Our team and associates
Simon Rubens is founder and Director of new experience and leads all client engagements. Previously he was Director of User Experience at leading user experience firm Sapient, and before that, a senior consultant at brand consulting firm Siegel & Gale. He has a BSc in psychology and an MSc with distinction in ergonomics from UCL. Simon has had numerous papers, citations and articles published. He is co-founder of the Ethnography in Design forum and a member of the UK Usability Professionals' Association.
Raina Brody has over ten years' experience in the field of user experience research. She built the usability programmes at Amazon.com and Getty Images, and has worked in research for Microsoft and Yahoo!. Raina specialises in persona generation and benchmark testing, but is experienced in a broad range of techniques from RITE testing to eye tracking, as well as quantitative analysis methods. Raina’s obsession is good customer experience, she thrives on using great research to help companies create products people can’t live without.
Julia Townsend is our Business Manager. She was previously Finance Director at companies within the WPP Group and Saatchi & Saatchi. Her responsibilities encompassed tax, accounting, legal and regulatory environment. She has also been a non-executive director in the PR industry. Since qualifying as a chartered accountant with Andersen, Julia has worked in financial services, advertising and design industries in Europe and Australia.
Igor Zakhleniuk has an MSc in ergonomics and human factors from Loughborough University, and a BSc in human genetics. He has worked with a range of clients including 3, Microsoft, Orange, vinspired, Responsible Travel, Vodafone, Nokia, Associated Newspapers and TalkTalk. While at new experience Igor has carried out ethnographic research, usability testing, participatory design workshops, expert reviews and service trials.
Joe Knowles has an MSc in ergonomics and human factors from Loughborough University, and a BSc in Psychology. He has worked on research projects for TalkTalk, BBC, Metro, Orange and Sony Ericsson among others. Joe has particular experience of managing large international projects spanning Europe, the United States, and Asia.
Joe Langford has over 20 years experience in user-centred design and has a BSc in ergonomics and human factors from Loughborough University. He has done projects for Rank Xerox, Telic Alcatel, BT, the Design Council, The Consumers Association and Royal Mail Group. He has also taught on undergraduate and postgraduate courses at several universities. Joe is editor of the book Focus Groups: Supporting Effective Product Development.
Andreas Ioannou was lead information designer at Siegel & Gale where he combined his information design training with the technological know-how to improve customer documents. From there he moved to Scient where he was a senior information architect. He has a BSc in information design from Reading University and an MBA from London Business School. Most recently Andreas has worked on information architecture and document design projects for 3 and Hutchison Whampoa.
Ruth Miller was previously Director of Document Design at Siegel & Gale. She has a BA in French and linguistics from Warwick and is a founder member of the Information Design Association. Ruth is one of the most experienced and highly regarded document design professionals in the industry and has unparalleled experience in financial services.
Jo Allerton specialises in usability testing web and mobile services across the private and public sector. Jo has a BSc in psychology and an MSc in ergonomics and human factors from Loughborough University. Most recently Jo has run trials for Metro and Sky as well as numerous usability projects for Hutchison Whampoa and 3.
Paul Ratliff is a research consultant with extensive mobile and technology experience. Paul worked for several years at the world-renowned E-Lab (acquired by Sapient) where he gained deep experience in ethnographic research and experience modelling methods. Most recently Paul has worked on projects for the Commission for Racial Equality (now the Equality and Human Rights Commission), Vodafone, Orange and France Telecom.
Marianne Markowski has worked at Serco Usability Services and as 3's in-house usability specialist. She belongs to the UK Usability Professionals' Association and helped organise World Usability Day events. Most recently she has worked on usability testing projects for Nokia, and is currently engaged in a part time PhD course at Middlesex University on 'Designing Social Media for Older Users'.
Nicola Evans is our New Business Development Manager. Prior to joining us Nicola spent most of her career working in the advertising industry and was responsible for running major accounts including Tesco and Mars. She worked at Saatch & Saatchi, McCann Erickson and was also board director at DMB&B (now Leo Burnett).
