Roots in Technical Communication
Founded by Stephanie Rosenbaum in 1967, TecEd was one of the first firms to provide understandable, task-based documentation to business users of computer technology. Computers were mainframes in TecEd’s early days.
Laurie Kantner and Stephanie Rosenbaum represent TecEd at the International Technical Communication Conference in 1986.
Pioneers in User Experience
As minicomputers and PCs came into use, it became increasingly clear that even the best manuals could not improve systems that were difficult to use. To help computer users, we needed to improve the interfaces themselves—and so we changed our focus to human factors and HCI (human-computer interaction). TecEd employees trained in HCI and usability evaluation. We became charter members of the Usability Professionals’ Association. Not surprisingly, many important techniques—such as task analysis and information architecture—are common to both human factors and documentation. Documentation is now embedded in the interface; the interface is how people and products communicate.
Experts Today
TecEd has a team of very experienced employee and associate UX research and design practitioners throughout the US and has offices in Ann Arbor, Michigan and Palo Alto, California. See About Us.
