TCID Experience Lab

Emerging technologies are reshaping how people work, communicate, learn, and make decisions. However, technical capability on its own does not guarantee successful innovation. Whether developing an AI tool, a cybersecurity system, a new app, or a product for a small business, organizations must consider how their intended users understand, use, trust, and experience the technology or system.

This C3 Innovation project examines how human-centered design and technical communication can help close that gap. The primary focus of the project has evolved into the TCID Experience Studio, a student-engaged model that connects expertise in user experience, accessibility, information design, technical communication, and AI-supported workflows with real challenges from campus, community, and industry partners. Students work alongside partners to better understand users, identify communication and usability problems, test ideas, and help design solutions that work for the people inside the system.

The project also connects with an Entrepreneurship Scholar Grant supporting the research and development of the Experience Studio as a sustainable model for experiential and entrepreneurial learning. A complementary pilot through C3's Apple App Design Lab will explore how UX research and AI-enhanced workflows can be incorporated directly into the technology design process. Combined, these varied but related branches of the project examine how human-centered methods can strengthen innovation while giving students authentic opportunities to work across technology, communication, design, and emerging AI.

The Problem: Powerful technology does not automatically create a successful solution. As AI, apps, cybersecurity tools, and other emerging technologies become more capable, organizations still face a critical challenge: ensuring those technologies are understandable, accessible, trustworthy, and usable by the people they are designed to serve.

The Innovation: The TCID Experience Studio puts people at the center of technology innovation. Through a student-engaged model, the Studio brings together user experience, accessibility, information design, technical communication, and AI-supported workflows to solve real challenges for campus, community, and industry partners. Students work directly with partners and users to identify needs, test ideas, and design technology experiences that work in practice—not just in theory.