I research, teach, and design at the intersection of technology and human-centered design, decoding how products, services, and systems enrich and sometimes harm people’s experiences.
Design has always integrated experiences and technology. Smartphone interfaces, sports stadiums, chewing gum branding, and sunglasses may seem like throwaway moments, but creators use digital and physical technologies to make these designs stand out, be usable, and be memorable. Understanding why these moments land—or fail—requires working simultaneously at the level of experience, futures, and learning.
I do this in three varieties: experience design, futures studies, and learning sciences.
Experience design emphasizes that design should be useful, usable, desirable, and, at its best, memorable. Experience designers consider people’s emotions, needs, values, and goals as drivers for design. They consider the functional and personal impacts of design decisions. Co-creating experiences blends psychology, creativity, strategy, and technology to produce designs that resonate deeply and endure. Working at the experience level gives my work the potential to make a lasting impact in people’s lives.
Few technologies in history have had the potential to advance human understanding and also undo it. Futures studies combines systems thinking and foresight to invent possible solutions and anticipate future problems. AI technologies are a real part of society’s present, but it’s unclear what kinds of futures they will create. I use AI tools as a front-end and back-end developer to better anticipate the intended and unintended futures they may cause.
Learning science is an evidence-based approach to facilitating learning for personal growth. Teaching and learning are as emotional as they are information delivery—it’s an experience. So, I incorporate and test non-traditional methods in my teaching and assess their impact as I would a website’s user experience. I integrate gaming techniques into activities, design courses to simulate professional practice, and collaborate with students rather than passing down information.
This work led me to the founding directorship of the Miami University Center for AI—where I get to build something new at the intersection of all three.
And now, the Bio You Expected
Dennis Cheatham is the founding Director of the Miami University Center for AI and an Associate Professor of Graphic + Experience Design. He is an Affiliate Faculty member in Emerging Technology in Business and Design, a Research Fellow at the Scripps Gerontology Center, and active faculty in Miami University’s Center for Teaching Excellence. His research and teaching focus on experiences at the intersection of technology and human-centered design, informed by work in futures studies and learning sciences. As Director of the Miami University Center for AI, he leads institutional efforts for research, teaching, and learning—supporting responsible AI integration across the curriculum and catalyzing AI research and scholarship that positively impacts people in Ohio and beyond. Since 2023, Dennis has been deeply engaged in hands-on work with AI tools, including 1.5 years of active coding with generative and agentic AI. He has closely monitored AI’s evolution while presenting and publishing his research on AI applications in professional practice at international conferences and symposia. Dennis’s approach emphasizes practical implementation over theoretical discussion, drawing on 15 years of professional experience as a creative director, interaction designer, and experience designer to help non-technical users confidently engage with AI tools. Dennis holds an MFA in Design-Innovation Studies from the University of North Texas and degrees in Design Communication and Creative Writing from Texas Tech University.