About the Code

The Code of Professional Conduct of the User Experience Professionals Association expresses the profession's recognition of its responsibilities to the public, clients, employers, and colleagues.

The Code guides members in the performance of their professional responsibilities and express the basic tenets of ethical and professional conduct.

The Code of Conduct calls for UXPA members to evaluate the risks and benefits of their actions on all stakeholders and ensure these actions meet highest ethical standards.

Read the Code of Conduct

(approved September 2005)

 

Ethics Advisory Committee

If any member believes that a violation has occurred during the trial period, he or she should report the violation to the Vice President of the UXPA who will call a meeting of the Ethics Advisory Committee.

The Advisory Committee will evaluate the evidence and determine if the Code has been violated. The findings will be reported to the UXPA Board of Directors who have the power to expel the member from the User Experience Professionals Association.

Articles and Resources

• Ethics Resources: STC Usability SIG Topics in Usability. Resources and links collected by Chauncey Wilson

• Ethics in voting design and usability
  Guidelines from UXPA and Design for Democracy for professionals working on election materials.

• APA Ethics Code
• STC Ethical Principles
• ACM Professional Standards
• IEEE Code of Ethics
• HFES Code of Ethics
  
• Human Participant Protections Education
  for Research Teams
  Information for researchers from the US National Cancer Institute

 

Contact Information

Project Leaders

For more information, or to contribute to this project, contact:

• UXPA Headquarters: office@uxpa.org

Ethics Advisory Committee

• Janice James
• Rolf Molich
• James Needham
• Charlotte Schwendeman

Contributors to the Code of Conduct

Chauncey Wilson, Tema Frank, Carolyn Snyder, Tom Holzman, Regis Maygar, Roxanne O’Connell, Kaaren Hanson, Caroline Jarrett, Nigel Bevan, Whitney Quesenbery and Richard Bellaver and members of the Board of Directors.

Translations

The Code of Conduct has been translated into several languages. Our thanks to the UXPA members who coordinated these translation efforts.

• Chinese - Feng (Jason) Huang
• Deutsch - Silvia Zimmermann
• Español - Alberto LaCalle
• Français - Melanie Rousseau
• Hebrew - Tomer Sharon
• Português - Adriana Betiol
• Russian - Dmitry Satin

Project Goals

At the closing report of the Certification Investigation Project, the need for several "Building Blocks to a Body of Knowledge" were identified, including a code of conduct and identified in an announcement from the Board of Directors.

The Code of Conduct project was initiated in January 2004 with the following goals:

1. Recommend the general principles of ethical and professional conduct that UXPA members are expected to follow and provide definitions and examples.
2. Recommend a method for advising and allowing current and new members of UXPA to acknowledge and accept the principles.
3. Recommend a method of enforcing the principles.
4. Recommend a process for adding, deleting, or modifying the Code.

 

For more background, read Does UPA Need a Code of Conduct? - Richard Bellaver, February 2004 UPA Voice

 

Project History

June 2006: Code translation project begun

January 2006: Advisory Committee chair named
Richard Bellaver was appointed chair of the Advisory committee, replacing Chauncey Wilson.

September 2005: Code of Professional Conduct approved

January 2005: Ethics Advisory Committee formed

September 2004: Trial version of Code approved for a trial period of one year. Creation of a an Advisory Board approved to establish procedures for handling complaints and other issues relating to the Code

June 2004: Code version proposed for adoption

February 2004: Project introduced in "Does UPA Need a Code of Conduct?" (February 2004 UPA Voice)

January 2004: Board approves project to draft a code of conduct

June 2002: Code of Conduct need identified