Our team

Iain Barker, Principal

Iain Barker, principal at Meld Studios, has over 14 years experience in research and design. He has worked in senior positions for leading advocates of user centred design including Flow Interactive, Sapient and Different.

He has consulted in, and advocated for, customer-centred approaches in a variety of sectors including finance, retail, media, education and the public sector. His clients have included Standard Life, News Digital Media, BBC, United Nation High Commission for Refugees, Vodafone, NSW Department of Education and Training, BT, Kimberly Clark Australia, Blake Dawson Waldron, Freehills, Toyota, Opodo, Coles Myer, BSkyB and Channel 4.

Iain started his professional life as a technical writer helping people work out how to use unusable software. He has spent the rest of his career trying to make sure products and services are designed correctly in the first place. He holds a degree in the slightly unusual subject of “Technical Communication” – which is part information design, part communications, part psychology and part multimedia.

Steve Baty, Principal

Steve Baty, principal at Meld Studios, has over 15 years experience as a design and strategy practitioner. Steve is well-known in the area of strategy and design, contributing to public discourse on these topics through articles and conferences.

Steve serves as President of the Interaction Design Association (IxDA); is a regular contributor to UXMatters.com; serves as an editor and contributor to Johnny Holland (johnnyholland.org), and is the founder of UX Book Club – a world-wide initiative bringing together user experience practitioners in over 80 locations to read, connect and discuss books on user experience design. Steve is co-Chair of UX Australia – Australia’s leading conference for User Experience practitioners; and Chair of Interaction 12 – the annual conference of the IxDA for 2012.

Steve has, over the past six years, led design-driven strategy and innovation projects for clients across a broad spread of industries including: financial services, tourism, travel, transport, consumer electronics, manufacturing, government, and the arts.

Steve holds post-graduate degrees in electronic commerce (M.Ec) and business administration (MBA) from the Macquarie Graduate School of Management; and a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics (Physical Mathematics & Applied Statistics) from UTS.

Janna DeVylder, Principal

Janna DeVylder, principal at Meld Studios, is the former Director of Interactive Communication at SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) in Savannah, Georgia. She managed a multi-disciplinary team overseeing the university’s websites and was a key contributor to how SCAD utilized digital channels to meet its brand and communication strategies. Prior to SCAD, Janna directed a team of interaction designers for Arc Worldwide, a Leo Burnett company. In addition, she has led large-scale strategy, information architecture and user experience projects for Orbitz, McDougal Littell and Giant Step. Janna is very active in the community, having recently served as the President of the Interaction Design Association (IxDA), an international organization dedicated to advancing the discipline of interaction design, for three years.

Janna received her master’s degree from the University of Chicago with an emphasis in psychology and anthropology, and holds an honor’s Bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Iowa.

Niina Talikka, Designer

Niina Talikka, designer at Meld Studios, has 14 years of experience working for digital agencies in Sydney and London. She has managed the design and development of web sites, integrated campaigns and e-commerce solutions for a broad range of clients from car manufacturers to travel, and from fast moving consumer goods to education. Amongst project management roles, she has also worked as a web developer and as an operations manager where she researched and designed a production process to manage workflow through a digital studio.

Over the last few years Niina has been actively encouraging teams and clients to understand the importance of information architecture, user experience, usability and accessibility by sharing knowledge and demonstrating the impacts of considered design.

Jono Yang, Junior designer

Jono Yang, junior designer at Meld Studios, received his master of design degree from the University of Technology Sydney with an emphasis in human centred design and design thinking. He also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Design (Interior) from Unitec New Zealand with previous studies in Science at the University of Auckland.

Jono has developed a specific interest in the phenomenon of why and how people interact with spaces on a physical and emotional level, the subject of research projects focused on improving academic and personal experiences for student life at UTS.

Kimberley Crofts, Designer

Kimberley Crofts, designer at Meld Studios, has over 16 years experience in communication design. She has worked as a senior art director, in Australia and Hong Kong, for clients in the publishing, arts and not-for-profit arenas.

Most recently, Kimberley has been in London working in online and mobile spaces as a design specialist for Nokia and a user experience designer for bSkyb.

Kimberley holds a post-graduate degree in Information Design from the University of Reading (UK); and a bachelor’s degree in visual communication from UTS.

Alison Sharp, Design manager

Alison Sharp, design manager at Meld Studios, has over 10 years experience managing digital design and development programs. She is a passionate advocate of working collaboratively across functional teams and taking a customer-centred approach to the design and development process.

Alison has worked within management consulting (Cap Gemini) and large corporate environments (Orange / France Telecom). As a result her approach ensures that our work is not only professional and provides real value to our clients, but is also pragmatic and helps staff to do their everyday jobs.

During her time at Orange, Alison helped to build and manage the in-house design and user experience team. She implemented operational processes across London and Paris to coordinate around 50 staff, multi-million Euro budgets, and dozens of design agencies.

Alison hold a bachelor’s degree in business management (first class honours) from Waikato University in New Zealand. She majored in information systems and international marketing.

Santiago Ruiz, Designer

Santiago Ruiz, designer at Meld Studios, has over 7 years in the digital industry working for companies in Chicago and Sydney. Santiago has a wide range of experience creating memorable experiences for users on various industries including: Online Banking, Health Care & Fitness, Government and Insurance to name a few.

Santiago holds a bachelor's degree in Interactive Media Design from The Illinois Institute of Art - Chicago; and a bachelor's degree in Journalism with emphasis in Advertising from the University of Oregon.