Ilze Mertena is a Senior Lecturer and researcher at Manchester Metropolitan University, specialising in experience design and customer experience.
Her work focuses on how meaningful experiences are created in everyday contexts, particularly by small and micro independent businesses on high streets. Through in-depth, place-based research across multiple UK locations, she explores how creativity, local networks and resource constraints shape the experiences these businesses deliver.
Her recent research applies an experience ecosystem perspective, highlighting that value is not created by individual organisations alone, but emerges through relationships, place dynamics and informal collaboration. This work offers a practical lens for understanding why some businesses and places are more resilient and engaging than others, even under similar external pressures.
Alongside her research, Ilze teaches experience design and tourism-related subjects at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. She is also connected to industry and practitioner communities through the Institute of Place Management.
Her work bridges research and practice, offering new ways to understand and design experiences in complex, place-based environments.
