We provide expert human factors consulting to improve product usability, efficiency, ergonomics, instructions, and warnings.

Our experts leverage decades of failure analysis and deep scientific expertise to support ideation, design, evaluation, and validation efforts across high-risk and regulated industries. We deliver a comprehensive suite of services with state-of-the-art laboratories to provide actionable insights for projects related to user experience (UX), human factors, product safety, and user well-being.

With deep foundational science and cross-industry experience, our experts tailor research strategies to meet each client’s unique product development and regulatory needs. We deliver university-grade human factors testing with an emphasis on safety, risk mitigation, and user-focused design. Our background in failure analysis and product-related litigation informs every proactive study, allowing our experts to refine research methods early in the product and service development lifecycle to ensure they are both legally defensible and scientifically sound.

Human Factors Consulting & UX Research Services

A/B Testing
Accessibility Assessment
Cognitive Workload Assessment
CPSC Letter of Advice Support
Ergonomics
Expert Witness Services & Litigation Support
Eye Tracking & Pupillometry
Failure Mode & Effects Analysis (FMEA)
FDA CAPA Support

FDA Deficiency Letter Support
Health & Safety Assessments
Heuristic Evaluation & Expert Review
Instructions & Warnings Comprehension Testing & Design
Literature Review
Medical Device Human Factors Testing (Formative & Validation/Summative)
Motion Capture/IMUs
PMA/510(k)/De Novo Regulatory Submission Support
Product Recall Support

Physiological Data Recording (EEG, EMG, EKG)
Review of Large-Scale Databases
Risk Communication
Survey & Questionnaire Design & Analysis
Task Analyses
Time & Motion Studies
User Requirements Engineering
Workflow Analysis

Benefits of J.S. Held’s Human Factors Research

J.S. Held’s human factors research helps organizations improve product outcomes, reduce risk, and meet regulatory requirements across industries. Our experts support product design and development with independent, evidence-based research that drives measurable improvements in usability, safety, and user satisfaction—while ensuring findings are scientifically defensible in legal or regulatory contexts.

Our human factors research can be conducted quickly and at a comparatively modest cost to university research, thus mitigating the risk of testing the viability of a new product by launching it into the market unvetted. It is a widely documented finding that the cost of design changes goes up by orders of magnitude as the product gets closer to release, and the feature space becomes increasingly constrained.

Our human factors research can help companies to:

Develop safer products
Differentiate their products in the market
Increase market share
Increase customer loyalty
Make informed, data-driven decisions
Earn legal defensibility in case of future legal action

By involving our experts early in the product development cycle, clients gain timely insights to guide concept validation and mitigate risks, as well as avoid negative reputational or legal issues associated with launching untested or poorly designed products and services.

Scalable, Independent Research and Cross-Industry Expertise

Our human factors consultants help organizations meet evolving research demands with agility and deep cross-industry insight. By partnering with our experts, companies can:

Scale Research Rapidly with Demand
An organization’s human factors research needs are often transient. Our researchers can be added ad hoc without the need for time-intensive and cost-intensive interviewing, hiring, onboarding, or training of dedicated internal staff, allowing clients to scale rapidly in response to surges in research demand.

Access to Cross-Product and Cross-Industry Experience
We work with many clients across different industries, allowing clients to leverage cross-product and cross-industry experience to ensure products are best-in-class and embody state-of-the-science.

Gain High-Quality, Reliable Insights
Our clients gain impartial results from a neutral third party, receive an outsider perspective unaffected by institutionalized mental models, and have the option of collecting data under attorney-client privilege.

Technology-Enabled Insights and Operational Efficiency

Our human factors consultants combine the use of advanced research technologies, extensive training, and deep industry expertise to help clients:

Reduce Capital Investment
By engaging our experts for proactive human factors research, clients gain access to capital equipment owned by the researchers without having to make a capital investment themselves, as well as to the highly specialized experts from disparate fields who are well-versed in the use of the equipment, be it an eye tracker, an EMG recording device, or motion capture cameras, for example.

Improve Team Efficiency
Our research team allows clients to offload bandwidth-sapping tasks from internal core teams, so they can continue to focus on their assigned responsibilities, thereby gaining better leverage from the internal teams and expediting product development timelines, as no one is pulled from their assigned tasks.

Regulatory Compliance Support

Our human factors team brings deep expertise in navigating the complex landscape that governs highly-regulated products and services. We integrate our human factors research into each stage of product development to ensure compliance with regulatory agencies—including the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)—to reduce risk, enhance safety, and streamline regulatory approvals. Our proven approach ensures that critical user needs are met, documentation is audit-ready, and products are positioned for successful market entry.

Our Scientific User Research Labs (URL)

J.S. Held’s human factors research is supported by our strategically distributed network of advanced user research laboratories in Phoenix, AZ; New York, NY; and Redmond, WA, which are each purpose-built to support rigorous and efficient human factors research and usability testing. Our facilities offer both rapid turnaround and long-term evaluation solutions, leveraging usability suites equipped with advanced technologies including high-resolution audio/video streaming, biometric sensors (EDA/GSR, EMG, EKG), eye tracking capability, and motion capture facilities.

Our Subject Matter Experts

J.S. Held’s human factors consulting and UX research is provided by a team of multidisciplinary experts whose insights are based in technical and scientific accuracy, legal defensibility, and regulatory compliance. Our team includes:

Human Factors and Psychology Experts:

Biomechanical Experts
Cognitive Psychologists
Computer Vision Scientists
Developmental Psychologists
Human Factors Psychologists
Perception Scientists
Transportation Psychologists

Engineering and Scientific Experts:

Accident Reconstruction Consultants
Data Scientists
Equipment Consultants
Metallurgists and Materials Scientists
Professional Engineers
Statisticians

Environmental, Health, and Safety Experts:

Certified Hazardous Materials Managers
Certified Industrial Hygienists
Certified Safety Professionals
Environmental Scientists
Epidemiologists
Food Forensics and Safety Experts
Infectious Disease Experts
Product Liability Experts
Regulatory Compliance Experts
Toxicologists
Workplace Safety Experts

Industries We Serve

Our human factors consultants support clients across high-risk, highly regulated, and broad consumer-facing sectors. We tailor our research to the specific technical, legal, and operational demands of each industry.

Our team’s diverse experience ensures insights are both actionable and defensible whether supporting ideation and design, requirements reviews, product testing, regulatory submissions, or litigation matters.

The industries we serve include:

Technology, Media, and Telecommunications
- Cyber
- Extended Reality Products (VR, AR, MR)
- Mobile Devices
- Social Media
- Wearable Technology
- Web Products and Services
Healthcare and Medical Devices
Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological
Consumer Products and Services
Retail, Restaurant, and Hospitality
Industrial and Manufacturing
Food and Beverage
Financial Services
Government

Expertise Across the Product & Services Development Lifecycle

We provide human factors and user experience support along the entire product lifecycle, from ideation to product retirement. Unlike other user experience agencies, we spend a significant amount of time on the post-product launch phase of the lifecycle, which permits us to leverage insights gained from product failures and product litigation into the earlier phases of the lifecycle.

IDEATION

Focus Group

Market Gap Analysis

Ethnography

Literature Review

Market & Pricing Research

Meta Analysis

Needs & Motivation Analysis

Failure Mode & Effects Analysis

REQUIREMENTS

Time & Motion Study

Workflow Analysis

User Journey

User Requirements Engineering

Use Environment

Contextual Inquiry

DESIGN

Participatory Design

Prototyping

Interaction Design Concepts

Risk Communication

TESTING

Health & Safety Testing

Usability Testing

Accessibility Assessment

Cognitive Workload Assessment

Competitive Analysis & Benchmarking

Formative & Validation/Summative Medical Device Testing

Heuristic Evaluation & Expert Review

MAINTENANCE

Operator Training

REVIEW

Review of Large-Scale Injury Databases (e.g., MAUDE, NEISS)

RETIREMENT

Product Recall Support

FDA Deficiency Letter Support

FDA CAPA Support

CPSC Letter of Advice Support

Expert Witness Services & Litigation Support

RELATED SERVICE AREAS Click the

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Healthcare Human Factors

Human Factors Litigation Support

User Experience Research Laboratories (URL)

Find Your Expert

Human Factors Consulting

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Robert Rauschenberger

Vice President | Director of Human Factors

Office: +1 929 696 0197
Mobile: +1 213 304 6598

[email protected]

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INDUSTRY INSIGHTS

Keep up with the latest research and announcements from our team.

J.S. Held

Headquarters

50 Jericho Quadrangle
Suite 117
Jericho, N.Y. 11753
+1 516 621 2900
[email protected]

J.S. Held Trust Center

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Areas of Expertise

Technical & Scientific

Strategic Advisory

Financial Investigations, Valuation & Risk

Digital & Data

Insights

White Papers & Research Reports

Perspectives

Educational Seminars & Events

Markets Served

About J.S. Held

Media Relations

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 is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. Securities offered through PM Securities, LLC, d/b/a Phoenix IB or Ocean Tomo Investments, a part of J.S. Held, member FINRA/SIPC. All rights reserved.

J.S. Held

Headquarters

50 Jericho Quadrangle
Suite 117
Jericho, N.Y. 11753
+1 516 621 2900
[email protected]

J.S. Held Trust Center

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

Areas of Expertise

Technical & Scientific