DOI: 10.4018/IJSKD.2016070101 Copyright © 2016, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. International Journal of Sociotechnology and Knowledge Development Volume 8 • Issue 3 • July-September 2016 Transitioning from Technical Communication to User Experience (UX): A Case Study of a Collaborative Curriculum Redesign Tammy Rice-Bailey, Milwaukee School of Engineering, Milwaukee, WI, United States Nadya Shalamova, Milwaukee School of Engineering, Milwaukee, WI, United States ABSTRACT This article details a collaboration between a Technical Communication (TC) academic program at Milwaukee School of Engineering and its User Experience (UX) industry and community partners. This collaboration resulted in rethinking a TC degree program and establishing a new UX and Communication Design B.S. degree program. This article responds to TC scholarship calling for increased collaboration between academia and industry. The authors further explain how this particular collaboration was guided by Stakeholder Theory, enabling the program to identify its stakeholders and balance their differences while establishing new partnerships with the UX professional community. This article presents a case study of academia/industry collaboration and details both the challenges and successes that emerged during a program redesign. It concludes with models, a tools, and preliminary lessons that can assist other academic programs considering or undergoing similar curriculum or programmatic changes. KEywoRDS Academia-Industry Collaboration, Program Administration, Stakeholder Theory, Technical Communication, User Experience Having enjoyed a steady enrollment for several years, primarily through internal transfers from the engineering programs, the Technical Communication (TC) program at Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) entered an identity crisis at the end of the 1990s and began experiencing a rapid decline in student enrollment in the early 2000s. By the end of 2010, the program found itself at a significance risk of being dissolved. This case study details the steps this program took to redesign the TC curriculum and curtail its pending dissolution. Undergirding these steps was the embrace of academy-industry partnership and a systematic application of Stakeholder Theory, which had previously been only hypothetically applied to TC program implementation. This case study argues that Stakeholder Theory provides a strong foundation for establishing and developing meaningful and mutually-rewarding partnerships between an academic program and its community partners. It further promotes discussion of the academic-industry relationship by addressing benefits and challenges that emerged during the collaborative process. 1