This spring I’ve been mentoring the first group of startups accepted to Richmond’s Lighthouse Labs accelerator program. Below is a quick roundup of links I’m sharing with these companies about the role of design in launching a startup.

Must-read primer on design for non-designers. Includes a lovely interactive version of Dieter Rams’ 10 principles for good design.

Excellent interview with Jason Putorti, the designer co-founder of Mint, about emotionally intelligent design and how good design makes a product and company more trustworthy and valuable.

This interview with Mailbox CEO Gentry Underwood is less about design per se and more about high-level “design thinking” and how to apply that to your product. MORE…

For my birthday, my amazing librarian friend Taber Bain created this word cloud from the last year of my tweets.

I love this. I’m also mystified by it. (How did “Oh shit” make it but “fuck” doesn’t appear?) But mostly I’m stunned by how collectively, my words reveal more about myself than I ever intended.

I really like people. To follow me on twitter is to know me well in some respects, but only some. Who I am online isn’t who I am. I am friendlier and more kind in person, less likely to talk about patriarchy and more likely to tell you about which bakery makes the best chocolate cupcakes. MORE…

Deck from my presentation “Designing Immersive Mobile Experiences” which I gave this year at ConvergeSE and RemixSouth

I loved the chance to talk about responsive web design with Mobile Mondays here in Richmond this week. As a designer, I’m always looking for good resources about the layout and problem-solving aspects of RWD, and I enjoyed sharing some of my favorites. MORE…

(RVANews) Women ETC brings national speakers and mixed feelings to Richmond » Richmond gets our own Women in Tech conference, and I’m not 100% enthusiastic.

A successful viral video is like pornography—I can’t define it, but I know it when I see it. And I knew I was looking at a viral hit a few weeks ago, when a friend sent me an mp4 of this video as an afterthought to an email exchange we were having. “BTW, a buddy of mine used to be a weather guy…” he said. “Enjoy.”

And enjoy it I did. As I watched the video for the first time, I couldn’t help thinking of the projected 100+ degree temps forecast at the end of the week. I forwarded the file to @mrbeefy the next day. MORE…