Polytechnicast: Recent Episodes

Rob Stenzinger

Art journal podcast by Rob Stenzinger, sharing thoughts on his various creative projects and adventures ranging from user experience design, creating comics, making video games, to interactive design.

Album art for episode featuring a sketch of a conversion funnel for selling indie games

Making Lexilotl, my latest game which is a crossword puzzle run where you get a clue and three tries to solve a puzzle and can keep going until your tries run out. I had planned on making ad supported right away but ran into a roadblock and went a different way. Here's the story of that and some of my other explorations in making money by making games. Also, a negative comment on one of the Lexilotl announcement videos gave the the idea to explore this topic.

Related Links and Resources

‎Lexilotl - Crossword Puzzle Run - Apple App Store
Guitar Fretter on Steam
Rob Stenzinger on TikTok
Word Turtle Island on Google Play
Word Turtle Island on Apple's App Store
Word Turtle Island on Steam
Word Turtle Island on Itch (free demo available)
Ask Me Anything — Blog of an Interactive Storyteller
Sign up for my newsletter

Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support What I Make

Get exclusive merch and private journal posts via my paywall art blog and merch store at Fourthwall
Buy or wishlist Word Turtle Island on Steam.
Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, and UX design: Skillshare
Get the game Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Now with Lefty Flip in the full version and a free demo version with 9 levels. NOW ON STEAM
Join Skillshare via my referral link which gets you 1 month of Skillshare Premium for free.
You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along.
Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app

Polytechnicast - Understanding An Artist and Indie Game Developer's Business Rob Stenzinger

It's been a busy few months and I'm glad to be back and share some updates, fun projects, and encouragement here on the Polytechnicast. Word Turtle Island is out in the world now 4 months along and I started making my next game already. It's a word puzzle crossword style game called Lexilotl.

Related Links and Resources

Rob Stenzinger on TikTok
Word Turtle Island on Google Play
Word Turtle Island on Apple's App Store
Word Turtle Island on Steam
Word Turtle Island on Itch (free demo available)
Ask Me Anything — Blog of an Interactive Storyteller
Sign up for my newsletter

Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support What I Make

Get exclusive merch and private journal posts via my paywall art blog and merch store at Fourthwall
Buy or wishlist Word Turtle Island on Steam.
Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, and UX design: Skillshare
Get the game Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Now with Lefty Flip in the full version and a free demo version with 9 levels. NOW ON STEAM
Join Skillshare via my referral link which gets you 1 month of Skillshare Premium for free.
You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along.
Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app

Polytechnicast - Lexilotl is My New Game In Progress - Also Voiceover Rob Stenzinger

Word Turtle Island is now 1.0. Four years in the making and here it is. Officially released on Apple's App Store, Steam, Google Play, and Itch! I share what it's like now with it officially the full version, things I would and wouldn't recommend doing again looking back at the development path of WTI, and a bit about the game I'm prototyping next. Also: WTI won an award for art direction!

Related Links and Resources

2D Con Indie Island
Rob Stenzinger on TikTok
Word Turtle Island on Google Play
Word Turtle Island on Apple's App Store
Word Turtle Island on Steam
Word Turtle Island on Itch (free demo available)
Ask Me Anything — Blog of an Interactive Storyteller
Sign up for my newsletter

Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support What I Make

Get exclusive merch and private journal posts via my paywall art blog and merch store at Fourthwall
Buy or wishlist Word Turtle Island on Steam.
Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, and UX design: Skillshare
Get the game Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Now with Lefty Flip in the full version and a free demo version with 9 levels. NOW ON STEAM
Join Skillshare via my referral link which gets you 1 month of Skillshare Premium for free.
You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along.
Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app

An intertwined creative challenge: make a more ambitious game than I've made before, make it work as a business, and succeed in marketing it well. In this Polytechnicast I focus on the marketing part of that challenge and what I've learned these past few months publishing a video every single day. Especially the adapting from being stressed about aspects of it to finding framings and habits to make it sustainable, meaningful, and still figuring out the effective part.

Related Links and Resources

Rob Stenzinger on TikTok
Get exclusive merch and private journal posts via my paywall art blog and merch store at Fourthwall
Word Turtle Island on Google Play
Word Turtle Island on Steam
Word Turtle Island on Itch (free demo available)
Ask Me Anything — Blog of an Interactive Storyteller
Sign up for my newsletter

Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support What I Make

Buy or wishlist Word Turtle Island on Steam.
Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, and UX design: Skillshare
Get the game Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Now with Lefty Flip in the full version and a free demo version with 9 levels. NOW ON STEAM
Join Skillshare via my referral link which gets you 1 month of Skillshare Premium for free.
You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along.
Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app

Not sure when exactly the marketing push should have started with Word Turtle Island but I do see it needs to be happening now. In this epsisode of the Polytechnicast I'm exploring the creative challenge I started to do daily video posts, while also doing more marketing, while also getting Word Turtle Island ready for it's next updates in June and hopefully 1.0 in July. Remember that time I thought it'd be ready soon a couple years ago? This estimate is more credible but also please be kind considering the source is an optimistic busy artist.

Related Links and Resources

Rob Stenzinger (@robstenzinger) on TikTok
Get exclusive merch and private journal posts via my paywall art blog and merch store at Fourthwall
Word Turtle Island on Google Play
Word Turtle Island on Steam
Word Turtle Island on Itch (free demo available)
Ask Me Anything — Blog of an Interactive Storyteller
Sign up for my newsletter

Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support What I Make

Buy or wishlist Word Turtle Island on Steam.
Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, and UX design: Skillshare
Get the game Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Now with Lefty Flip in the full version and a free demo version with 9 levels. NOW ON STEAM
Join Skillshare via my referral link which gets you 1 month of Skillshare Premium for free.
You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along.
Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app

Two main topics this episode. First it's what I've been learning so far with making small videos while exploring topics like teaching interactive design, show and tell about Word Turtle Island, and even video blogging inspired by the old Art Soundoff creative challenge. Second it's about reaching a point of saturation in learning by researching with people playing my game.

The bulk of this I recorded into my watch while running errands so the audio isn't great, but I've reviewed and edited and gotta say there's a lot of good ideas, examples, and encouragement here well worth your background co-working audio time.

Related Links and Resources

Get exclusive merch and private journal posts via my paywall art blog and merch store at Fourthwall
Word Turtle Island on Google Play
Word Turtle Island on Steam
Word Turtle Island on Itch (free demo available)
Ask Me Anything — Blog of an Interactive Storyteller
Sign up for my newsletter

Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support What I Make

Buy or wishlist Word Turtle Island on Steam.
Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, and UX design: Skillshare
Get the game Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Now with Lefty Flip in the full version and a free demo version with 9 levels. NOW ON STEAM
Join Skillshare via my referral link which gets you 1 month of Skillshare Premium for free.
You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along.
Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app

Last episode of the Polytechnicast I shared some projects I'd begun and was about do dive into. These are the spinning plates driving this episode. Did any fall? Are there more plates spinning?

Related Links and Resources

Fourthwall - Rob Stenzinger's Workshops + Creative Designs + Merch Store
Word Turtle Island - The Arcade Machine - Photos From Woodworking to Electronics to Finished Cabinet at Midwest Gaming Classic
Previous episode: Polytechnicast - Teaching Interactive Design and Word Turtle Island Arcade Machine
Teaching Interactive Design on TikTok
Word Turtle Island on Google Play
Word Turtle Island on Steam
Word Turtle Island on Itch (free demo available)
Ask Me Anything — Blog of an Interactive Storyteller
Sign up for my newsletter

Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support What I Make

Buy or wishlist Word Turtle Island on Steam.
Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, and UX design: Skillshare
Get the game Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Now with Lefty Flip in the full version and a free demo version with 9 levels. NOW ON STEAM
Join Skillshare via my referral link which gets you 1 month of Skillshare Premium for free.
You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along.
Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app

Sharing some work in progress and what led me to this point - getting back into teaching interactive design and how I've begun making a physical arcade machine for my game Word Turtle Island. In a nutshell I have a few months of ambitious work and this is my planning and thinking about it all.

Outline:

Starts with how I focused on making WTI for 2.5 years, summary of why and how that came about.
Learning from 6 months of further iteration, marketing, and being published as an early access game.
Big take away is: thankful for the time to learn enough to make enough to discover the strong version of WTI, wishing that space for other folks and projects.
Current situation:
- improving the instant visual/story/promise of WTI via
- feeling the urge to teach again
- feeling my overall social connections are too small of a bubble both online and in person
- inspired by projects like Springboard for the Arts' Rural Urban Solidarity
Then the ambitious plan: a combination of projects to grow my online and in person connections, teach interactive design with an advocacy focus, and increase sales of my games and teaching. In short: make games and teach interactive design. More specific:
- WTI Arcade Machine + Regional touring show/tell this game and teaching indie game creating
- Build WTI to full 1.0
- Teach interactive design for free on TikTok and soon also YouTube
- Publish new paid classes, starting with Paper Prototyping for Interactive Design

Know of any places and people to connect with who'd like a visit from me on my Word Turtle Island Indie Game Dev Tour? Send me a message!

Related Links and Resources

Jerzy's free workshops mentioned as inspiration but are currently happening - act fast since they're being offerred now until all sessions are taken
Teaching Interactive Design on TikTok
Word Turtle Island on Google Play
Word Turtle Island on Steam
Word Turtle Island on Itch (free demo available)
Ask Me Anything — Blog of an Interactive Storyteller
Sign up for my newsletter

Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support What I Make

Buy or wishlist Word Turtle Island on Steam.
Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, and UX design: Skillshare
Get the game Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Now with Lefty Flip in the full version and a free demo version with 9 levels. NOW ON STEAM
Join Skillshare via my referral link which gets you 1 month of Skillshare Premium for free.
You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along.
Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app

A question from someone who knows someone who met me at 2D Con. Every person's path is their own but it's also fun to learn how olther folks got to where they are.

Related Links and Resources

Word Turtle Island on Google Play
Word Turtle Island on Steam
Word Turtle Island on Itch (free demo available)
Ask Me Anything — Blog of an Interactive Storyteller
Sign up for my newsletter

Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support What I Make

Buy or wishlist Word Turtle Island on Steam.
Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, and UX design: Skillshare
Get the game Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Now with Lefty Flip in the full version and a free demo version with 9 levels. NOW ON STEAM
Join Skillshare via my referral link which gets you 1 month of Skillshare Premium for free.
You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along.
Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app

Earlier this summer I visited Columbus Ohio to visit my friends Anne and Jerzy Drozd. Part of the plan for our visit was to make some creative experiments together, one of them is this very recording with Jerzy.

For the first time I can think of both he and I are launching products at the same time. Both projects took years of development. Both we made solo. His project is the book The Inscrutable Doctor Baer and the Case of the Two-Faced Statue and mine is the action + cozy game Word Turtle Island.

In this episode, a special crossover of Thunder Punch Daily + Polytechnicast, Jerzy and I navigate stories of why we made these projects and how we're facing the significant task of marketing to reach the people we know will enjoy what we made. It's a lot like an episode of the Lean Into Art cast which was special to revisit for me, hope it will be for you too.

Related Links and Resources

The Inscrutable Doctor Baer and the Case of the Two-Faced Statue - pre-order Jerzy's new book about a bear who catalogs and keeps safe powerful magic items, one day a wizard steals the most powerful artifact, now this academic homebody has to embark on a dangerous adventure and team up with allies to set things right
Jerzy Drozd - Teaching Artist and Cartoonist
Word Turtle Island - Details Plus Official Trailer - action + cozy game where you both battle with words as weapons and recover after by tending bookshelves.
Word Turtle Island - Press Kit
Word Turtle Island - Google Play
Word Turtle Island - Steam
Word Turtle Island - Itch.io
Ask Me Anything — Blog of an Interactive Storyteller
Sign up for my newsletter

Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support What I Make

Wishlist Word Turtle Island on Steam.
Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, and UX design: Skillshare
Get the game Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Now with Lefty Flip in the full version and a free demo version with 9 levels.
Join Skillshare via my referral link which gets you 1 month of Skillshare Premium for free.
You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along.
Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app

A new ask me anything form. Some example topics to ask me about like why I made a game for 2.5 years without publishing a whole lot about it publicly. And most important - it's official that Word Turtle Island is going to be available publicly as an early access game on Steam and Google Play June 21, 2024!

Related Links and Resources

Word Turtle Island - Details Plus Official Trailer
Word Turtle Island - Press Kit
Word Turtle Island on Google Play
Word Turtle Island on Steam
Ask Me Anything — Blog of an Interactive Storyteller
Sign up for my newsletter

Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support What I Make

Wishlist Word Turtle Island on Steam.
Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, and UX design: Skillshare
Get the game Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Now with Lefty Flip in the full version and a free demo version with 9 levels.
Join Skillshare via my referral link which gets you 1 month of Skillshare Premium for free.
You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along.
Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app

Wort and Portia from Word Turtle Island

About 2.5 years. That's how long I've been working on Word Turtle Island to get it ready to publish as an early access game. It's about the right time to be getting the word out and to get myself into practice with showing up social. Practicing being more present even if it's chaotic and inconsistent. Such as this 20 some minute audio podcast. Hi.

Related Links and Resources

Tell The Damn Story, 305: How To Dive into Game Writing, And Make Words A Positive Weapon - YouTube
Word Turtle Island on Steam
Word Turtle Island — Blog of an Interactive Storyteller
Sign up for my newsletter

Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support What I Make

Wishlist Word Turtle Island on Steam.
Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, and UX design: Skillshare
Get the game Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Now with Lefty Flip in the full version and a free demo version with 9 levels.
Join Skillshare via my referral link which gets you 1 month of Skillshare Premium for free.
You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along.
Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app

This is Spell, the magical cat who hosts a save place to practice spelling words.

In the middle of working on my next big game Word Turtle Island, where you use words as weapons to battle creatures taking away the books of power, the idea for Spell's Spelling came to me. In this episode of the Polytechnicast I reflect on how this came about and how sometimes a project that takes time away from another project can be worthwhile.

Related Links and Resources

Spell's Spelling Practice
Interactive Storyteller blog
Sign up for my newsletter

Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support the Polytechnicast

Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, and UX design: Skillshare
Get the game Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Now with Lefty Flip in the full version and a free demo version with 9 levels.
Join Skillshare via my referral link which gets you 1 month of Skillshare Premium for free.
You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along.
Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app

In the overlapping circles of feasible, viable, desirable, what is the emphasis and culture practiced?

I received a question via my Mastodon account about minimum lovable product vs minimum viable product.

@Nycteris@mastodon.art: "So @robstenzinger I was just reading about “minimum Lovable product” vs “minimum Viable product” because you want to have enough features to maximize love of a core group of users - do you think this is a real strategy?"

Related Links and Resources

Audiences and Principles to Help Create Meaningful Products Instead of Bolt-On-UX — Blog of an Interactive Storyteller
More posts and extras like coaching sessions at my Buy Me a Coffee page (coaching sessions are all sold out again, stay tuned)
Interactive Storyteller blog
Sign up for my newsletter

Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support the Polytechnicast

Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, and UX design: Skillshare
Get the game Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Now with Lefty Flip in the full version and a free demo version with 9 levels.
Join Skillshare via my referral link which gets you 1 month of Skillshare Premium for free.
You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along.
Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app

W-O-R-D up.

Reflecting on game development and how it feels affirming in a way that other video game projects meet delays. I thought I'd have Word Turtle Island ready for first or even early access by now yet I also feel good about how it's coming along.

Related Links and Resources

Why are so many video games delayed and cancelled? - Verdict
Why Video Games Are Delayed So Often
More posts and extras like coaching sessions at my Buy Me a Coffee page (coaching sessions are all sold out again, stay tuned)
Interactive Storyteller blog
Sign up for my newsletter

Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support the Polytechnicast

Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, and UX design: Skillshare
Get the game Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Now with Lefty Flip in the full version and a free demo version with 9 levels.
Join Skillshare via my referral link which gets you 1 month of Skillshare Premium for free.
You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along.
Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app

Prototype cards for my creative warm up cards game Doodle Creatures Have Needs.

An update about Word Turtle Island and a few other projects I tried to finish this month.

Related Links and Resources

More posts and extras like coaching sessions at my Buy Me a Coffee page (coaching sessions are all sold out at the moment)
Interactive Storyteller blog
Sign up for my newsletter

Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support the Polytechnicast

Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, and UX design: Skillshare
Get the game Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Now with Lefty Flip in the full version and a free demo version with 9 levels.
Join Skillshare via my referral link which gets you 1 month of Skillshare Premium for free.
You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along.
Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app

In this episode I ask why I've posted so few things in 2022. It's a bit about what I'm currently working on and it's also something I've been trying to figure out for years.

Related Links and Resources

More posts and extras like coaching sessions at my Buy Me a Coffee page
Interactive Storyteller blog
Sign up for my newsletter

Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support the Polytechnicast

Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, and UX design: Skillshare
Get the game Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Now with Lefty Flip in the full version and a free demo version with 9 levels.
Join Skillshare via my referral link which gets you 1 month of Skillshare Premium for free.
You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along.
[Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app](

Whether the work that you take on is building on skillful work in the past or not, things got to the way they are for some reason. Now you're here. In this journal I share reasons to find others past work as useful research and signals to help instead of joining a narrative that it has little to no value. Even if that past work wasn't well done, it holds clues and questions to dig into.

Related Links and Resources

Day One - a journal app
Interactive Storyteller blog
Sign up for my newsletter

Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support the Polytechnicast

Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, and UX design:
- Listening Like a Coach (Video Workshop and PDF Materials), add to your leadership and collaboration skills. Get it on Gumroad or Skillshare
- Drawing User Journey Maps, make meaningful products with visual collaboration and narrative that combines many perspectives. Get it on Gumroad or Skillshare
- Customizing Your Next Creative Challenge, find your fun and useful approach to your own creative challenge or a public one, whether you draw, code, write, create a recipe that works for you. Get it on Gumroad or Skillshare
Get the game Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Now with Lefty Flip in the full version and a free demo version with 9 levels.
Join Skillshare via my referral link which gets you 1 month of Skillshare Premium for free.
You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along.
[Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app](

Have you been part of an organization that seems to repeat projects that don't learn much from one another? It's a thing I've wondered: why do companies forget? This episode of the Polytechnicast I journal about group memory and wonder if it would be helpful to remember what different teams have tried and learned in the past. Is it because we resist repeating other peoples stories?

Related Links and Resources

Customizing Your Next Creative Challenge, join the class at Skillshare or download your own copy at my workshop store.
Interactive Storyteller blog
Sign up for my newsletter, be in the know of what I'm making and learning about.

Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support the Polytechnicast

Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, design:
- Listening Like a Coach (Video Workshop and PDF Materials), add to your leadership and collaboration skills. Get it on Gumroad or Skillshare
- Drawing User Journey Maps, make meaningful products with visual collaboration and narrative that combines many perspectives. Get it on Gumroad or Skillshare
- Customizing Your Next Creative Challenge, find your fun and useful approach to your own creative challenge or a public one, whether you draw, code, write, create a recipe that works for you. Get it on Gumroad or Skillshare
Get the game Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Now with Lefty Flip in the full version and a free demo version with 9 levels.
Join Skillshare via my referral link which gets you 1 month of Skillshare Premium for free.
You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along.
Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app

Any path that brings you to journaling about your art, here I share some context around planning what you'd want to get out of your journaling plus choosing and creating prompts that are a good fit for what you want.

Related Links and Resources

Art Soundoff
Customizing Your Next Creative Challenge, join the class at Skillshare or download your own copy at my workshop store.
Interactive Storyteller blog
Sign up for my newsletter, be in the know of what I'm making and learning about.

Rob's Products and Ways to Support the Polytechnicast

Get Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar.
- Available on iOS, Android, Windows 10, and MacOS!
- Features 4 or 5 string bass, 6 or 7 string guitar, multiple play modes, difficulty levels, and more.
You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along.
Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app

Something I'm grateful for is to be on a learning adventure together with folks I've worked with. At times I get questions from folks who listen to the show and folks I've been on teams with in the past. I'm going to include all this in a category of listener questions and make a few Polytechnicasts based on these questions.

In this episode I get a question from a colleague who is wondering about practicing communication skills coming from a product team and engineering perspective. How could this help with understanding and communicating your own philosophy and values in a collaboration?

Related Links and Resources * Interactive Storyteller blog * Sign up for my newsletter, be in the know of what I'm making and learning about.

Rob's Products and Ways to Support the Polytechnicast * Get Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. + Available on iOS, Android, Windows 10, and MacOS! + Features 4 or 5 string bass, 6 or 7 string guitar, multiple play modes, difficulty levels, and more. * Creative design coaching services, workshops, and ebooks for ux design, creative coding, creative challenges, goals, and storytelling in Rob's store + Drawing User Journey Maps to Gather Ideas and Collaborate + Customizing Your Next Creative Challenge * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

The emotional work of discovering, including, representing, and collaborating in design is what I explore in this think aloud journal. This recording didn't start as a Polytechnicast or even an exploration about UX Mindset but that's where I found myself going.

Since the beginning of 2021 I've been blogging every day on my Interactive Storyteller blog. I hope you'll join me there too as I talk about illustrating, making games, and UX design. It's very much the prose form of the Polytechnicast.

Related Links and Resources * Interactive Storyteller blog * Introduction to the UX Mindset Series * Polytechnicast - UX Mindset - Creative Roadblocks Then a Book Outline #artsoundoff — Blog of an Interactive Storyteller

Rob's Products and Ways to Support the Polytechnicast * Get Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. + Available on iOS, Android, Windows 10, and MacOS! + Features 4 or 5 string bass, 6 or 7 string guitar, multiple play modes, difficulty levels, and more. * Creative design coaching services, workshops, and ebooks for ux design, creative coding, creative challenges, goals, and storytelling in Rob's store + Drawing User Journey Maps to Gather Ideas and Collaborate + Customizing Your Next Creative Challenge * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

Here I explore some of the reasonable and unreasonable goals I had for this month of journaling and developing the UX Mindset series. Practicing this kind of thing helps you meet your own creative process quirks and explore ways to change and work around those quirks. I recorded so many more rough draft journals than I posted, at least 2:1 if not 3:1. It helped me explore the big topic and discover a concept for a UX Mindset book.

We'll see where the UX Mindset series goes from here. Probably be back on the Polytechnicast, certainly will be in upcoming workshops, and a good chance I'll persue developing a book.

Related Links and Resources * Introduction to the UX Mindset Series * UX Mindset for Business * UX Mindset for Software Engineering * UX Mindset for Designers * UX Mindset for Artists * UX Mindset - Lists * UX Mindset - Listening * UX Mindset - Groups of People Interconnected * UX Mindset - Mental Model You're Working Toward * UX Mindset - Misunderstanding and Misuse of UX's Power * UX Mindset - Active Learning Is Certain-enough Instead of Overconfident * Creative challenge I'm taking part in and co-founded with Jerzy Drozd: Art Soundoff — Lean Into Art

Rob's Products and Ways to Support the Polytechnicast * Get Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. + Available on iOS, Android, Windows 10, and MacOS! + Features 4 or 5 string bass, 6 or 7 string guitar, multiple play modes, difficulty levels, and more. * Creative design coaching services, workshops, and ebooks for ux design, creative coding, creative challenges, goals, and storytelling in Rob's store + Drawing User Journey Maps to Gather Ideas and Collaborate + Customizing Your Next Creative Challenge * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

Actively learning is a lot like using applied research. It's a very useful place to work from, you can be confident enough to proceed making things yet not too confident to prevent learning as you go.

We setup teams and organizations to sink or swim based on too much certainty. We're certain often from a combination of ego and efficiency seeking without adapting until expensive mistakes happen. What if we practice being confident enough and setup teams to actively learn instead?

And the UX Mindset series continues!

Related Links and Resources * Introduction to the UX Mindset Series * UX Mindset for Business * UX Mindset for Software Engineering * UX Mindset for Designers * UX Mindset for Artists * UX Mindset - Lists * UX Mindset - Listening * UX Mindset - Groups of People Interconnected * UX Mindset - Mental Model You're Working Toward * UX Mindset - Misunderstanding and Misuse of UX's Power * Creative challenge I'm taking part in and co-founded with Jerzy Drozd: Art Soundoff — Lean Into Art

Rob's Products and Ways to Support the Polytechnicast * Get Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. + Available on iOS, Android, Windows 10, and MacOS! + Features 4 or 5 string bass, 6 or 7 string guitar, multiple play modes, difficulty levels, and more. * Creative design coaching services, workshops, and ebooks for ux design, creative coding, creative challenges, goals, and storytelling in Rob's store + Drawing User Journey Maps to Gather Ideas and Collaborate + Customizing Your Next Creative Challenge * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

Where does UX go wrong? Whether a system is broken at the surface or takes deeper understanding to see how it's not serving the health of its audience along with it's other constituencies: UX can be used to help fix or to make things worse. How can that be? Organizations have a lot to do to just exist and maintain exsistence. Some are not questioning things they could question to fix what's broken. Let's pay attention, be curious, inclusive and move what we make toward collective health.

And the UX Mindset series continues!

Related Links and Resources * Introduction to the UX Mindset Series * UX Mindset for Business * UX Mindset for Software Engineering * UX Mindset for Designers * UX Mindset for Artists * UX Mindset - Lists * UX Mindset - Listening * UX Mindset - Groups of People Interconnected * UX Mindset - Mental Model You're Working Toward * Creative challenge I'm taking part in and co-founded with Jerzy Drozd: Art Soundoff — Lean Into Art

Rob's Products and Ways to Support the Polytechnicast * Get Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. + Available on iOS, Android, Windows 10, and MacOS! + Features 4 or 5 string bass, 6 or 7 string guitar, multiple play modes, difficulty levels, and more. * Creative design coaching services, workshops, and ebooks for ux design, creative coding, creative challenges, goals, and storytelling in Rob's store + Drawing User Journey Maps to Gather Ideas and Collaborate + Customizing Your Next Creative Challenge * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

It's useful to have even a rough concept of what you're working toward, things you know are important or likely to encounter, or at least are worth checking to see if they'd be helpful. For example, a mental model like a creative progression going from rough concept to refined to complete. You can have a UX Mindset informed mental model of getting your work done so that you are working toward including your audience.

And the UX Mindset series continues!

Related Links and Resources * Introduction to the UX Mindset Series * UX Mindset for Business * UX Mindset for Software Engineering * UX Mindset for Designers * UX Mindset for Artists * UX Mindset - Lists * UX Mindset - Listening * UX Mindset - Groups of People Interconnected * A Whack on the Side of the Head by Roger von Oech | Grand Central Publishing * Creative challenge I'm taking part in and co-founded with Jerzy Drozd: Art Soundoff — Lean Into Art

Rob's Products and Ways to Support the Polytechnicast * Get Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. + Available on iOS, Android, Windows 10, and MacOS! + Features 4 or 5 string bass, 6 or 7 string guitar, multiple play modes, difficulty levels, and more. * Creative design coaching services, workshops, and ebooks for ux design, creative coding, creative challenges, goals, and storytelling in Rob's store + Drawing User Journey Maps to Gather Ideas and Collaborate + Customizing Your Next Creative Challenge * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

Any product we make connects a variety of groups of people. UX Constituencies are groups of people I find relate to most any project/product/system/endeavor: your audience, your team, your organization, the world, and you. Here I explore why considering each of those groups helps you make more meaningful things whether you're a UX expert or any person with a UX Mindset.

And the UX Mindset series continues!

Related Links and Resources * Introduction to the UX Mindset Series * UX Mindset for Business * UX Mindset for Software Engineering * UX Mindset for Designers * UX Mindset for Artists * UX Mindset - Lists * UX Mindset - Listening * Creative challenge I'm taking part in and co-founded with Jerzy Drozd: Art Soundoff — Lean Into Art

Rob's Products and Ways to Support the Polytechnicast * Get Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. + Available on iOS, Android, Windows 10, and MacOS! + Features 4 or 5 string bass, 6 or 7 string guitar, multiple play modes, difficulty levels, and more. * Creative design coaching services, workshops, and ebooks for ux design, creative coding, creative challenges, goals, and storytelling in Rob's store + Drawing User Journey Maps to Gather Ideas and Collaborate + Customizing Your Next Creative Challenge * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

Listening is the most powerful thing you can do to understand. Here I share a few ways of listening that work individually or combined to meet the needs of you and your team in the moment.

And the UX Mindset series continues!

Related Links and Resources * Introduction to the UX Mindset Series * UX Mindset for Business * UX Mindset for Software Engineering * UX Mindset for Designers * UX Mindset for Artists * UX Mindset - Lists * Creative challenge I'm taking part in and co-founded with Jerzy Drozd: Art Soundoff — Lean Into Art

Rob's Products and Ways to Support the Polytechnicast * Get Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. + Available on iOS, Android, Windows 10, and MacOS! + Features 4 or 5 string bass, 6 or 7 string guitar, multiple play modes, difficulty levels, and more. * Creative design coaching services, workshops, and ebooks for ux design, creative coding, creative challenges, goals, and storytelling in Rob's store + Drawing User Journey Maps to Gather Ideas and Collaborate + Customizing Your Next Creative Challenge * [Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher](

Being open to including others is a big start to making something more meaningful. List making is one of the best tools you can use no matter if you identify as a ux designer or not.

This episode continues the UX Mindset series!

Related Links and Resources * Introduction to the UX Mindset Series * UX Mindset for Business * UX Mindset for Software Engineering * UX Mindset for Designers * UX Mindset for Artists * Art Soundoff — Lean Into Art

Rob's Products and Ways to Support the Polytechnicast * Get Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. + Available on iOS, Android, Windows 10, and MacOS! + Features 4 or 5 string bass, 6 or 7 string guitar, multiple play modes, difficulty levels, and more. * Creative design coaching services, workshops, and ebooks for ux design, creative coding, creative challenges, goals, and storytelling in Rob's store * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

Audiences learn about your work, then what's it like for them to learn more, to support your work. If you offer a variety of products how do they find the one they need in this moment? UX Mindset for artists has two distinct and useful concerns:

Making your work findable, purchasable, useful, and usable
Including the audience in the work itself

This episode continues the UX Mindset series!

Related Links and Resources * Introduction to the UX Mindset Series * UX Mindset for Business * UX Mindset for Software Engineering * UX Mindset for Designers * Art Soundoff — Lean Into Art

Rob's Products and Ways to Support the Polytechnicast * Get Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. + Available on iOS, Android, Windows 10, and MacOS! + Features 4 or 5 string bass, 6 or 7 string guitar, multiple play modes, difficulty levels, and more. * Creative design coaching services, workshops, and ebooks for ux design, creative coding, creative challenges, goals, and storytelling in Rob's store * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

Advocate for design in order to advocate for and include learning about our audiences. We designers practice many useful skills to help us and those we work with to make inclusive decisions that shape products and systems. Something that can get overlooked along the way: helping others see the value of this including of human context. It's useful to practice helping others learn from their audience and include human centeredness.

This episode continues the UX Mindset series!

Related Links and Resources * Introduction to the UX Mindset Series * UX Mindset for Business * UX Mindset for Software Engineering * Art Soundoff — Lean Into Art

Rob's Products and Ways to Support the Polytechnicast * Get Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. + Available on iOS, Android, Windows 10, and MacOS! + Features 4 or 5 string bass, 6 or 7 string guitar, multiple play modes, difficulty levels, and more. * Creative design coaching services, workshops, and ebooks for ux design, creative coding, creative challenges, goals, and storytelling in Rob's store * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

As someone who's worked both as a software engineer and ux designer I want to share the value adding human centered design tools for making engineering decisions.

This episode continues the UX Mindset series!

Related Links and Resources * Introduction to the UX Mindset Series * UX Mindset for Business * Art Soundoff — Lean Into Art

Rob's Products and Ways to Support the Polytechnicast * Get Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. + Available on iOS, Android, Windows 10, and MacOS! + Features 4 or 5 string bass, 6 or 7 string guitar, multiple play modes, difficulty levels, and more. * Creative design coaching services, workshops, and ebooks for ux design, creative coding, creative challenges, goals, and storytelling in Rob's store * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

Continuing the UX Mindset series, I share why I think it's so useful for anyone running, planning, or leading a business to see user experience design and human centered design tools as so worthwhile to include in decision making.

Related Links and Resources * Introduction to the UX Mindset Series

Rob's Products and Ways to Support the Polytechnicast * Get Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. + Available on iOS, Android, Windows 10, and MacOS! + Features 4 or 5 string bass, 6 or 7 string guitar, multiple play modes, difficulty levels, and more. * Creative design coaching services, workshops, and ebooks for ux design, creative coding, creative challenges, goals, and storytelling in Rob's store * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

Something I've been considerering for a number of years: how can I help spreat the tools of ux design far and wide. Human centered design + understanding systems and situations where the things we make connect with the audiences we serve are useful mechanisms for so many. Here I talk about how I started with "UX for all" then "Practicing UX" and am thinking how "UX Mindset" may be even more approachable as a way to choose to involve people and see situations differently to be able to make better things.

Related Links and Resources * Polytechnicast - Creative Challenge Worksheet - YouTube Video * Get Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. + Available on iOS, Android, Windows 10, and MacOS! + Features 4 or 5 string bass, 6 or 7 string guitar, multiple play modes, difficulty levels, and more. * Creative design coaching services, workshops, and ebooks for ux design, creative coding, creative challenges, goals, and storytelling in Rob's store * Support and follow Rob on Patreon for more news and special episodes of the Polytechnicast * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

Since I'm taking part in a creative challenge called Art Soundoff (http://artsoundoff.com), I decided to use the workbook from my Customizing Your Next Creative Challenge workshop. Customizing Your Next Creative Challenge is available on Gumroad and Skillshare.

Related Links and Resources * Polytechnicast - Creative Challenge Worksheet - YouTube Video * Download your own PDF of the workbook to explore and plan your next creative challenge * The workbook I filled out * Get Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. + Available on iOS, Android, Windows 10, and MacOS! + Features 4 or 5 string bass, 6 or 7 string guitar, multiple play modes, difficulty levels, and more. * Creative design coaching services, workshops, and ebooks for ux design, creative coding, creative challenges, goals, and storytelling in Rob's store * Support and follow Rob on Patreon for more news and special episodes of the Polytechnicast * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

Guitar Fretter is 10 years old and I still have more ideas to add and refine. Some of those ideas I'm putting into a new game, some I'm putting into the classic version of Guitar Fretter. Recently I thought I'd make a quick art update and I expected to be ready to publish in about 4 days. Did things get out of hand where it took 4 weeks instead? Analyzing the list of what to improve and testing along the way, it felt it best to make more improvements. This episode of the Polytechnicast journals my thought process and highlights what happened as I worked on the latest udpate. Also: a brief overview of what is Guitar Fretter.

Related Links and Resources * Get Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. + Available on iOS, Android, Windows 10, and MacOS! + Features 4 or 5 string bass, 6 or 7 string guitar, multiple play modes, difficulty levels, and more. * Creative design coaching services, workshops, and ebooks for ux design, creative coding, creative challenges, goals, and storytelling in Rob's store * Support and follow Rob on Patreon for more news and special episodes of the Polytechnicast * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

In this Polytechnicast I consider how I've found MVP useful. Also how MVP and any highly celebrated business and design concept will go through a cycle where the name for the concept draws more and more negative takes.

And I share the news that I'm launching a Patreon of news and special episodes of the Polytechnicast and more!

Related Links and Resources * Support and follow Rob on Patreon for more news and special episodes of the Polytechnicast and more * Get workshops ebooks for ux design, creative coding, creative challenges, goals, and storytelling in Rob's Gumroad store * For Skillshare subscribers or those new to Skillshare who'd like to sign up for 2 free months + get the Drawing User Journey Maps class * Rob Stenzinger - Maker, teacher, and coach for user experience design, games, and collaboration * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

I wrote this article called Being There When a Team is Starting Their First Design Journey, my first Medium article. So many organizations in the recent 10+ years have asked: what if we explore if we should build something for our audience instead of just can we build something. They may not have intended to ask that question at the start, but they're asking this when they invite human centered design. Like I shared in the article "Even though UX design is becoming more common, the tools and skills of UX are not yet everywhere". Great opportunity for human centered designers to contribute.

In this Polytechnicast I share a summary of the article and explore some additional thoughts surrounding. It would be faster to read the article but then you'd miss out on all this extra commentary.

Related Links and Resources * Being There When a Team is Starting Their First Design Journey * Online store for Rob Stenzinger: workshops ebooks for ux design, creative coding, creative challenges, goals, and storytelling * For Skillshare subscribers or those new to Skillshare who'd like to sign up for 2 free months + get the Drawing User Journey Maps class * Rob Stenzinger - Maker, teacher, and coach for user experience design, games, and collaboration * Blog of an Interactive Storyteller * Art Soundoff * Lean Into Art * Art and Science Punks * Guitar Fretter - mobile and deskop game to play and learn the note positions on a guitar fretboard * Coaching for people navigating creative professional decisions, collaboration, and product makers and leaders * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

Today I annotated 11 double sided physical pages of goals and what happened next is I left them at a bagel place.

Related Links and Resources * Online store for Rob Stenzinger: workshops ebooks for ux design, creative coding, creative challenges, goals, and storytelling * For Skillshare subscribers or those new to Skillshare who'd like to sign up for 2 free months + get the Drawing User Journey Maps class * Rob Stenzinger - Maker, teacher, and coach for user experience design, games, and collaboration * Blog of an Interactive Storyteller * Art Soundoff * Lean Into Art * Art and Science Punks * Guitar Fretter - mobile and deskop game to play and learn the note positions on a guitar fretboard * Coaching for people navigating creative professional decisions, collaboration, and product makers and leaders * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

As a guest instructor I recently taught a class about making use of visual storytelling to serve the product design process in a variety of ways - especially through sketching the stories and visuals as quick doodles.

Related Links and Resources * Guitar Fretter - a game that makes an arcade memory match out of memorizing the notes on a fret board is on SALE for a limited time on all platforms it's on * This Panda Needs You - a relaxing block stacking pattern matching game is on SALE for a limited time on all platforms it's on * Drawing User Journey Maps to Design User Experiences, Gather Ideas, and Collaborate - on SALE through DECEMBER 2019 * For Skillshare subscribers or those new to Skillshare who'd like to sign up for 2 free months + get the Drawing User Journey Maps class * Rob Stenzinger - Maker, teacher, and coach for user experience design, games, and collaboration * Blog of an Interactive Storyteller * Art Soundoff * Lean Into Art * Art and Science Punks * Guitar Fretter - mobile and deskop game to play and learn the note positions on a guitar fretboard * Coaching for people navigating creative professional decisions, collaboration, and product makers and leaders * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

As part of the Art Soundoff creative challenge, I explore this journal prompt "Outlets". I consider how guitar, drawing, and playing games appeal to me in some contexts as a way to wind down or decompress.

Related Links and Resources * Guitar Fretter - a game that makes an arcade memory match out of memorizing the notes on a fret board is on SALE for a limited time on all platforms it's on * This Panda Needs You - a relaxing block stacking pattern matching game is on SALE for a limited time on all platforms it's on * Drawing User Journey Maps to Design User Experiences, Gather Ideas, and Collaborate - on SALE through DECEMBER 2019 * For Skillshare subscribers or those new to Skillshare who'd like to sign up for 2 free months + get the Drawing User Journey Maps class * Rob Stenzinger - Maker, teacher, and coach for user experience design, games, and collaboration * Blog of an Interactive Storyteller * Art Soundoff * Lean Into Art * Art and Science Punks * Guitar Fretter - mobile and deskop game to play and learn the note positions on a guitar fretboard * Coaching for people navigating creative professional decisions, collaboration, and product makers and leaders * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

As part of the Art Soundoff creative challenge, I explore this journal prompt "3 things about your art". Fantasy art, comics storytelling is something I found later than sooner, and sketching are all building blocks for my work.

Related Links and Resources

[Guitar Fretter - a game that makes an arcade memory match out of memorizing the notes on a fret board is on SALE for a limited time on all platforms it's on: http://guitarfretter.com
[This Panda Needs You - a relaxing block stacking pattern matching game is on SALE for a limited time on all platforms it's on: http://this-panda.com
[Drawing User Journey Maps to Design User Experiences, Gather Ideas, and Collaborate - on SALE through DECEMBER 2019: https://gum.co/dujm/artsoundoff
[For Skillshare subscribers or those new to Skillshare who'd like to sign up for 2 free months + get the Drawing User Journey Maps class: https://skl.sh/2HomR45
Rob Stenzinger - Maker, teacher, and coach for user experience design, games, and collaboration: http://robstenzinger.com
Blog of an Interactive Storyteller: https://interactive-storyteller.com
Art Soundoff: http://artsoundoff.com
Lean Into Art: http://leanintoart.com
Art and Science Punks: http://artsciencepunks.fireside.fm
Guitar Fretter - mobile and deskop game to play and learn the note positions on a guitar fretboard: http://guitarfretter.com
Coaching for people navigating creative professional decisions, collaboration, and product makers and leaders: http://robcoach.me
Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher: http://feeds.feedburner.com/ArtGeekZooPolytechnicast

Sharing your time to listen, learn, and help connect others to the community you've been part of is a worthwhile endeavor. In this episode of the Polytechnicast I reflect on some recent volunteering I'm doing to support those studying systemic minded human centered design.

Related Links and Resources * Guitar Fretter - a game that makes an arcade memory match out of memorizing the notes on a fret board is on SALE for a limited time on all platforms it's on * This Panda Needs You - a relaxing block stacking pattern matching game is on SALE for a limited time on all platforms it's on * Drawing User Journey Maps to Design User Experiences, Gather Ideas, and Collaborate - on SALE through DECEMBER 2019 * For Skillshare subscribers or those new to Skillshare who'd like to sign up for 2 free months + get the Drawing User Journey Maps class * Rob Stenzinger - Maker, teacher, and coach for user experience design, games, and collaboration * Blog of an Interactive Storyteller * Art Soundoff * Lean Into Art * Art and Science Punks * Guitar Fretter - mobile and deskop game to play and learn the note positions on a guitar fretboard * Coaching for people navigating creative professional decisions, collaboration, and product makers and leaders * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

Considering how I related to perfectionism in my creative projects making video games about 15 years ago. This influenced things I explored in UX design and in making comics and carry with me to this day.

Related Links and Resources * Guitar Fretter - a game that makes an arcade memory match out of memorizing the notes on a fret board is on SALE for a limited time on all platforms it's on * This Panda Needs You - a relaxing block stacking pattern matching game is on SALE for a limited time on all platforms it's on * Drawing User Journey Maps to Design User Experiences, Gather Ideas, and Collaborate - on SALE through DECEMBER 2019 * For Skillshare subscribers or those new to Skillshare who'd like to sign up for 2 free months + get the Drawing User Journey Maps class * Rob Stenzinger - Maker, teacher, and coach for experience design, games, and collaboration * Blog of an Interactive Storyteller * Art Soundoff * Lean Into Art * Art and Science Punks * Guitar Fretter - mobile and deskop game to play and learn the note positions on a guitar fretboard * Coaching for people navigating creative professional decisions, collaboration, and product makers and leaders * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

What's sharable, useable, and useful to put in your portfolio? Your UX portfolio is an interesting challenge. Doing the work that leads to a credible conceptual foundation for a product or service doesn't always come with sharable artifacts to curate as a gallery in a portfolio. In any case, finding the story, the goals of your audience, and your goals is a place to consider your portfolio as a design problem.

Related Links and Resources * Drawing User Journey Maps to Design User Experiences, Gather Ideas, and Collaborate - on SALE through November 2019 * For Skillshare subscribers or those new to Skillshare who'd like to sign up for 2 free months + get the Drawing User Journey Maps class * Rob Stenzinger - Maker, teacher, and coach for experience design, games, and collaboration * Blog of an Interactive Storyteller * Art Soundoff * Lean Into Art * Art and Science Punks * Guitar Fretter - mobile and deskop game to play and learn the note positions on a guitar fretboard * Coaching for people navigating creative professional decisions, collaboration, and product makers and leaders * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

Thinking about some things I've found helpful for building a useful shared understanding through conversations with your audience, your organization, and your team.

Related Links and Resources * Mental Models - Rosenfeld Media * Drawing User Journey Maps to Design User Experiences, Gather Ideas, and Collaborate - on SALE through November 2019 * For Skillshare subscribers or those new to Skillshare who'd like to sign up for 2 free months + get the Drawing User Journey Maps class * Rob Stenzinger - Maker, teacher, and coach for experience design, games, and collaboration * Blog of an Interactive Storyteller * Art Soundoff * Lean Into Art * Art and Science Punks * Guitar Fretter - mobile and deskop game to play and learn the note positions on a guitar fretboard * Coaching for people navigating creative professional decisions, collaboration, and product makers and leaders * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

Thinking about creativity, the label of being a creative, and the relationship between service and expression as a designer.

Related Links and Resources * LIA Cast 294 - UX, Obviously — Lean Into Art * Drawing User Journey Maps to Design User Experiences, Gather Ideas, and Collaborate - on SALE through November 2019 * For Skillshare subscribers or those new to Skillshare who'd like to sign up for 2 free months + get the Drawing User Journey Maps class * Rob Stenzinger - Maker, teacher, and coach for experience design, games, and collaboration * Blog of an Interactive Storyteller * Art Soundoff * Lean Into Art * Art and Science Punks * Guitar Fretter - mobile and deskop game to play and learn the note positions on a guitar fretboard * Coaching for people navigating creative professional decisions, collaboration, and product makers and leaders * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

Even though there's a few more days to go in this year's Art Soundoff creative challenge, I'm looking at my experience of this year's challenge asking what went well and what could be better.

Related Links and Resources * Drawing User Journey Maps to Design User Experiences, Gather Ideas, and Collaborate - on SALE through November 2019 * For Skillshare subscribers or those new to Skillshare who'd like to sign up for 2 free months + get the Drawing User Journey Maps class * Rob Stenzinger - Maker, teacher, and coach for experience design, games, and collaboration * Blog of an Interactive Storyteller * Art Soundoff * Lean Into Art * Art and Science Punks * Guitar Fretter - mobile and deskop game to play and learn the note positions on a guitar fretboard * Coaching for people navigating creative professional decisions, collaboration, and product makers and leaders * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

This summer indie creator and publisher Jaques Nyemb shared and 8-episode fascinating thoughtful and fun micropodcast series called Slow Dooown. Each episode Jaques asks a question of the audience and in this episode of the Polytechnicast I share some replies and thoughts about collaborating, social presence, and being sustainably creative.

Related Links and Resources * Slow Dooown - art podcast by Jaques Nyemb * JΛCQUΞS IN A BOX (@jnyemb) / Twitter * Drawing User Journey Maps to Design User Experiences, Gather Ideas, and Collaborate - on SALE through November 2019 * For Skillshare subscribers or those new to Skillshare who'd like to sign up for 2 free months + get the Drawing User Journey Maps class * Rob Stenzinger - Maker, teacher, and coach for experience design, games, and collaboration * Blog of an Interactive Storyteller * Art Soundoff * Lean Into Art * Art and Science Punks * Guitar Fretter - mobile and deskop game to play and learn the note positions on a guitar fretboard * Coaching for people navigating creative professional decisions, collaboration, and product makers and leaders * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

While exploring the Art Soundoff journal prompt "what are you drawing?" I describe some of the drawings I'm working on now and how they are based on holiday gifts I created last year.

Related Links and Resources * Drawing User Journey Maps to Design User Experiences, Gather Ideas, and Collaborate - on SALE through November 2019 * For Skillshare subscribers or those new to Skillshare who'd like to sign up for 2 free months + get the Drawing User Journey Maps class * Rob Stenzinger - Maker, teacher, and coach for experience design, games, and collaboration * Blog of an Interactive Storyteller * Art Soundoff * Lean Into Art * Art and Science Punks * Guitar Fretter - mobile and deskop game to play and learn the note positions on a guitar fretboard * Coaching for people navigating creative professional decisions, collaboration, and product makers and leaders * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

While exploring the Art Soundoff journal prompt "what are you learning?" I share a few things I'm learning in both a business context and casual play context.

Related Links and Resources * Drawing User Journey Maps to Design User Experiences, Gather Ideas, and Collaborate - on SALE through November 2019 * For Skillshare subscribers or those new to Skillshare who'd like to sign up for 2 free months + get the Drawing User Journey Maps class * Rob Stenzinger - Maker, teacher, and coach for experience design, games, and collaboration * Blog of an Interactive Storyteller * Art Soundoff * Lean Into Art * Art and Science Punks * Guitar Fretter - mobile and deskop game to play and learn the note positions on a guitar fretboard * Coaching for people navigating creative professional decisions, collaboration, and product makers and leaders * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

In a recent conversation I shared with someone that I can identify with being introverted though in recent years consider myself an ambivert. As I've noticed in previous conversations, the term ambivert is not as well known.

Related Links and Resources * Drawing User Journey Maps to Design User Experiences, Gather Ideas, and Collaborate - on SALE through November 2019 * For Skillshare subscribers or those new to Skillshare who'd like to sign up for 2 free months + get the Drawing User Journey Maps class * Rob Stenzinger - Maker, teacher, and coach for experience design, games, and collaboration * Blog of an Interactive Storyteller * Art Soundoff * Lean Into Art * Art and Science Punks * Guitar Fretter - mobile and deskop game to play and learn the note positions on a guitar fretboard * Coaching for people navigating creative professional decisions, collaboration, and product makers and leaders * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

At the start of a project I've already gathered things that help me commit.

Related Links and Resources * Drawing User Journey Maps to Design User Experiences, Gather Ideas, and Collaborate - on SALE through November 2019 * For Skillshare subscribers or those new to Skillshare who'd like to sign up for 2 free months + get the Drawing User Journey Maps class * Rob Stenzinger - Maker, teacher, and coach for experience design, games, and collaboration * Blog of an Interactive Storyteller * Art Soundoff * Lean Into Art * Art and Science Punks * Guitar Fretter - mobile and deskop game to play and learn the note positions on a guitar fretboard * Coaching for people navigating creative professional decisions, collaboration, and product makers and leaders * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

I share a few options for my favorite tool and consider how I probably have a bunch of favorite things that help me with understanding, considering, and solving problems.

Related Links and Resources * Drawing User Journey Maps to Design User Experiences, Gather Ideas, and Collaborate - on SALE through November 2019 * For Skillshare subscribers or those new to Skillshare who'd like to sign up for 2 free months + get the Drawing User Journey Maps class * Rob Stenzinger - Maker, teacher, and coach for experience design, games, and collaboration * Blog of an Interactive Storyteller * Art Soundoff * Lean Into Art * Art and Science Punks * Guitar Fretter - mobile and deskop game to play and learn the note positions on a guitar fretboard * Coaching for people navigating creative professional decisions, collaboration, and product makers and leaders * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

I share an idea about making a game of exploring options and scenarios for combining different parts of a business to solve problems for the audience.

Related Links and Resources * Drawing User Journey Maps to Design User Experiences, Gather Ideas, and Collaborate - on SALE through November 2019 * For Skillshare subscribers or those new to Skillshare who'd like to sign up for 2 free months + get the Drawing User Journey Maps class * Rob Stenzinger - Maker, teacher, and coach for experience design, games, and collaboration * Blog of an Interactive Storyteller * Art Soundoff * Lean Into Art * Art and Science Punks * Guitar Fretter - mobile and deskop game to play and learn the note positions on a guitar fretboard * Coaching for people navigating creative professional decisions, collaboration, and product makers and leaders * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

Thinking about how I get moving again on creative projects feels related to how I got stuck in the first place.

Related Links and Resources * Drawing User Journey Maps to Design User Experiences, Gather Ideas, and Collaborate - on SALE through November 2019 * For Skillshare subscribers or those new to Skillshare who'd like to sign up for 2 free months + get the Drawing User Journey Maps class * Rob Stenzinger - Maker, teacher, and coach for experience design, games, and collaboration * Blog of an Interactive Storyteller * Art Soundoff * Lean Into Art * Art and Science Punks * Guitar Fretter - mobile and deskop game to play and learn the note positions on a guitar fretboard * Coaching for people navigating creative professional decisions, collaboration, and product makers and leaders * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

Continuing the UX for All series I talk about how the series is evolving beyond offering a starting point for UX tools. I describe four groups who each have goals that affect your UX design work: your audience, your organization, your team, and you. Then I describe some of the worthwhile conflict you can uncover through including all four and what might happen if you choose to avoid it.

Related Links and Resources * Drawing User Journey Maps to Design User Experiences, Gather Ideas, and Collaborate - on SALE through November 2019 * For Skillshare subscribers or those new to Skillshare who'd like to sign up for 2 free months + get the Drawing User Journey Maps class * Rob Stenzinger - Maker, teacher, and coach for experience design, games, and collaboration * Blog of an Interactive Storyteller * Art Soundoff * Lean Into Art * Art and Science Punks * Guitar Fretter - mobile and deskop game to play and learn the note positions on a guitar fretboard * Coaching for people navigating creative professional decisions, collaboration, and product makers and leaders * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

Two mini-worksheets I made recently in collaboration with Kate Shields Stenzinger help simplify describing the goals and projects you're working on. We call them the Intentional Planner Tools.

The Goals and Actions planner is about reflection to help plan what's next combined with asking what you're big goals are for the next 5 years.

Then the project concept and project status mini-worksheets help you collect those things you're building and sharing with the world and make it easy to describe why they're important to your audience.

Both are available to download as PDFs.

Related Links and Resources * Download the Intentional Planner Tools * Drawing User Journey Maps to Design User Experiences, Gather Ideas, and Collaborate - on SALE through November 2019 * For Skillshare subscribers or those new to Skillshare who'd like to sign up for 2 free months + get the Drawing User Journey Maps class * Rob Stenzinger - Maker, teacher, and coach for experience design, games, and collaboration * Blog of an Interactive Storyteller * Art Soundoff * Lean Into Art * Art and Science Punks * Guitar Fretter - mobile and deskop game to play and learn the note positions on a guitar fretboard * Coaching for people navigating creative professional decisions, collaboration, and product makers and leaders * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

My approach and steps I take for making very yummy baked tofu you can add to so many kinds of dishes or eat as-is.

Related Links and Resources * Drawing User Journey Maps to Design User Experiences, Gather Ideas, and Collaborate - on SALE through November 2019 * For Skillshare subscribers or those new to Skillshare who'd like to sign up for 2 free months + get the Drawing User Journey Maps class * Rob Stenzinger - Maker, teacher, and coach for experience design, games, and collaboration * Blog of an Interactive Storyteller * Art Soundoff * Lean Into Art * Art and Science Punks * Guitar Fretter - mobile and deskop game to play and learn the note positions on a guitar fretboard * Coaching for people navigating creative professional decisions, collaboration, and product makers and leaders * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

Video games have been and continue to be an influential life long interest for me. In this Polytechnicast I talk about what I'm playing lately which includes some really old games.

Related Links and Resources * Bomberman '93 (TurboGrafx-16) Playthrough - NintendoComplete - YouTube * Devil's Crush (TurboGrafx-16) Playthrough - NintendoComplete - YouTube * Heroes - Overwatch * Drawing User Journey Maps to Design User Experiences, Gather Ideas, and Collaborate - on SALE through November 2019 * For Skillshare subscribers or those new to Skillshare who'd like to sign up for 2 free months + get the Drawing User Journey Maps class * Rob Stenzinger - Maker, teacher, and coach for experience design, games, and collaboration * Blog of an Interactive Storyteller * Art Soundoff * Lean Into Art * Art and Science Punks * Guitar Fretter - mobile and deskop game to play and learn the note positions on a guitar fretboard * Coaching for people navigating creative professional decisions, collaboration, and product makers and leaders * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

A few weeks back I noticed how I've developed a habit of moving past completing tasks big or small without celebrating and since then I've been talking with others about how they celebrate finishing things and doing some reflection on it all. In this Polytechnicast I share where I'm at so far with working on celebrating more.

Related Links and Resources * Tweet thread: How do you celebrate your accomplishments? * Jerzy and Rob team up with the hosts of the Tell the Damn Story podcast, Alex Simmons and Chris Ryan, for a two-part discussion on writing, art, and finding your way through this endeavor of creating for an audience: Lean Into the Damn Story Crossover Event Part 1 and Lean Into the Damn Story Crossover Event Part 2 * Drawing User Journey Maps to Design User Experiences, Gather Ideas, and Collaborate - on SALE through November 2019 * For Skillshare subscribers or those new to Skillshare who'd like to sign up for 2 free months + get the Drawing User Journey Maps class * Rob Stenzinger - Maker, teacher, and coach for experience design, games, and collaboration * Blog of an Interactive Storyteller * Art Soundoff * Lean Into Art * Art and Science Punks * Guitar Fretter - mobile and deskop game to play and learn the note positions on a guitar fretboard * Coaching for people navigating creative professional decisions, collaboration, and product makers and leaders * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

Continuing the UX for All series, I describe attibutes to build into a team so it serves the needs of who's funding it, the audience it's helping, and the people who comprise it.

Related Links and Resources * Drawing User Journey Maps to Design User Experiences, Gather Ideas, and Collaborate - on SALE through November 2019 * For Skillshare subscribers or those new to Skillshare who'd like to sign up for 2 free months + get the Drawing User Journey Maps class * Rob Stenzinger - Maker, teacher, and coach for experience design, games, and collaboration * Blog of an Interactive Storyteller * Art Soundoff * Lean Into Art * Art and Science Punks * Guitar Fretter - mobile and deskop game to play and learn the note positions on a guitar fretboard * Coaching for people navigating creative professional decisions, collaboration, and product makers and leaders * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

I finished a few spare time projects for Halloween this year: 8 props for me an my family's costumes. One project that caught my imagination and but didn't finish: my Halloween Tree.

Related Links and Resources * Halloween Projects Photo Gallery: Splatoon Inklings + Interactive Tree — Interactive Storyteller * Drawing User Journey Maps to Design User Experiences, Gather Ideas, and Collaborate - on SALE through November 2019 * For Skillshare subscribers or those new to Skillshare who'd like to sign up for 2 free months + get the Drawing User Journey Maps class * Blog of an Interactive Storyteller * Art Soundoff * Lean Into Art * Art and Science Punks * Guitar Fretter - mobile and deskop game to play and learn the note positions on a guitar fretboard * Coaching for people navigating creative professional decisions, collaboration, and product makers and leaders * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

Continuing the UX for All series, I combine a "why" and "don't have to know it all" set of prompts, considering how choosing to collaborate, investigate, and design is a very useful thing.

Related Links and Resources * Drawing User Journey Maps to Design User Experiences, Gather Ideas, and Collaborate - on SALE through November 2019 * For Skillshare subscribers or those new to Skillshare who'd like to sign up for 2 free months + get the Drawing User Journey Maps class * Blog of an Interactive Storyteller * Art Soundoff * Lean Into Art * Art and Science Punks * Guitar Fretter - mobile and deskop game to play and learn the note positions on a guitar fretboard * Coaching for people navigating creative professional decisions, collaboration, and product makers and leaders * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

Responding to "challenges" as a prompt, I share some brief thoughts on creative challenges and why I find them so useful.

Related Links and Resources * Customizing Your Next Creative Challenge - on SALE through November 2019 * Blog of an Interactive Storyteller * Art Soundoff * Lean Into Art * Art and Science Punks * Guitar Fretter - mobile and deskop game to play and learn the note positions on a guitar fretboard * Coaching for people navigating creative professional decisions, collaboration, and product makers and leaders * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

In this episode of the Polytechnicast I talk about my recent notebook and sketchbook review and what I found digging through a few years of books.

Related Links and Resources * Blog of an Interactive Storyteller * Art Soundoff * Lean Into Art * Art and Science Punks * Guitar Fretter - mobile and deskop game to play and learn the note positions on a guitar fretboard * Coaching for people navigating creative professional decisions, collaboration, and product makers and leaders * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

In this episode of the Polytechnicast I reflect on how I recently purchased a broken Psyduck and fixed it up. Working with electronics is relatively new to me so this was a fun puzzle.

Related Links and Resources * Photo gallery for this Psyduck repair * Big Fun Columbus * Art Soundoff * Lean Into Art * Art and Science Punks * Guitar Fretter - mobile and deskop game to play and learn the note positions on a guitar fretboard * Coaching for people navigating creative professional decisions, collaboration, and product makers and leaders * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

In this episode of the Polytechnicast I continue the UX for All series by re-introducing it, how I'm picking various topics about collaborative design + research and sharing what comes to mind. The main topic is considering a weather as a metaphor for good decision making.

Related Links and Resources * Art Soundoff * Guitar Fretter - mobile and deskop game to play and learn the note positions on a guitar fretboard * Coaching for people navigating creative professional decisions, collaboration, and product makers and leaders * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

The Polytechnicast is this ongoing journal and fairly infrequent most times of the year except for November. Kicking things off for Art Soundoff 2019 with journaling intentions for the month ahead and re-introducing both myself and this show.

Related Links and Resources * Art Soundoff * Coaching for people navigating creative professional decisions, collaboration, and product makers and leaders * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

Thinking about how as an artist I'm also excited and interested in the business side of work, how that's been one of the themes of my career so far. Also the three part business of make, teach, coach that I'm working on.

Related Links and Resources * Guitar Fretter * Drawing User Journey Maps via Skillshare * Drawing User Journey Maps via Gumroad (buy once) * Coaching product makers and leaders * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

A few things I encountered today had me thinking about specialization and how could I pay attention to some signals that help me with being both a generalist creator and deisgner and appreciating the clarity of specialization. Also: thinking about specialization how it works when it's based on you starting something vs. you serving an existing thing or organization.

Related Links and Resources * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

Guitar Fretter is a game about of memorizing the note positions on the guitar. If you play an instrument with strings and frets, you might want to check out. Match the notes on the floating monsters bellies with the correct fret positions to earn health and points.

To celebrate the birthday of Guitar Fretter for the next couple days, it's on sale for FREE, available on iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac: http://guitarfretter.com

Originally this was streamed live at: twitch.

Related Links and Resources * Art Geek Zoo Comics * Rob at Twitch * Guitar Fretter * Lean Into Art * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

Continuing the mini-summer-season of the Polytechnicast with some thoughts about making more things than I share even though I do like to share work in progress.

Related Links and Resources * Art Geek Zoo Comics - No Remorse Riverhorse In the Land of the Rabbits * Drawing User Journey Maps to Design User Experiences, Gather Ideas, and Collaborate (get 2 months of Skillshare free by signing up via this link) * ArtSoundoff * Follow all the Art Soundoff posts on Twitter * Lean Into Art * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

When we look at other artist's processes it's fun to consider the tools they use while knowing the tools only tell part of the story.

This episode begins a Summer-mini-season of the Polytechnicast!

Related Links and Resources * Impromptu® Full Whiteboard Screen, 42 x 72 | Safco Products * Jerzy Drozd (@jerzydrozd) • Instagram photos and videos * Kim Holm (@denungeherrholm) • Instagram photos and videos * Seeing and Drawing Happy Characters Like the Happiest Kitty In the Universe (FREE class on Skillshare just for having an account) * Drawing User Journey Maps to Design User Experiences, Gather Ideas, and Collaborate (get 2 months of Skillshare free by signing up via this link) * ArtSoundoff * Follow all the Art Soundoff posts on Twitter * Lean Into Art * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

This post is my look back at Art Soundoff 2018 in the style of what went well and what could have been better. Also, I consider a what-if about creative challenges becoming even more frequent and wider reaching with different topics and media. And I share thoughts on what might be next for the Polytechnicast.

Related Links and Resources * ArtSoundoff * Follow all the Art Soundoff posts on Twitter * Lean Into Art * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

Do you have a video game or set of video games you revisit from time to time because they feel comfortable? What keeps these sorts of games interesting and worth coming back to? In this audio experiment Polytechnicast I'm joined by co-host Patrick Greenwell, a long time video game enthusiast and we explore what games are like comfort food to us and why.

Related Links and Resources * Dead Cells * Rogue Legacy * Golden Axe on Sega Genesis * GI Joe on NES * Street Fighter II Arcade * Card Fighters Clash on the Neo Geo Pocket Color * ArtSoundoff * Follow all the Art Soundoff posts on Twitter * Lean Into Art * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

Here I explore a variety of things about working with data ranging from: exploring it, visualizing it, and things that inspire me to try to provide more ways of interacting with data. In a lot of ways, this is a post is a mix of ideas about being excited about learning from and then presenting what you learn through gathering, exploring, then presenting data.

Related Links and Resources * Explorable Explanations * Rob Stenzinger - Tools I Use * Social Science | Explorable Explanations * Project Jupyter | Home * petl - Extract, Transform and Load (Tables of Data) — petl 1.2.0 documentation * SQLite Home Page * RAW Graphs * RAW App * Snap.svg - Home * ArtSoundoff * Follow all the Art Soundoff posts on Twitter * Lean Into Art * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

For this year's Inktober, which is a 31 day creative challenge to make and share a drawing every day in October, I chose to both partake and to try to get output that could help one of my other projects.

Related Links and Resources * Rob Stenzinger on Instagram * JetPens Brush Pen Sampler 2 - JetPens.com * Inktober * Sketchbook Summer * ArtSoundoff * Follow all the Art Soundoff posts on Twitter * Lean Into Art * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

This time in the UX series I continue the topic of facilitating meetings, started a few posts ago in UX for All Part 5 - Why Care About Being a Facilitatator. Here are more thoughts on the principles and habits to consider how you can actively help a group of collaborators connect and clarify ideas.

Related Links and Resources * ArtSoundoff * Follow all the Art Soundoff posts on Twitter * Lean Into Art * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

As I started to make video games, I found a variety of things I learned even though I didn't finish those initial projects.

Related Links and Resources * ArtSoundoff * Follow all the Art Soundoff posts on Twitter * Lean Into Art * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

It's My Party was a project about making it easy to send and manage responses to invitations. Here I reflect on it as one of those things I've shelved but maybe not permanently.

Related Links and Resources * ArtSoundoff * Follow all the Art Soundoff posts on Twitter * Lean Into Art * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

In June 2018 I finished Two Pizza Team: In a Situation Called No Trash Talk, part one of my hypothesis that a game + comic will serve one another and an audience well.

Here I describe the work I've done so far for the video game Two Pizza Team, part two of the comic+game hypthesis.

Related Links and Resources * ArtSoundoff * Follow all the Art Soundoff posts on Twitter * Lean Into Art * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

Project Mountain Carver is a big project, incorporates all the things I do professionally, and has built into it ways to keep me encouraged during the long process of accomplishing multi-year-spanning goals.

Related Links and Resources * TiddlyWiki — a non-linear personal web notebook * ArtSoundoff * Follow all the Art Soundoff posts on Twitter * Lean Into Art * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

Here I share my approach to recording my thoughts in audio form as a step to creating other documents.

Related Links and Resources * VLC media player * Just Press Record * ArtSoundoff * Follow all the Art Soundoff posts on Twitter * Lean Into Art * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

Continuing the UX #artsoundoff series, here I talk about how so much of what your design work is about is getting decisions to happen and to get the system/product/thing made.

Related Links and Resources * ArtSoundoff * Follow all the Art Soundoff posts on Twitter * Lean Into Art * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

Being behind where I'd hoped to be with Art Soundoff is a good chance to think about strategies to keep working at the work instead of worrying about a number goal.

Related Links and Resources * ArtSoundoff * Follow all the Art Soundoff posts on Twitter * Lean Into Art * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

A number of people I follow on social media and on podcasts do a great job talking about and exploring why they choose tools they use to create. Becca Hillburn, Krishna Sadasivam, and Dave Seah come to mind immediately.

Here I wonder about the usefulness of experiment with talking about the gear I use.

Related Links and Resources * DICTOPRO V100 Wireless Bluetooth Keyboard * Dave Seah | Investigative Designer * SivamStudios: The Portal for Everything Krishna M. Sadasivam * Nattosoup Studio Art and Process Blog * Hackaday Superconference | Pasadena Nov 2-4 2018 * ArtSoundoff * Follow all the Art Soundoff posts on Twitter * Lean Into Art * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

DICTOPRO V100 Wireless Bluetooth Keyboard Universal for Portable Tablets, Smartphones, iOS, Windows, Android Multi-Device. Foldable, Ultra-Slim, Best Built-in Rechargeable Battery. Compact & Powerful

Continuing the UX #artsoundoff series, here I talk about things you can make based on data, storytelling, presenting information and helping others be able to relate and participate in the design process. These things (documents, artifacts, deliverables) are forms of documenting designs and what you learn to support the designs.

Related Links and Resources * ArtSoundoff * Follow all the Art Soundoff posts on Twitter * Lean Into Art * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

Wherein Kate asks me "what kinds of things do we do to support each other emotionally with creative projects?", we talk about getting and giving feedback, and creative accountability meanings.

Related Links and Resources * Art and Science Punks * Kate Shields Stenzinger (@kateshieldsstenzinger) • Instagram photos and videos * Lean Into Art * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

In this update in the UX series I talk about priming in how it affects your research to learn about what you're making or even can affect you-yourself via what you experience frequently.

Related Links and Resources * 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People (Voices That Matter) (8580001054513): Susan Weinschenk: Books * The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind - Kindle edition by Daniel J. Siegel, Tina Payne Bryson. * Availability heuristic - Wikipedia * List of cognitive biases - Wikipedia * ArtSoundoff * Follow all the Art Soundoff posts on Twitter * Lean Into Art * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind

100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People

In this episode of the Polytechnicast I talk about the talisman I carry in my pocket which is a metal stamped pair of words "compassion" and "completion".

Related Links and Resources * ArtSoundoff * Follow all the Art Soundoff posts on Twitter * Lean Into Art * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

In this update in the UX series I talk about how it's easy to want to jump to something complete in one big step yet it's less risky and likely faster to add a some steps.

Related Links and Resources * Human Centered Design Method Example - IDEO's Design Kit * ArtSoundoff * Follow all the Art Soundoff posts on Twitter * Lean Into Art * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

Continuing the UX series I talk about how UX design can both be a deeply involved job with advanced practitioners and also UX design can be useful when in the hands of someone learning on the job.

Related Links and Resources * Design Is a Job by Mike Monteiro * ArtSoundoff * Follow all the Art Soundoff posts on Twitter * Lean Into Art * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

This last weekend I had what I call a "creative marathon" on the Two Pizza Team project. I share an update with where the project is at, tool choices, and what things I'll be working on next.

Related Links and Resources * Unity * Creature Animation: Automated 2D Skeletal Animation Tool * ArtSoundoff * Follow all the Art Soundoff posts on Twitter * Lean Into Art * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

This time in the UX series I talk about how and why having principles and practices that help a group of people share and combine ideas is super important whether your project is just you and a client or you and a bunch of other collaborators.

Related Links and Resources * ArtSoundoff * Follow all the Art Soundoff posts on Twitter * Lean Into Art * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

Continuing the UX series, this time I talk about how and why the things you setup before people gather to work on something is important and useful to user centered design.

Related Links and Resources * ArtSoundoff * Follow all the Art Soundoff posts on Twitter * Lean Into Art * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

In this episode of the Polytechnicast I have Friend, Cartoonist and Teaching Artist Jerzy Drozd on to learn the story of what actually happened with an autographed birthday gift.

Related Links and Resources * - Jerzy Drozd - Cartoonist/Teaching Artist * ArtSoundoff * Follow all the Art Soundoff posts on Twitter * Lean Into Art * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

Wherein I continue my encouraging everyone to consider using UX related tools and skills. This time I describe how user experience design can take a variety of useful forms: goals, rationale, document, activity, story, hypothesis and most of all expressing ideas so others can participate.

Related Links and Resources * ArtSoundoff * Follow all the Art Soundoff posts on Twitter * Lean Into Art * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

Wherein I continue my encouraging everyone to consider using UX related tools and skills, this time I highlight user centered research.

Related Links and Resources * ArtSoundoff * Follow all the Art Soundoff posts on Twitter * Lean Into Art * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

If any discipline can be inclusive of people from all backgrounds it should be User Experience. Here I begin a series of posts about highlighting useful UX tools and skills. Also I invite anyone making something or part of a team that makes something for people to give the systemic human centered tools of UX a try.

Related Links and Resources * ArtSoundoff * Follow all the Art Soundoff posts on Twitter * Lean Into Art * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

Wherein I describe raw to fully cooked game engines and how I used my design constraints to choose a game engine for Two Pizza Team.

Related Links and Resources * ArtSoundoff * Follow all the Art Soundoff posts on Twitter * Lean Into Art * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

Here I talk about past game engines and tools I've used such as Director, HTML/Javascript, Flash, Corona SDK, Phaser that led me to be ready to choose a game engine for Two Pizza Team.

Related Links and Resources * ArtSoundoff * Follow all the Art Soundoff posts on Twitter * Lean Into Art * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

Wherein I continue some thoughts about kinds of video game side project commitments. Also I relate that to an interesting place I encountered that makes their own games, is also an arcade, and does games UX research at the very same venue.

Related Links and Resources * Twobitcircus * ArtSoundoff * Follow all the Art Soundoff posts on Twitter * Lean Into Art * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

Wherein I start one of my audio blogging categories for the month: making a videogame as a side project.

Related Links and Resources * ArtSoundoff * Follow all the Art Soundoff posts on Twitter * Lean Into Art * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

Wherein I introduce myself and share my hopes and fears for what I'd like to do with my posts for this year's Art Soundoff creative challenge.

Related Links and Resources * ArtSoundoff * Follow all the Art Soundoff posts on Twitter * Lean Into Art * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

Art Soundoff 2018 begins tomorrow, will you be joining in to listen, to capture your own art journal, or both?

Related Links and Resources * ArtSoundoff * Follow all the Art Soundoff posts on Twitter * Lean Into Art * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

In this episode of the Polytechnicast I have guest co-host Pete Stromquist with me to explore our approaches to keeping connected with our goals. In particular we dive into: how do we find ways to connect day to day and week to week with bigger goals? Also, how might we do this in a useful and not-too-intense way? And along the way we discuss physical tools and digital tools we use to help with goal tracking, journaling, and self-interviewing.

Related Links and Resources * The Emergent Task Planner | Dave Seah * Unraveling workbook by Susannah Conway (self-interview resource mentioned on the show) * The Upside of Stress: Why Stress Is Good for You, and How to Get Good at It: Kelly McGonigal: 9781101982938: Amazon.com: Books * Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life: Bill Burnett, Dave Evans: 9781101875322: Amazon.com: Books * Post-it Super Sticky Easel Pad, 25 x 30 Inches, 30 Sheets/Pad, 2 Pads, Large White Premium Self Stick Flip Chart Paper, Super Sticking Power (559) : Post It Easel Pad : Office Products * Polytechnicast - Art Soundoff 2017 Day 14 - Four Topic Experiments with Special Guest Pete Stromquist — Interactive Storyteller * Polytechnicast - Just In Time Optimizing with Special Guest Pete Stromquist — Interactive Storyteller * Attended the Observe, Collect, Draw Workshop — Interactive Storyteller * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life

The Upside of Stress: Why Stress Is Good for You, and How to Get Good at It

Post-it Super Sticky Easel Pad, 25 in x 30 in, White, 30 Sheets/Pad, 2 Pad/Pack, Great for Virtual Teachers and Students (559)

In this episode of the Polytechnicast I look back at Art Soundoff 2017, some things I learned, some things I want to celebrate, and express gratitude for those who took part and tuned in to all the art journaling.

Related Links and Resources * ArtSoundoff * Follow all the Art Soundoff posts on Twitter * Lean Into Art * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

In this episode of the Polytechnicast I consider Net Neutrality and how an open internet has been so important for my career, my art and learning.

Related Links and Resources * A Lump of Coal in the Internet’s Stocking: FCC Poised to Gut Net Neutrality Rules | Electronic Frontier Foundation * ArtSoundoff * Follow all the Art Soundoff posts on Twitter * Lean Into Art * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

In this episode of the Polytechnicast I explore the prompt "fitness", how has many areas of concern and how I'm inconsistent about it.

Related Links and Resources * ArtSoundoff * Follow all the Art Soundoff posts on Twitter * Lean Into Art * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

In this episode of the Polytechnicast I consider two ways framing expectations helped, one seemed fairly straight forward, the other less so.

Related Links and Resources * Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck | Goodreads * Kelly McGonigal: How to make stress your friend | TED Talk | TED.com * The Upside of Stress: Why Stress Is Good for You, and How to Get Good at It by Kelly McGonigal | Goodreads * ArtSoundoff * Follow all the Art Soundoff posts on Twitter * Lean Into Art * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

In this episode of the Polytechnicast I take note of an assumption I had about my Art Soundoff recordings this year.

Related Links and Resources * ArtSoundoff * Follow all the Art Soundoff posts on Twitter * Lean Into Art * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

In this episode of the Polytechnicast I share some of the things I try to do on a Sunday night to wrap up what I've been doing over the weekend and getting ready for the week ahead.

Related Links and Resources * ArtSoundoff * Follow all the Art Soundoff posts on Twitter * Lean Into Art * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

In this episode of the Polytechnicast I reflect on the prompt "What tool are you considering changing and why?".

Related Links and Resources * Unity - Game Engine * Phaser - A fast, fun and free open source HTML5 game framework * ArtSoundoff * Follow all the Art Soundoff posts on Twitter * Lean Into Art * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

In this episode of the Polytechnicast I reflect on "collaboration" as a prompt I mentioned in my initial post for Art Soundoff 2017.

Related Links and Resources * Agile Day Twin Cities | Agility over Agile * Tricia Broderick (@t_broderick) | Twitter * Alexandre Freire (@freire_da_silva) | Twitter * Collaborating More Like Columbo — Interactive Storyteller * ArtSoundoff * Follow all the Art Soundoff posts on Twitter * Lean Into Art * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

In this episode of the Polytechnicast I reflect on a response in my Twitter Mentions from Leonard Angelo: "I think that candid can be very helpful and worth the risk. You never know when someone might be able to keep going because someone else was willing to bare a little soul."

Related Links and Resources * Leonard Angelo (@langeloart) | Twitter * ArtSoundoff * Follow all the Art Soundoff posts on Twitter * Lean Into Art * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher

In this episode of the Polytechnicast I reflect on the journal prompt: "How is reflection on your art day affecting you? How do you feel about reflecting on your art day now as compared to the beginning?".

Related Links and Resources * ArtSoundoff * Follow all the Art Soundoff posts on Twitter * Lean Into Art * Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcatcher