Our team
Our strength comes from our considerable experience working with leading commercial and public sector organisations, and the highly complementary skills of the individual team members.
Our core consultants are:
Chris Rourke, Managing Director & Founder
Chris has over 20 years commercial experience in usability, accessibility, human factors consultancy and training. Chris has worked with a range of clients including Hewlett Packard, Dell Computers, NCR, Houses of Parliament, Emirates Airline, DirectGov and many other commercial and public sector clients in the UK and abroad. His particular user experience interests include web accessibility, the application of Rich Internet Applications such as AJAX and Flex, remote usability testing, eye tracking and persuasion architecture.
Chris is Founder and Past President of the Scottish Chapter of the Usability Professionals' Association and the UPA’s regional coordinator for Europe. He is a member of various professional organisations, including the British Human-Computer Interaction Group (BHCIG), and the Computers and Human Interaction Group of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM-SIGCHI).
Chris is a Board Member of ScotlandIS, the trade body for the software, IT and creative technology industries for Scotland. He is also on the Steering Committee for the world’s first Master’s degree in Design Ethnography at the University of Dundee which is helping train the ethnographers of the future.
Chris holds a BSc. in Engineering Psychology from Tufts University and a MSc. in Ergonomics from the University of Michigan.
In his spare time Chris enjoys travel and sport, particularly ultimate Frisbee.
Emma Kirk, Strategic Director
Emma has over 10 years experience in Strategic Marketing and Internet fields. Her career spans a wealth of blue chip organisations predominantly in the financial services sector. She also has digital agency experience having established the digital service for Scotland's largest direct marketing agency.
Emma brings a strategic yet common-sense approach to User Vision, making usability an understandable and jargon-free experience for our clients. She holds a BA (Hons.) Business Studies with Marketing and the CIM Diploma in Marketing.
Emma loves nothing more than to “bag a few Munros” in her time off – a great way to unwind (unless it's raining).
Jonathan Helm, Business Development Manager
Jonathan has over 10 years experience in the areas of business development and account management. His career has been spent predominantly in the design and branding industry and he has extensive digital agency experience.He has worked for some of the largest consultancies in both London and Edinburgh.
Jonathan’s main focus is on introducing our services to new prospects while enhancing our offering with existing clients.He is passionate about understanding client requirements and providing the right solution.
Jonathan is interested in film and broadcast media and has been known to dabble in self-publishing and film-making.
Jonathan Marshall, Head of Interactive TV
Jonathan Marshall is one of the key technical strategists in the field of interactive TV, having led the development of the BBC's first ground-breaking services on DTT and Digital Satellite.
Jonathan started his career at the BBC in 1991 as a recording engineer for BBC Scotland. He then left to complete a degree in Electronics and Music followed by a Masters in French and Management. By combining these skills he worked in Paris for IRCAM designing and implementing Digital Music Workstations for contemporary composers and performers to use.
Jonathan rejoined the BBC in 1996 working firstly on DAB and then Digital Television for the Research and Development department at Kingswood Warren. It was here that he developed the world's first interactive TV broadcasts in MHEG. In 1999 Jonathan joined the newly-created BBC Interactive TV department at Bush House, where he worked with the technical team in delivering a whole raft of services in the interactive TV field. Jonathan went on to become BBC Interactive TV's main technical interface for all third party software providers, testing and appraising their products, and giving him an unrivalled knowledge of the interactive TV tools market.Ross Philip, Senior Usability Consultant
Ross has 6 years experience in the commercial application of user-centred design methods in software and web development. Since joining User Vision in 2002, Ross has worked on a large number of high profile usability and accessibility projects for many of User Vision's clients.
As an executive member of the BHCIG, he has recently been appointed as their representative member of the British Standards Institute (BSI) committee on Human Computer Interaction (HCI) where he was most recently involved in the review of the committee draft of ISO 23973 – "Software ergonomics for Worldwide Web user interfaces". He has also previously been involved with the development of an international accreditation scheme for usability professionals and is a member of the UPA and the Scottish Usability Forum. Ross holds a MSc. (distinction) in Information Systems from Napier University.
His career includes posts as medical researcher, financial consultant, direct marketer and professional musician prior to switching to Information Technology and the specialist field of usability.
He has his hands full with his three young children, and still occasionally plays bass in his band.
Mark Westwater, Senior Usability Consultant
Mark is qualified with a BSc. (Hons.) in Applied Biological Sciences from Napier University in Edinburgh, an MSc. (Eng.) in Work Design and Ergonomics at the University of Birmingham and is currently studying for an MBA.
Mark has over 11 years experience applying User Centred Design (UCD) methodologies to product developments. Prior to joining User Vision Mark worked for NCR, the world leader in Automated Teller Machines (ATM) Research and Development. His primary focus was to plan and support both hardware and software developments as well as conducting research in future technologies. This included mobile based application design and Voice Recognition system evaluation. Mark was also responsible for developing and implementing a UCD process into the engineering organisation. Mark has extensive experience in the field of accessibility and has been a representative on various accessibility committees in the US, Canada, Australia and the UK, developing standards that meet both the consumers’ needs and current technology trends.
He has been a Registered Member of the Ergonomics Society for the last 11 years and is currently the membership secretary of the Scottish Ergonomics Forum. Mark is also a Member of the Usability Professional’s Association. He has published a number of research papers and has several filed patents in both the security and accessibility fields. In 2001 Mark won the ‘Eureka’ award for innovation.
Mark is a music enthusiast who also plays golf regularly and was a county team member.
Rob van Tol, Senior Usability Consultant
Rob has a first degree in History, studied on the PhD programme at Kings College, London, in the War Studies Department, before gaining a post-graduate certificate in Adult Education and studying Human Computer Interaction (HCI) with the Open University. He is currently studying for an MSc in Transactional Analysis Psychotherapy.
Rob has 17 years experience in User Centred Design (UCD) and User Experience (UX) design in different sizes of organisations and business sectors. Before joining User Vision, Rob worked with the development teams of software companies developing bespoke applications for the supermarket industry. He worked on improving the user interface of very large distributed systems, using both desktop and hand-held mobile devices.
Most recently, Rob was engaged in the public sector, as the manager of a local government website, managing the development of the site and mentoring the diverse organisation into being comfortable delivering its services across the web.
Rob is a member of the UPA. He has written books on naval history, with appearances on television and radio. He has a small psychotherapy practice, as part of his continuing clinical training.
Rob is a step-father to two young boys. He enjoys playing many games, being a modest bridge player.
Mark Palmer, Accessibility Consultant
Mark has 12 years experience in the IT Industry, 6 of which were spent heading the user interface team at Intelligent Finance. In his role as Senior Analyst Programmer, Mark headed up numerous projects, ensuring that accessibility standards were maintained from the projects inception through to the delivered product.
A passionate advocate for accessibility and web standards, Mark brings a wealth of accessibility experience to User Vision. He is a strong believer that the web can be accessible and user friendly without sacrificing style.
Mark is a huge music fan, usually listening to bands which other people have never heard of.
Jamie Sands, Usability Consultant
Jamie qualified in 1999 with a BSc. (Hons.) in Psychology from Edinburgh University and completed his PhD. in ‘Usability of Stereoscopic Augmented Reality’ from the School of Computing at Napier University in 2007.
Jamie has also spent 2 years working within the Advanced Technology and Research department of NCR, the world leader in Automated Teller Machines (ATM) development, as part of a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) between Napier University and NCR, Dundee. This challenging assignment encompassed the full project life-cycle, from initial project space investigation, through user testing and prototype development. This work included the development of the largest multi-national investigation of user opinions on banking behavior and personalization.
Jamie also has an interest in music and film, on both sides of the camera. In particular he has an interest in 8mm short film competitions, in which his first three entries have been accepted and premiered in various London screenings.
Clare Barnett, Usability Consultant
Clare graduated from Glasgow University with an MA(ord) in psychology and politics.
Since leaving university, Clare has spent 10 years working in the financial industry. 2 years of those were spent working with the Intranet and Desk Top Publishing. Another 6 years were spent working within the IT department as a web designer gaining advanced HTML and CSS knowledge. This involved design and build of websites, and creating best practice guidelines for websites.
Clare was also the in-house usability consultant, raising the profile and understanding throughout the business areas by talks, presentations and written articles. Having done the ground work, she then started usability testing websites, internal applications and written material, using talk out loud sessions and expert evaluations, and providing general consultation.
She championed the introduction of UCD as part of the development cycle within the IT department, decreasing development time and costs by focusing on the customer experience. Clare wrote process guidelines to slot into project plans for new developments, and enhancements to existing websites and applications.
Clare is a member of the UPA. Outside work, Clare enjoys snowboarding in winter, water sports in summer, photography and trips away in her VW campervan all year round.
Laurene McCafferty, Usability Consultant
Laurene qualified in 2005 with an M.A (Hons.) in Sociology from Glasgow University and carried out her PhD. studies in Usability Engineering within the Centre for Communication Interface Research at Edinburgh University. This research involved measuring usability and levels of perceived social presence in interaction, collaboration and learning scenarios within the on-line virtual world of Second Life with specific relevance to the financial services sector.
This longitudinal research involved the planning and conducting of usability testing involving customers of one of the ‘Big Five’ banks.
Laurene has also worked as a researcher within the consulting department of Ryden and has a wide range of experience conducting both quantitative and qualitative analyses.
Laurene's interests include travelling, music and discovering new vintage shops.
Stephen Denning, Usability Consultant
Stephen has over 11 years experience in the consulting industry, in both user-centered solutions development and user experience research, design and testing. He has worked for a range of well-known clients, including Nissan, Nokia, BBC, NHS, HSE and a significant number of UK government departments.
Stephen has a passion for helping organisations deliver products and services that meet the needs of their users in a usable and compelling way, by applying the right tools and techniques at the right time in the project. His usability experience is complimented by his knowledge of project management and systems/business analysis, as well as being underpinned by a solid technical background with direct experience in a variety of software tools and environments.
Stephen has a Bachelors degree in Computer Science from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, and a Masters degree in Human Factors in Information Design from the Bentley University Graduate School of Business in the USA. He is a member of the British Computer Society and the Usability Professionals Association.
In his free time, Stephen can be found chasing his young son around the garden or hunting out snow with a pair of skis over his shoulder.
Amy Matthews, PA to Directors & Office Administrator
Amy graduated from the University of South Australia in 2002 with a Bachelor in Management (Human Resource Management) and has worked with a variety of companies, including mining industry and government departments, offering employee relations advice and office/administration support, for the last 7 years.
Originally from Adelaide, South Australia, Amy has been in Edinburgh for almost one year and hopes to remain here for as long as possible.
Amy enjoys travelling and wants to continue taking short trips throughout Europe, to see as much as possible, and hopes to visit South America and Canada one day also.
Press enquiries
Our PR contact is Sarah Lee at Hot Tin Roof. For further information on User Vision contact Sarah on Tel: 0131 225 3875 or email: sarah@hottinroof.co.uk
