In part one, we discussed the current landscape for (un)civil discourse online. In this part, we’ll start to dig into why that is. The common wisdom is that if you produce an outrage-inducing headline, people will share it. The more people share it, the more people will click on it, read it, and click on the ads, and that’s what we’re all here for anyway, right? The problem with this theory is that, even under the best of circumstances, if this works, argument replaces community. And if all you’re able to muster is outrage and argument, you won’t make any … Read more of the post The Content Strategy of Civil Discourse, Part 2

Here’s a fun experiment. Show an audience the following photo and ask… “Should this person drive this car?” What you’ll get is a policy discussion. “Of course not! Old people are bad at everything!” “That’s ageist! People should be able to do what they want!” All you will learn at the end of that conversation is who is on what side. Show that same photo to a different audience and ask… “How might this person drive this car?” What you’ll get is a design discussion. “What if we moved the steering wheel?” “What if we had a heads up display … Read more of the post The Content Strategy of Civil Discourse, Part 1

Over the past several years, it’s become apparent to us that the value we provide at Think Company is based not only in the world-class design work we deliver, but equally (if not more so) in the way we interact with our clients. This’ll be obvious to most of you because you’re smart folks who get it. That’s why you’d also be surprised how often we find ourselves in situations where it’s clear that no previous design firms have engaged with our clients in anything resembling a consultative fashion. Stories of firms simply executing on a statement of work or … Read more of the post Seven Consulting Principles

Procurement is deeply embedded within the global economy—touching essentially every industry in one form or another from local mom-and-pops to Fortune 100 conglomerates. Common within procurement itself is that manual, labor-intensive processes and outdated systems can cause decreased productivity, increased errors, data fragmentation, and, ultimately, increased cost and spend. e-Procurement, automation, and modern online processes improve and potentially even solve many of these issues—but when not implemented correctly, an overly-complex or confusing user interface can be worse than the problem it was trying to fix. If you’re rethinking your e-procurement system, here are a couple of things to keep in … Read more of the post Customers Expect More from Your Procurement System

With the release of the newest version of Apple’s iOS, a four-year-old technology called Progressive Web Applications (PWAs) just became an overnight success. Like the term “Ajax” in 2005, the term “Progressive Web Application” is a buzzword applied to a handful of new technologies. Specifically, it’s the way that web browsers on desktop and mobile devices will now grant their native-application powers to websites. Chrome and Firefox users on Android and Windows (yes, on the desktop!) have had access to these features for some time. Now that they’ve been released to iOS, those Progressive Web Application superpowers will quickly be … Read more of the post All Your Dreams Came True Overnight With Progressive Web Applications