• usability testing and evaluations of products, interfaces and interactive systems
• user requirements elicitation
• system, product and interface design.

Catherine is a consultant with System Concepts.  She holds a first class honours degree in Ergonomics and a Diploma in Professional Studies at Loughborough University.  Catherine was awarded the Ergonomics Prize for Academic Excellence three times during her time at Loughborough University and is also a member of the Ergonomics Society.

Prior to joining System Concepts, Catherine completed a year in industry working as a Research Assistant at the Ergonomics and Safety Research Institute (ESRI), Loughborough.  Here, she gained practical experience in a variety of ergonomic applications and was also a member of a team specialising in mobile and telecoms work.  Her work has included user interface design, empathic design, usability trials, ethnographic studies, heuristic evaluations, workplace ergonomics and mobile service concept design.

• Smart Home technology research for the DTI involving user interface design and development work, conducting focus groups and consumer research and the design and coordination of an ethnographic study of the domestic environment.  Some of the findings from this work can be found in a paper Catherine co-authored (‘Probing user values in the home environment within a technology driven Smart Home project’) which is published in the Journal of Personal and Ubiquitous Computing.
• Coordinating a usability evaluation and user trials of a new digital TV service.
• Conducting a study into the user requirements of a distributed workforce for a major roadside recovery organisation.
• Conducting equipment safety trials for the HSE.
• Service concept design and interface development work for a major mobile handset manufacturer.  This work involved interpreting and applying knowledge of user characteristics and behaviour to develop service and interface concepts in line with user needs and desires.  Using Paintshop Pro and PowerPoint software she created a dynamic visual representation of the prototype interface developed.
• Working on a mobile communications study for a major vehicle manufacturer.

• Shopping.
• Socialising.
• Holidays.
• Learning to ski.

Contact Catherine on This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it