Today, Center Centre is 33 years old

33 years ago on this day, Center Centre, formerly known as User Interface Engineering, was born.

We started with a simple mission: Eliminate all the poor design from the world.

We saw it as a 100-year mission. We’re 33 years in. We've made good progress.

We started as an org that tested the usability of products in the late 80s, early 90s. In 1996, we conducted & published the first seminal research on how users interacted with websites.

Most of the principles of web site design came from that (and subsequent) research.

In the 00s, we trained thousands of web designers, developers, and UX professionals on best practices for web and app design.

In the 10s, we studied what separated teams who consistently produced excellent UX outcomes from those who struggled at it.

Using what we identified, we developed a solid understanding of what successful UX leaders needed to drive their teams to success.

Meanwhile, for 25 years, more than 3000 professionals attended the 45 UX conferences we produced. 1000s of UX professionals attended the 250+ workshops and learned leading UX practices from world-renown industry experts.

We published hundreds of articles, podcasts, and online seminars.

For the past 6 years, we've conducted 100s UX leaders to give them the tools, based on our research, to craft and execute a proactive UX strategy inside their organization. The world's leading organizations have upped their UX game based on what they've learned from us.

Most recently, we've launched the Leaders of Awesomeness community, which is now home to 27,000+ UX leaders. With weekly live discussions, we've shared our expertise with this community, and they've paid it back in spades. It's been wonderful to see this community blossom.

The Center Centre UX Design School

All this paled in comparison to our crown jewel. In 2013, my biz partner Leslie Jensen-Inman and I started the Center Centre UX Design School. We set out to create a first-of-its-kind UX school, with the goal of delivering industry-ready UX professionals.

And we succeeded.

Every graduate so far has found a great UX job within 6 weeks of graduation. They've gone on to be major contributors in their organizations. We've graduated a diverse set of students, who come from a wide variety of backgrounds.

We developed, from scratch, a curriculum of 30 courses that cover every aspect of UX. We've proven you can produce well-rounded, experienced, highly-effective generalist UX designers that contribute to teams from the very first day.

And we created a financial-support program that enables students to defer 100% of tuition (and a living stipend) until after they've graduated. Students without financial means can focus on becoming a great UX designers without worrying about how they'll pay to survive it.

This ground-breaking student financing approach is completely community funded. So far, more than 2000 UXers looking to give back have donated to the fund.

Our students borrow from it at low interest. They pay it back when ready. The money is then used for future students.

The loan is long-term (20 years) and low interest, with humane deferment policies. When they get a job and start paying it back, they're enabling future students to attend the program. Many have paid it off early.

They're literally paying it forward. Everyone wins.

It took an amazing team, over 33 years, to accomplish all of this.

I'm humbled and honored by the awesome people I've worked with during this journey. There's no way we'd have accomplished any one of these things without them. It was truly a team effort.

We're one-third of the way through our mission of eliminating all the poor design from the world. I can't wait to see what we do in the next third.

I don't know what it will be, but I do know this: it will be awesome.