Hyde & Rugg: About us

We’re Jo Hyde and Gordon Rugg.

We solve hard problems, by finding solutions that other people have missed.

We developed a method for identifying errors in previous expert reasoning about hard problems. Gordon’s article in Scientific American describes one of our case studies.

We also specialise in methods for eliciting information that people find difficult or impossible to put into words.

As Hyde & Rugg, we do consultancy, training, workshops, talks, and product development. We are also academics and researchers.

Some examples of our work:

  • Finding out why some staff in an organisation were performing much better than others – was it because of subconscious skills, or attitude, or something else?
  • Finding out why excellent students were performing below their potential in written work – what was the reason, and what could we do about it?

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Copyright and copyleft on our site:

All material on this site is copyright Hyde & Rugg, unless otherwise stated.

Some of the material is copyleft Hyde & Rugg, from various dates. Material identified as copyleft on this site can be used for any non-commercial purposes, including lectures, provided that you retain the “copyleft Hyde & Rugg” attribution plus the date.

Jo Hyde

Jo is an experienced researcher in knowledge modelling and representation, usability analysis, requirements elicitation, and multi-modal systems. She’s a history graduate with an MSc in Information Processing and a PhD in Computer Science. She has worked as a secondary school teacher and is now a senior lecturer at the University of Bath.

Jo co-developed the Verifier method for detecting errors in expert reasoning about difficult problems. Her current interests are effective methods for requirements elicitation, and knowledge modelling and representation.

Gordon Rugg

Gordon is a multidisciplinary academic, researcher, and software developer. He likes tackling hard problems from new angles.

He has a first degree in French and Linguistics and a PhD in Psychology. He’s just retired from his role as a senior lecturer in computing at Keele University. He’s had a varied career, including working in a timber yard, English lecturing, and field archaeology.

His interest in artificial intelligence and human factors in software development led to him co-developing the Verifier method. He used a ‘light’ version of the method to find a solution to a problem that the world’s best codebreakers had been unable to crack, the Voynich Manuscript. This work has featured in Scientific American and various documentaries.

Gordon is particularly interested in designing products that human beings can use easily.

 

Material on this website is copyright of Hyde & Rugg unless otherwise stated.