The people

Optimum.web offers advanced website analysis and interaction design services to help companies maximise the returns they get from their investment in the web. This is achieved by delivering a superior user experience.

With a wealth of knowledge and experience in their respective fields, the combination we offer of senior usability expertise with marketing communications insights allows optimum.web to combine in-depth analysis of the functional aspects of a site with the broader issues of brand or corporate communications.

Keith Simpson

The Managing Director is Keith Simpson whose 25 year career covers broad experience in usability, accessibility and marketing communications.

• Online and offline communications specialist
• Consultant in brand marketing and development
• ROI analyst
• Recognised the convergence of communication issues in the new media environment, bringing together the rational elements of website functionality with the emotional aspects of human interaction with digital interfaces

John Dumas

All projects are controlled and directed by optimum.web's Director of Operations, John Dumas, who has over ten years experience in usability and web development, both in the UK and USA.

• Senior moderator having personally planned and conducted hundreds of one-to-one user testing sessions
• Senior Interaction Designer having lead full development projects from conception or incorporating user-centred design to incremental upgrades
• Lead Accessibility expert with a deep understanding of W3C compliant mark-up (e.g. XHTML/CSS), the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Guidelines and assistive technologies
• Experienced instructor and trainer in the UK on HCI, internet applications, e-commerce and digital media

John Spong

Senior consultant John Spong joined optimum.web from the client side. As “Voice of the Customer” for the award-winning Businesslink.gov website, John was responsible for setting up and directing customer experience inputs to one of the most extensive programmes of user-centred web development in Government.

• Extensive practical experience of using customer knowledge to enhance web service delivery, tailoring effective and efficient User-Centred Design programmes
• Proven ability to ensure effective communication between developers, senior managers and usability specialists
• Over 18 years experience of public sector management and communicating with business
• Experience of directing quantitative and qualitative research projects

Janet Salvoni

Janet Salvoni leads our User Insights Unit. She has extensive experience in the development and implementation of research and communications initiatives that inform or prompt attitudinal and behavioural change.

• Specialist in the development and implementation of research and communication studies
• Senior moderator and analyst in information architecture methodologies, content testing, user needs research and qualitative group studies
• Particular expertise in brand development and positioning
• Over 16 years at Board Director level within leading communications consultancies advising blue-chip organisations in both the private and public sectors

Elizabeth Atkinson

Joining optimum.web from the online publishing sector, Elizabeth Atkinson brings expertise across all of our services.

• Lead data analyst in cluster analysis and other statistical approaches, maximising data visualisation of results for information architecture (e.g. card sorting), content testing, and other quantitative research
• Moderator and analyst in user testing, expert evaluations and accessibility reviews
• User testing moderation style puts users at ease, in a way that downplays the laboratory environment, and thus elicits a realistic experience that produces more accurate findings

The rest of the team

Additionally, optimum.web has a unique pool of highly qualified and experienced consultants covering the following areas:

• Web analytics
• Internationalisation
• Semiotics
• Localisation and culture

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