Saltern is a boutique research & design studio, shaping technology to make human sense.

sal·tern |ˈsôltərn| noun

A plot of land laid out in pools for the evaporation of seawater to produce salt.

ORIGIN Old English: sealt 'salt' + ærn 'place, building.'

Some of the things we do

Specialized study recruitment

"How do we reach activists in low-connectivity environments?"

We'll help you hone in on target participant criteria and outreach channels, crafting bespoke messaging, including for niche and hard-to-reach populations.

“Pinch-hitter" research study support

"Can someone jump in to help?"

We'll hop on to an existing project to serve as an extra set of hands for interview moderation or analysis, either using your team's preferred tools, or we can recommend our own.

End-to-end research program design

"We know we need research, but where do we even start?"

Not sure where to start? We can design a research program from scratch based on your questions, goals, and timeline. We can execute methods ranging from interview studies, surveys, usability studies, and more.

Workshop design & facilitation

"How do we get our team aligned?"

Want to bring together your team, stakeholders, or new user groups together for ideation and codesign activities? We can help design and carry out an in-person or remote workshop agenda to meet your needs.

Literature reviews & research reports

"What does the research already say about this?"

Trying to upskill on a domain and want to go deeper than an LLM's "deep research" report? We can help write reports ranging from quick memos to systematic literature reviews and publishable white paper reports.

Audio-visual ethnographies

"Can we show this, not just tell it?"

Drawing on our network of award-winning documentarians and ethnographers to help bring a user group to life for your team, in a way that's more memorable and meaningful than any persona-generator.

Other ideas? Maybe a zine on making AI art responsibly, or a sonified sourdough bread installation? Let's brainstorm :-)

How we think about things

Saltern brings flexible, human-centered design to today's most wicked problems, online & offline.

We respect expertise, but we're not strict disciplinarians.

  • We draw from journalism, human-computer interaction, linguistics, political science, peacebuilding & more
  • We apply creative & culturally competent approaches to meet hard-to-reach populations where they are
  • We work with you to think through what is safe & ethical, even in new domains

We help you figure out which questions need which approach.

  • We love jamming in a messy Google doc as much as we love polishing service blueprints & executive decks, as long as the artifact serves the goal
  • Rapid, "just enough research" to resolve blocking questions
  • Deep dives to build trust in new ecosystems

We care a lot about:

  • Technology in the public interest
  • Journalism & new media
  • Civic technology
  • ... But we're curious cats, we always want to learn new things!

The Saltz behind Saltern

Emily Saltz is the Principal Researcher & Founder of Saltern

Emily Saltz

Emily has spent over a decade leading research on technology in the public's interest, from misinformation labeling, NLP & AR experiences at the New York Times R&D Lab to digital peacebuilding and online communities on Google's Jigsaw team. She's taught at Parsons, published at top AI & HCI conferences, and holds a Master's in Human-Computer Interaction from Carnegie Mellon.

Most recently, she completed a documentary program at the Salt Institute (no relation), where she directed a short on Maine's town meeting traditions. In her spare time, she hosts a bog-themed radio show called Discobog on WFMU. She's based in Brooklyn, NYC.

Ready to talk?

We're taking on new clients for 2026, and we'd love to discuss whatever projects you have in mind.