Polytechnicast

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 Polytechnicast - Games I Didn't Finsih and Learned From Rob Stenzinger

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 Polytechnicast - Reflecting on an Old Party Invitation Project...

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 P...

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 y...

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 Polytechnicast - Drafting Text via Audio Rob Stenzinger

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 Polytechnicast - User Experience Design Overview (UX for All) Par...

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 Polytechnicast - Feeling Less Daunted by Deadlines Rob Stenzinger

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...

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 p...

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 Poly...

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 Chi...

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 Polytechnicast - Talisman in my Pocket Rob Stenzinger

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 Polytechnica...

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 Polytechnic...

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 yo...

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 podcatch...

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 Polytechnicast - User Experience Design Overview (UX for All) Part 4...

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 Polytechnicast - A...

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 t...

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 Polytechnicast - User Experience Design Overview (UX for All) Part 2 - Research Rob Stenzinger

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 Twitte...