Our Human-Centered
Design Experts
Andrew Sweeney
Senior Industrial Designer
Andrew Sweeney is a Senior Industrial Designer with over 16 years of experience in commercial product design and the medical device development field. He has experience working on multi-disciplinary teams consisting of industrial designers, mechanical engineers, software engineers, electrical engineers, systems engineers, biomedical engineers, and human factors engineers.
Andrew is an experienced moderator and has fulfilled roles as Principal Investigator for Contextual Research and Engineering studies involving Human Subjects. He served as Lead Designer on a commercial product development team focusing on research, strategy, 3D forms development, computer aided design (CAD), and model making. Andrew has extensive experience in visual communication, storyboarding, surface modeling, and rapid prototyping for evaluation and proof of concept. He has been responsible for creative direction by participating in the synthesis process, developing key insights and dozens of creative concepts. Andrew has additionally championed efforts in understanding the benefits of utilizing immersive tools such as Virtual/Augmented Reality for investigative research such as simulated environments and instrumented prototypes highlighting opportunity areas for gathering quantitative data.
Brianne Pragg
Human Factors Engineer
Brianne Pragg is a Human Factors Engineer with over 11 years of experience in human subjects research, including research design and methodology, data collection and analysis, and study execution. Her PhD is in sociology and demography, and she has experience in statistics for behavioral sciences.
Brianne participates in all stages of the assessment process, from early client collaboration in study planning, protocol development, coordinating of recruiting, IRB submission and approval, risk analysis, study planning and execution, and report writing and results presentation. She has extensive experience moderating studies ranging from contextual research to usability studies. Brianne has also served as the principal investigator on several research programs including over-the-counter product validation and usability studies to support FDA applications for prescription devices.
Additionally, Brianne serves on the Battelle Institutional Review Board and supports Battelle’s transportation group in their human factors studies.
Taylor Hall
Human Factors Engineer
Taylor Hall is a Human Factors Engineer with over 9 years of experience in human subjects research. Her capabilities include study design and methodology creation, data collection and analysis, and study execution and reporting. She has a master’s degree in experimental psychology and has experience in cognitive psychology, industrial/organizational psychology, and statistics for behavioral sciences.
Taylor has experience working on both government and commercial contracts. She has experience working on a wide range of studies ranging from contextual inquiry to summative studies. Her skills include methodology design, protocol development, coordinating of recruiting, IRB submission, study facilitation, documenting use-related risks, providing mitigation recommendations, and study execution. She has extensive experience analyzing study data and generating reports and results presentations. Taylor has experience conducting studies with diverse patient populations, a variety of disease states, and has worked with many types of medical devices, including both over-the-counter and prescription devices.
Emma Coughlin
UX/UI designer
Emma Coughlin is a UX/UI designer with over 4 years of experience in product design and research. She has experience in user experience and interface designed related activities including designing wireframes, creating functional prototypes, and storyboarding.
Emma is also involved with the design of Instructions for Use for medical devices, including the content and illustrations, as well as visual communication and graphic design. In addition to design, she also has experience with data collection and study planning for human factors formative and summative evaluations. She's also experienced with front-end research for medical devices using contextual inquiries, preference studies, and focus groups.
Krista Smith
Senior Industrial Designer
Krista Smith is a Senior Industrial Designer with over 15 years of experience within the medical device, consumer, and government product development industries. She is a versatile member of the HCD team, with a wide spectrum of skills such as product development, visual communications, human factors research, and usability engineering.
Krista’s subject matter expertise includes informational and instructional visual design, medical device regulatory standards, and translating user needs and insights into real world solutions. Performing multiple roles, she serves as the Team Lead of the Human-Centered Design Team in the design and development of products and systems. Krista has extensive experience serving as a principal investigator in contextual, user experience, and human factors engineering research and usability studies. Her experience includes contextual and design research that informs design requirements and usability engineering specifications, the design and development of products and systems, study planning, the facilitation and analysis of usability testing, the evaluation of usability-related risk and associated mitigation design, and support through regulatory approval processes.
Jessica Sanford
Senior Human Factors Engineer
Jessica Sanford is a Senior Human Factors Engineer with more than 30 years of research and development experience providing scientific and technical support to clients in the government and private sectors. Her PhD is in quantitative psychology and her focus was on human factors, cognitive engineering, mental workload assessment, expert decision making, risky decision making, and decision analysis.
Jessica has applied her interest and expertise in evaluating the interplay between humans and the built world in the diverse areas of human health exposure and risk assessment, regulatory support, market and user evaluations, and human factors assessments. She is a highly organized, detail-oriented leader with experience in experimental design, survey development and implementation, data management, qualitative and quantitative analysis, literature searches and reviews, technology and market assessments, data extraction techniques, stakeholder interaction, usability studies, and technical writing and editing through her involvement in a wide variety of education, government and commercial research projects. Jessica excels in creating training materials as well as leading training sessions.
Additionally, Jessica has experience in program evaluation, quality assurance and quality control, environmental monitoring, pollution prevention, toxicology, epidemiology, transportation safety and cost-benefit analyses, and providing 508 compliance checks.