Children and input devices
Dr. Hourcade is currently conducting research on ways of helping young children and children with motor impairments use pointing devices as they learn to interact with computers. This involves the development and evaluation of PointAssist, a tool that helps children by detecting the type of motion that occurs when children have difficulty pointing at a target, and triggering a precision mode that slows the speed of the mouse cursor in those cases. Previously, Dr. Hourcade conducted studies on children's performance with mice. His research has illustrated the need for young children to have interactions designed for their needs and abilities. He has studied how the way children use mice differs greatly from the way young adults use mice. He has also researched the impact of mouse size on children's performance.

Software to support children's creativity, collaboration, and learning
In the spring of 2008, Dr. Hourcade, joined by Prof. Joyce Moore, began work on designing information visualization tools for elementary school children. They are working with a group of children from Iowa City's Puertas Abiertas after school program who collaborate as design partners. During his graduate studies, Dr. Hourcade was the main developer of KidPad, a collaborative storytelling tool for children.

Older adults and computers
Dr. Hourcade is working with an interdisciplinary group of researchers in designing and evaluating technologies to help older adults manage their health. This research is funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Dr. Hourcade is also working on applying the technologies he has developed to help children point more easily with the mouse to help older adults in a similar manner. Previously, Dr. Hourcade conducted a study on the performance of older adults when conducting simple pen-based interactions with handheld computers.

Interaction and experience design for security software
Dr. Hourcade is collaborating with Dr. Eunjin (EJ) Jung in the development of Bayeshield, a tool to identify malicious websites, warn people effectively about these threats, communicate with users to reduce detection uncertainty, and educate them so they will be able to identify the threats on their own.

Technologies for children in developing regions
Dr. Hourcade, in collaboration with Pablo Flores, Fernando Cormenzana and Daiana Beitler, has worked on assessing the progress of Proyecto Ceibal, which aims to provide a laptop computer to every child in elementary school in Uruguay. Dr. Hourcade's interest arises in part from growing up in Uruguay and having a strong interest in the success of this project. In the future, Dr. Hourcade plans to encourage participatory design approaches for the software used in the comptuers, as well as a well documented analysis of the impact of the project, and the development of infrastructure to support sharing success stories among educators and to promote links between funding agencies, researchers, schools and communities.

Information collection
Dr. Hourcade is interested in the use of mobile computing for data collection purposes, be it for science, medicine, surveys, etc.

Information dissemination and digital libraries
As large amounts of digital content become available online there are many challenges in designing user interfaces that can enable a variety of users to find what they are looking for and understand what they find. Dr. Hourcade has worked on these research issues, designing user interfaces for children's digital libraries (e.g. the International Children's Digital Library), and consulting on websites that provide access to statistical data.