Nina is a happy designer, writer and vj in San Francisco, working at Pivotal Labs and jetsetting everywhere.

Here are twenty things she likes: airports backpacking berlin chipotle corny jokes the cosby show developers deserts doner kebab the guardian the news political theory radiolab rhythm tall buildings techno the tube map typography ubiquitous computing wine

Oh, the places you'll go

Nina believes smart engineering and thoughtful design can enhance the human experience and empower people in our global community.

Study & Research

HCId Master's, Indiana University
Journalism, Indiana University
Political Science, Indiana University
Political Science, City Univ, London
Poynter, St. Petersburg Florida
Research, Botswana & South Africa

Design & Practice

Pivotal Labs, San Francisco
Twilio, San Francisco
SigFig, San Francisco
Gengo, Tokyo
RockMelt, Mountain View
Epolitix.com, London
Indianapolis Star, Indianapolis
Oliver Winery, Bloomington

Talks & Press

A little story about Nina

Nina's work has always been about people.

She started designing websites, tshirts and animated gif movies in her basement during high school. College led to a career in journalism and visual storytelling doing newspaper and graphic design.

Wanting to do more with design and people she earned her Master's in Human-Computer Interaction Design at Indiana University. From there she worked with startups redesigning telephony, investing, travel booking and how we browse the web. Nina now works at Pivotal Labs helping designers and developers make great things.

Nina also does live music visuals under Silhouette productions with DJs and musicians. This helps expand her understanding of interactions and experiences in physical spaces through experience design.

Though happy in San Francisco, Nina celebrates her Chicago roots, Indian heritage and defacto Hoosier status. She's studied classical music for over 10 years and has taken courses in improv theater, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and letterpress. She only travels carry-on, like to shop at Muji and just really truly loves The Cosby Show.

Projects

Nina's work has always been about people. Find her excited about platforms, communication and design invisible technolgy for nice folks.

Changing Communications at Twilio

Twilio make an API tool so developers build powerful apps that use voice, SMS and VoIP communication fast and well. There's all kinds of fun stuff to build at Twilio.

Visualizing the Heartbeat of Twilio

This data visualization installation was made with Kyle Conroy using data and processing to show calls being made on Twilio. The length of each line represents one phone call being made on Twilio in that moment. The installation was showcased at our annual conference, Twiliocon in 2012.

Responsible for concept, design, css, some parts javascript, installation setup, and video production.

Reinventing the browser at RockMelt

Nina was RockMelt's first design intern. I spent the summer working product features like the friend chat window, building up parts of the site from sketch to code, coordinating usability sessions and working with developers to prepare for the alpha launch.

RockMelt, Inc. is and was backed by Andreessen and Horowitz. The team worked quietly, quickly and had a blast doing it.

Book better flights with Milewise

Milewise helps travelers book the best flights at the best value. It gathers your frequent flier data and suggests which flights have the best price at cash value, something that is otherwise quite difficult to figure out. During this project I worked with Milewise in New York, from San Francisco, to do some quick and dirty rework to help their customers book better flights

Master's thesis: News platform for global affairs

During the second and final year of graduate school I worked on a research and design project related to news, design and storytelling. I created a platform and UI called Newskite, to engage people around the world about major global current affairs. This project helps understand what people are hearing in our connected but disjointed world. What are people in Peru hearing about the earthquake in Japan? How is did the Arab Spring affect how people in China thought about policy? Newskite brings those answers.

Photographs & video production

I travel a lot. I travel when I'm at home and anywhere an airplane will take me. And when I go places, I take pictures. Sometimes, a photo isn't enough and words don't do justice. That's a good time for video.

I'm working with a Panasonic Lumix GF1 and editing with Photoshop, Premiere Pro and After Effects.

Writing & Research

ith a Bachelors in Journalism and a degree in Political Science, I've worked as a copy editor while participating as a fellow at the Poynter Institute. In tandem with design projects she digs into product writing in her work. Nina has been a guest writer for VisualEditors but now hangs out at her

OmGenie will give you what you want

OmGenie is a simple sms app inspired by a 2-person meditation exercise where one person asks for what they want and the other says " you can have it" and affirms the desire. Text (415) 683 7914 and try it out.

This meditation app might help you:

Inspire explicit and sub-concious productive action
Exhaust you from material and ego-driven desires
Be happy

Deliniation: Professional Development for Interaction Designers

Year after year, HCId Master's students had consistent questions about their professional identity as interaction designers. Classmate, Wes Michaels, and I designed a response for our peers. Through research and interviews with alums, professionals, IU staff, faculty and of course students, we learned what questions our peers had and a baseline way answer the question.

The book is now endorsed and hosted by Indiana University and distributed to incoming HCI Master's students.

Berlintechno: a book of photos and prose

This beautiful city of Berlin is donned the title 'electronic music capital of the world' by many. And though its music is often described as minimal and mathematical it is also designed fully with emotion. In that same spirit I designed this book with quotes from local DJs and photos from partygoers to celebrate the beautiful city and its music.

Indy.com | North American Music Festival Guide

2008 Music Festival Guide

This self-started graphic was built for young music-savvy travelers at Indy.com for The Indianapolis Star. The map launched before the summer music festival season inspired by a debate in our message boards whether it was worth traveling to Lollapalooza in Chicago. I collected data for ticket costs, gas estimates, distances and festival information and worked with the editorial and marketing departments for the launch.This GoogleMap API uses javascript and css to guide Indy.com readers to the best music festivals around North America.

See the map a little bigger

'Ten Backpacker Things You Could Do At Home' postcards

I made these postcards on the Indiana Unversity letterpress. I inked, rolled and cut the cards by hand. Both many of my friends and myself, frequent travelers, for one reason or another had to put countless backpacking trips on hold. I made and sent these postcards to remind them adventure is everywhere.

Drop me a line with your address and I'll mail you a card :)

Event designs

Designs for save the dates, music events and menus designed to match the aesthetic of the event and participants.

See the drink menu for Thomas & Sarah

Less is More event series

See the save the date for James and Sarah

Apocalypse Night Livestream and Confessional App

Music Book Club

Music Book Club is a monthly gathering I coordinate. For each event, I change the theme, attendees and member who hosts. A group of six friends, assembled into teams of two, assigned by me, bring an electronic dance music track, a dish and a drink for music listening and discussion.

This recurring event creates a thoughtful, small-group listening experience for a community that would otherwise exists in loud clubs or online. It is a Silhouette production.