The Think Company UI Development Team recently created and published its first open-source component to enhance accessibility for React applications. We hope this component will be a helpful contribution to other developers in the community. What is it? The react-a11y-announcer can be integrated with a React application to provide additional context and information to a screen reader, which allows those users to more easily navigate an application. The component provides developers with an easy way to give users of screen readers feedback on the results of their interactions within an application. A developer can pass custom messages to the announcer component, … Read more of the post Introducing the React-a11y-Announcer

One of our favorite ways to quickly describe what Think Company does is that we “rid the world of frustrating experiences.” Every day we help our clients transform existing conditions into preferred ones.* We Thinkers are passionate about this cause, and we often chat about frustrating experiences in our daily lives that we wish we could fix. My friend Dave Brindley, proud Philadelphia resident and founder of Not In Philly, shares my passion for good design and often texts me images and stories of bad design that he encounters in his daily life around the city. Recently he texted, “I just … Read more of the post Guerrilla UX: Exploring a Better Design for the SEPTAkey Kiosk

Here at Think Company, we do a lot to enhance the health and wellness of our employees. We have flexible time off so our employees can continue to bring an energetic, enthusiastic, and creative spirit to work. We have fresh fruit delivered to the office each week as well as a weekly yoga class for all Thinkers. We also sponsor cyclists in a race each year and runners in the various marathons throughout our beloved city of Philadelphia. Over the past three years, we also did a biggest loser-type challenge that focused mainly on weight loss. It dawned on me … Read more of the post Employee Experience & Health; Our Think Wellness Challenge

It’s very common for leaders in the consulting world to prescribe treatment for the problems and challenges of others—and be fully qualified and effective in doing so—while continuing to fly by the seat of their pants when it comes to their own teams and/or organizations. Since it’s the expressed job of consultants to provide expert advice (that you’d therefore assume they’re implementing themselves), the dichotomy here is especially glaring, but in reality, this scenario is present regardless of industry, product, or service. “Do as I say, not as I do.” Consultants to clients. Managers to reports. Elected officials to constituents. … Read more of the post How Design Thinking Can Make You a Better Leader

A few weeks ago, I had the honor of speaking to the College of Liberal Arts at Temple University. The fine folks at Temple, along with support from Leonard and Melinda Mazur, have started a program to help Liberal Arts students explore opportunities where their skills apply that may not be obvious. I was really excited for this talk—one of my passions is helping young professionals get seated in their career. Years ago, I wrote a blog post offering advice to those seeking a career in UX.  It’s one of my favorite pieces, so every once-in-a-while I go back and re-read it … Read more of the post Advice for Liberal Arts Majors: Consider a Career in UX