Nice to meet you.

My mom calls me Benjamin, but you can call me Ben.

I am a user experience researcher, strategist and designer working in the Northeast. I bring insight from psychology and human behavior to design experiences that empower people to make smarter choices.

It all started when I was studying neuroscience and internet studies at Brandeis. I loved understanding and engaging systems—the integrated biological systems that underlay perception, memory, and motor control, as well as the dynamic technologically-mediated experiences for people in society. I couldn’t have anticipated how I’d bring those loves together, but at the time it didn’t matter.

Soon my professional life took shape running experiments in neurobiology at BU and then psychophics at a Yale-affiliated laboratory, while volunteering for arts organizations like Boston Cyberarts and New Haven’s ArtSpace. It was only after I explored these worlds apart that I began to figure out how to bring them together.

I decided to switch gears so that I could translate research to real-world application and I began my graduate studies at Carnegie Mellon in Human-Computer Interaction. There I developed my toolkit of methods for research, design and evaluation. I consulted with University of Pittsburgh Medical Center on changes to their waiting room experience and presented to researchers at Microsoft about how people tell stories with photos.

Next I wanted to challenge myself to thinking broadly and deeply about problems and not just disconnected digital touchpoints. I worked at Wunderman to innovate and redesign workflow, digital and low-tech touchpoints for a variety of partners (Dannon, Citi, Novartis, Dell, Land Rover). My work at G2 (now Geometry Global) and 360i extended the scope to help major companies connect internally and externally across industries including financial services (Ally, Fidelity), automotive (BMW, Toyota), healthcare (Aetna, AARP), pharmaceuticals (Novartis, Genentech, Bayer), and consumer package goods (Kraft, Campbell’s).

Most recently, I have engaged start-ups to help them to bring their products and services to life. This began as consulting for travel companion Fathom, email deal aggregator Preferio, and children’s education app Yoodle. Most recently I made the change and worked at PatientsLikeMe to advance their social network platform for patients and medical research.

Let’s talk.

Want to pick my brain? Have an opportunity you’d like to discuss?
Connect with me through my profile on LinkedIn.