JERICHO, N.Y., Oct. 1, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The global consulting firm, proudly celebrating 50 transformative years, has gathered a curated collection of experts who together form Human Factors & User Experience at J.S. Held. These visionaries understand the intricacies of their fields and have conducted, and overseen user experience research at companies like Google, Microsoft, and Siemens. Their combined academic and industry credentials are notable and distinguish the J.S. Held team among human factors and user experience experts. 

J.S. Held's expertise in human factors, product safety, and user experience is proactive, focused on the product development process, and reactive, providing forensic human factors and product failure analysis to support investigations and dispute advisory. In-house experts advise clients throughout the product lifecycle, from ideation and interaction design through validation, which distinctly qualifies our experts to assess subject allegations and render expert opinions based on scientific evidence and firsthand experience.

The highly collaborative team includes published and credentialed specialists in healthcare, automotive, and children's products and benefits from collaboration with an in-house biomechanist and human behavior specialist, who brings over a decade of experience in research strategy and execution across academic and industry settings to generate quantitative user experience insights through the combined analysis of human motion and physiological signals (including neural, muscular, and cardiovascular measures).

Human factors experts at J.S. Held investigate and testify in myriad cases, including automotive accidents, premises liability, product liability/failure to warn, medical device failures, class action lawsuits, and Proposition 65 litigation. At J.S. Held, we understand that legal matters often involve complex technical, scientific, and financial issues – areas where our specialized knowledge in forensic investigations, econometric analysis, and related teaching vs telling approach to expert testimony strengthens the trial team. 

Across J.S. Held's experts, user research is informed by insights gleaned from alleged product failures on the reactive side of their work, while expert witness testimony is given with the authority of experts who are actively engaged in the evaluation and development of products and services. Whether the client's need is proactive or reactive, understanding where things go wrong and why uniquely positions J.S. Held as a trusted advisor in product safety and user research - helping clients develop products and services that are effective, user-friendly, and safer.

Dr. Robert Rauschenberger, Ph.D., oversees a team of predominantly Ph.D.-level researchers with academic backgrounds in cognition, perception, developmental psychology, human factors, biomechanics, and kinesiology, with degrees from notable institutions such as Harvard, Notre Dame, and Johns Hopkins. Dr. Rauschenberger has over 25 years of experience conducting research on topics of visual attention and distraction, the organization of perceptual information, product design, user experience, risk communication effectiveness, and consumer decision-making. He leverages this experience in legal cases across industries for which he has testified in deposition and at trial. Dr. Rauschenberger has cultivated specific expertise in the evaluation of mixed reality (MR) products. His professional background also disposes him toward the evaluation of healthcare products and services.

Select members of Dr. Rauschenberger's team include:

Dr. Alexander Stamenkovic, Ph.D. - Biomechanist 

• As a biomechanist and human behavior specialist, Dr. Stamenkovic brings over a decade of experience in research strategy and execution across academic and industry settings to generate quantitative user experience insights through the combined analysis of human motion and physiological signals (including neural, muscular, and cardiovascular measures).
• Active in the international scientific community, he has authored 20 articles at the intersection of anatomy, biomechanics, and neuroscience and as a peer reviewer for multiple scientific publications, including the Journal of Biomechanics, Motor Control, Human Movement Sciences, Frontiers in Sport & Active Living, Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, JMIR Research Protocols, and IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality, among others.

Dr. Blake Pellman, Ph.D. – User Experience

• Specializes in generating insights into user needs, motivations, and behaviors and evaluating product usability, engagement, effectiveness, accessibility, and safety.
• Dr. Pellman crafts bespoke user research that targets clients' unique products and business needs.
• Before joining J.S. Held, Dr. Pellman was a user experience researcher at Microsoft, where he led proactive UX research to deeply understand user needs and motivations, increase adoption and engagement with consumer services, and develop accessible and immersive interactive experiences. Dr. Pellman has published original research in peer-reviewed scientific journals and has authored review articles and book chapters as a subject matter expert.

Dr. Joe Pauszek, Ph.D. – Healthcare Human Factors

• Dr. Pauszek has extensive experience utilizing physiological measures, such as pupillometry via eye tracking, to shed light on the underlying cognitive states of individuals in real time.
• He has cultivated specialized experience in healthcare research and in the evaluation of medical devices that range in complexity from autoinjectors to robotic surgery systems. This proficiency spans all stages of the medical device lifecycle, from early-stage formative research to formal human factors engineering and usability engineering (HFE/UE) submissions to satisfy regulatory requirements.
• Serves as a Reviewer for PLOS ONE and Psychological Research and is a member of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

Dr. Robert (Bobby) Sall, Ph.D. – Automotive Human Factors

• Specializes in empirical investigations of driver attention and inattention, driving performance, the design of in-vehicle technology, and hazard perception.
• Dr. Sall has managed scientific studies for Fortune 500 companies to help them optimize user experiences and product safety, and his work has been crucial to those companies at all stages of product development.
• He serves as a Reviewer for the Surface Transportation Technical Group, Aging Technical Group, Training Technical Group, the PLOS One Journal, and the Transportation Research Board. He is also a member of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES).

Dr. Rosie Aboody, Ph.D. – Children's Products

• A user experience researcher, she has over ten years of experience researching child development and human cognition. Leveraging this experience, she provides consulting and expert services in human factors and user experience domains.
• Prior to joining J.S. Held, Dr. Aboody conducted doctoral and postdoctoral research at Harvard, MIT, and Yale University, focusing on child development and computational cognitive science. Dr. Aboody has published more than ten peer-reviewed articles.
• Leveraging her expertise in experimental design, project management, data collection (including both child and adult samples), and advanced statistics, Dr. Aboody provides impactful and actionable insights to clients.

Dr. Sam Franco-DeWitt, Ph.D. - Physiological Data Recording

• Dr. Sam Franco-DeWitt has over 15 years of experience conducting research on topics of human cognition, brain imaging, risk behavior, user experience, and decision-making. Leveraging this experience, he provides consulting and expert services in human factors and user experience domains.
• He has designed and tested products across multiple industries, including neurotechnology, finance, sports, and virtual reality. Dr. Franco-DeWitt provides unique insights into the user and consumer experience using brain-imaging techniques.
• He was the Senior Director of R&D at Optios Inc., where he developed neurotechnology that was leveraged in the finance and sports industries.

J.S. Held User experts are retained to work with in-house product development engineers, user experience executives, in-house and outside legal counsel, and claims adjusters. To support the work of experts, J.S. Held owns and operates User Research Laboratories in New York City, Phoenix, Arizona, and Redmond, Washington, and utilizes advanced technology and specialized capabilities, such as optometry, motion capture, eye tracking, physiological data recording, and balance measurement to collect scientific measures and evaluate a wide range of topics.

J.S. Held clients benefit from expertise across the enterprise, as the Human Factors and User Experience team works with toxicologists and industrial hygienists on product liability cases, with accident reconstructionists on vehicular accidents, with mechanical and electrical engineers on product liability cases, with nurses and MDs on medical device and pharma litigation, with the intellectual property (IP) team on product marketing and IP theft cases, and across these and other areas of expertise advising companies throughout the product lifecycle. 

The expertise of the J.S. Held Human Factors and User Experience team results in client work that is not just theoretical but grounded in real-world experience and innovation.  Examples of our expert contributions to client challenges include: 

• Designed and executed in-person and remote user research studies, focus groups, task and workflow analyses, heuristic evaluations, and human factors analyses across various industries.
• Supported manufacturers with human factors engineering and usability engineering regulatory submissions for medical devices.
• Developed and tested products from early concept through launch and beyond across a variety of technological domains and evaluated learning systems and tutorials for consumer and business products and services through user studies.
• Assisted companies with development and evaluation of safety communication for consumer, healthcare, and online products by conducting user experience research and user studies.
• Testified as human factors experts in product liability, class action, and Proposition 65 cases.

Learn more about the dedicated and entrepreneurial experts like Robert, Joe, Bobby, Rosie, Blake, Alexander, and Sam, who help transform J.S. Held, explore our story,  and celebrate this momentous milestone, our 50 & Forward celebration, with us at jsheld.com.

About J.S. Held

J.S. Held is a global consulting firm that combines technical, scientific, financial, and strategic expertise to advise clients seeking to realize value and mitigate risk. Our professionals serve as trusted advisors to organizations facing high stakes matters demanding urgent attention, staunch integrity, proven experience, clear-cut analysis, and an understanding of both tangible and intangible assets. The firm provides a comprehensive suite of services, products, and data that enable clients to navigate complex, contentious, and often catastrophic situations.

More than 1,500 professionals serve organizations across six continents, including 81% of the Global 200 Law Firms, 70% of the Forbes Top 20 Insurance Companies (85% of the NAIC Top 50 Property & Casualty Insurers), and 65% of the Fortune 100 Companies.

J.S. Held, its affiliates and subsidiaries are not certified public accounting firm(s) and do not provide audit, attest, or any other public accounting services. J.S. Held, its affiliates and subsidiaries are not law firms and do not provide legal advice. Securities offered through PM Securities, LLC, d/b/a Phoenix IB, a part of J.S. Held, member FINRA/ SIPC or Ocean Tomo Investment Group, LLC, a part of J.S. Held, member FINRA/ SIPC. All rights reserved.

Contact

Kristi L. Stathis | Global Public Relations | +1 786 833 4864 | Kristi.Stathis@jsheld.com

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