered Design & Engineering, and in 1999 he started the user research group for microsoft.com  He has worked for Google, as well as the Microsoft Robotics startup group. Doug was the president of the UW chapter of the Society for Technical Communication, growing chapter membership by 30% and winning the 1997 chapter Pacesetter Award.

Treasurer Alex Janavaris Senior User Experience Researcher, Microsoft
Alex has been involved with UPA since the late 1990′s. He was one of the founding members and treasurer of the Austin UPA Chapter for 3 years, and was treasurer of the Austin CHI chapter for a year. He has been working in usability for 12 years, and an electronics engineer for 20 years prior to his usability career. He completed his undergraduate and graduate work in Engineering Psychology at New Mexico State University. He is presently working for Microsoft as a User Experience Researcher in the Health Solutions Group.

Membership Director, Joe Welinske President, Writers UA
Joe Welinske is the president of WritersUA, a company devoted to providing training and information for user assistance professionals. Joe received a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Illinois in 1981, and a M.S. in Adult Instructional Management from Loyola University in 1987. Joe was the President of the Society for Technical Communication Puget Sound Chapter from 2006-2008 and remains on the board in charge of gathering chapter sponsorships. Joe is currently working with iPhone developers to improve the user experience of their applications.

Meet the Website Usability Team

Priya Guruprakash Rao
Priya is an experienced computer professional with expertise in e-Learning, web design and development and human digital interfaces. Priya is a Computer Applications graduate from Madras University, India and is pursuing a Master program in Human Centered Design and Engineering at the University of Washington, Seattle. Prior to this, she was a Principal Instructional Designer at Infosys where she was involved in solution design, design reviews, vendor management, and performance management. At UPA, Priya has volunteered with Dawn to design the UPA Puget Sound website.

Dawn Sakaguchi
As an active member of the UPA Puget Sound, Dawn has volunteered with Priya to work on building the UPA Puget Sound website. Dawn is currently working on long-term care projects as a Research Project Coordinator at VA in HSR&D (Health Services Research & Development).  She received her MS in Counseling Psychology in 2008 and is now pursuing a MS in Human Centered Design and Engineering at the University of Washington. Excited about user centered design process she is looking forward to networking and being involved with the chapter.