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Catherine Earing

Head of User Research

Catherine holds a first class honours degree in Ergonomics and a Diploma in Professional Studies from Loughborough University, where she was awarded the Ergonomics prize for academic excellence and won the Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors (IEHF) Hywel Murrell Award for her research into the mobile content user experience.

With extensive knowledge of user-centred design and behavioural research programmes, Catherine has managed studies nationally, internationally and remotely. She undertakes a wide range of consultancy work, including user interface design and development, focus groups, usability testing, participative design, ethnographic studies, mobile service concept design, and workplace ergonomics.

Catherine spent an eight-month secondment at Vodafone as User Experience Research Lead. This involved managing every stage of user research and testing, from gathering internal stakeholder requirements and identifying suitable research approaches, to ensuring that deliverables met project teams’ needs.

She previously worked as a research assistant at the Ergonomics and Safety Research Institute (ESRI). There she gained practical experience in a variety of ergonomic applications, as part of a team specialising in mobile and telecoms work.

Catherine Earing
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Specialist areas:

  • Usability testing and evaluation of products, interfaces and interactive systems.

  • User requirements elicitation.

  • Evaluating how digital usability fits within the wider customer experience.

  • End to end project management of user experience research, including agile, lean research programmes.

  • In context research in domestic, retail and travel environments using a variety of ethnographic research tools.

  • Tailoring research approaches for different audiences, including for children and teenagers.

  • Creating and running workshops and group research activities to review designs, generate insights and inspire project teams.

  • System, product and interface design, and wider UX design input including developing style guidelines.

Related Projects

Our client, Amadeus asked us to research and create effective user personas for the evolving travel market, focusing specifically on the agencies and travel consultants.

Creating effective user personas for the evolving travel market

BP (British Petroleum) is a global player in the oil and gas business. It engaged our ergonomics consultants to assist the company’s transition to a new petrophysical software platform.

BP adopts User Centred Design approach to software transition

As part of Global Accessibility Awareness Day, we conducted a free expert usability review of the Early Shakespeare online trial created by SEN Assist.

Expert review of an interactive learning tool

Wellcome Trust’s launch of its Mosaic online publication has proved a triumph: almost 10 million people across the world read Mosaic’s original articles in its first year. System Concepts provided expert insights and UX services, helping to power this success.

Wellcome Trust publication success built on user research and testing

CrownPeak provides digital quality management solutions for leading global corporations including Shell, Sony and KPMG. These give senior corporate managers high level website optimisation and compliance assessment capabilities, while hands-on web managers gain detailed tools for identifying and resolving issues.

Delivering value through a structured UX programme

Amadeus is the leading IT solution supplier to the global airline industry, providing e-commerce products that connect airlines with travel agents and customers. The company’s e-Retail product is the world’s most widely used airline Internet booking engine. It is a fully customisable white label solution, which powers more than 260 websites for over 100 of the world’s airlines. We’ve helped the company to address the accessibility of its e-Retail product.

Airline accessibility: Amadeus in it for the long haul

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