Navigation, as a field of study, predates the web. Of course it does. At its core, navigation is the systematic process of monitoring and controlling movement through space (and sometimes through time). It’s the organized explanation of any skill that helps people to determine their position and direction. In order to know where a person is in physical space, we need a point of comparison—another position or location with which to compare a user. A person cannot be at Point B if Point A doesn’t exist. A person cannot be at both Point A and Point B simultaneously. During the … Read more of the post Navigation is Exploration

If you’re a growing visual or UX designer who wants to deliver your best work, paying close attention to quality and detail is key. In order to help folks at Think Company work with their teams to deliver work that is thorough, free of errors, and as high quality as possible, some of our current Design Leads collaborated on the following checklist. Keep a copy handy for your next design project. Design Work Quality Checklist Taking notes Capture thorough notes during meetings and calls so that you can refer back to them later. Be sure to note who said what, … Read more of the post Quality Control Checklist for Designers

I recently launched a conversation on Think Company’s Slack asking my designer teammates how they think through accessibility in their work. Web accessibility is a topic I’m passionate about—especially when considered as part of the web design process from start to finish (rather than as a consideration later on). I wanted to know more about the designer’s perspective on how and when accessibility becomes top-of-mind during the design process. Read on for some thoughts and resources from my fellow Thinkers.   Luke Pettway Hello, designers! 👋🏼 I was just curious: what materials do you use when you are designing things … Read more of the post Slack Chat: How Do Designers Think Through Accessibility?

We take adding new Thinkers to heart. Think Company has one of the highest retention rates in our industry because of the care we put into showing everyone who works here how much we appreciate them.   Think Company is successful because we provide a supportive, caring, and fair environment that is rich with culture, challenge, and learning so we can attract, develop and retain a uniquely skilled, capable, and committed team that always operates in alignment with our core values.   – Taken from a slide created at an internal meeting in 2018, when we revisited our goals and … Read more of the post Our Application Process

In the physical world, like in a drugstore or a supermarket, I have been trained to expect certain wayfinding points. Look up for aisle signs—they serve as broad menu items, mimicking that of a universal navigation within an interface. There are lane numbers with broad categorizations. But, I am also trained to find objects by looking for other, related objects. The vitamins are near the pharmacy because both are loosely “health related.” The diapers, family planning merchandise, and feminine hygiene products are proximal. The milk is near the cheese, almost always in the back of a store. The fresh produce … Read more of the post Object-Oriented UX, Part 1