I was very surprised to find out that designers were using Keynote for laying out presentations. My surprise turned to alarm when I found out that they were also using it as a design tool to build UI designs for websites and apps. It turns out that I was absolutely wrong.

It’s easy to spot a beautiful portfolio. Designers know that looks sell, and many people sell themselves that way. Of course, the ability to make something that looks good matters, especially for visual designers. But the challenge is that great images say nothing about what it will be like to work with someone, or whether they’ll be consistently able to produce good work.

So how do you do great design in a rapid, multidisciplinary and inclusive way?
How do you set up new projects for success in a fast moving, agile environment?
How do you ensure shared understanding and ownership of new initiatives in just a few days?

I now focus a lot of time on facilitating collaborative design workshops, and other methods focused on quickly creating a shared understanding of objectives and buy-in for and execution approach.

I see plenty of UX resumes and I can safely say there’s a lot of UX people out there who don’t practice what they preach when it comes to writing their résumé. So, here’s a simple guide to help you think more about the ‘user’ of your résumé so that you can stand out from the crowd.

Some A List Apart greatest hits from Zeldman's Selling Design class at SVA MFA IxD

We sell materials that designers, artists, and inventors use to develop new products and push the boundaries of what's possible.

Location services, space-time, and the importance of "soon" + near-future.

"Location is a matter of routine... These patterns are worn into our personal maps of the city, and usually it’s the **exceptions to it** that we record, or share – a special excursion, or perhaps a unexpected diversion – pleasant or otherwise that we want to broadcast for companionship, or assistance."

Note-taking, av recording, and annotation tool for the Mac.

A get-together for a day to talk about, fiddle with, make and explore what's possible with paper

Playful is a one-day event all about games and play – in all their manifestations, throughout the contemporary media landscape.

Understanding the amazing opportunity of being the first employee of what I believe will become an important company I've spent a considerable amount of time not only designing the Quora product, but also designing how product design fits within the organization.

Nina Mehta is a San Francisco based designer with over ten years of professional experience. She most recently worked at RockMelt in Mountain View and will return to the Bay this summer after she earns her Human-Computer Interaction design Master's degree from Indiana University in Bloomington.

I met Nina at Interaction 11 in Boulder.

Profile of the guy who architects the user experience at Microsoft Bing Maps

EXPO 2010 – We are All Transistors
The Graduate Showcase for the MA Interactive Media: Critical Theory and Practice course at Goldsmiths, University of London.