Hourcade is an associate professor at the University of Iowa's Department of Computer Science, UI3 Associate Director for Informatics Education, and a member of the Delta Center. His main area of research is human-computer interaction, with a focus on the design, implementation and evaluation of technologies that support creativity, collaboration, well-being, healthy development, and information access for a variety of users, including children and older adults. 

Hourcade is the author of Child-Computer Interaction, the first comprehensive book on the topic, and has held various leadership roles in his research community (e.g., Papers Co-Chair for CHI 2016and CHI 2017). He is in the Editorial Board of Interacting with Computers, Foundations and Trends in Human-Computer Interaction, and the International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction. He is editor of the Universal Interactions forum, and a blogger for interactions magazine.