INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN

learning tools
one-pagers
lunch-and-learns
workshops
books

THINKING

​brainstorming
productivity
​learning 
self-development

FITNESS

minimalist exercise
DIY exercise gear
​performance and longevity

HOCKEY

coaching
​skill development
skate and rink gear

PLAY

songs
stories
games
toys

CREATIVE

graphic design
writing
​product design
illustration
​photography

RECOMMENDED

other people's cool stuff
​useful links
​inspirations and influences

INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN

Designing Tools for Learning

I've spent 20 years building one pagers, workshops and other learning tools in my free time. What I couldn't figure out was why I was so interested in researching and making things in so many different and seemingly unrelated areas. It was like trying to hold ping pong balls under water. They just kept popping up!

I used to think I was a marketing graphic designer. Other people have told me I should have been a teacher. Neither seemed exactly right to me. On 8/15/18, I had a revelation about what tied all this personal work together. 

I'm think I might be an Instructional Designer. 

THINKING TOOLS

Think Inside the Box

My workshop and unique 4-step process based on the idea that defining and then redefining limits stimulates greater creativity. Do you want a canoe, or just to get across the river?

The Never-Fail, Magic Effects, 99+ Idea Grid

My never-fail tool that uses the nine type of magic tricks to generate 99+ ideas on your subject of choice. It's one tool I use to help facilitate group brainstorming, but I've never had a group actually need to finish one. They always surprise themselves and create WAY more ideas than they need.

Post-it note Diversity Exercise

This is a two-step exercise that quickly demonstrates that a group's thinking is more diverse than they thought, and that everyone's contribution is essential to that diversity. It's a great group warmup activity prior to a brainstorming session. 

GTD Advanced Workflow diagram

My visual summary of David Allen's Getting Things Done methodology, all on one page. I shared it with him, then he made it available for free on his site, and since then it has been translated into several languages by generous and enthusiastic GTD'ers around the world.

​Five Folders easy email system

I've taught my Five Folders email system to 600+ people. It requires no special software, and works equally well in Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo, and any others that let you make a folder. You'll finally have an empty in-box!

​My 45-minute lunch-and-learn presentations have ranged from small teams of 2-3, to large rooms of 100. Companies have included Nationwide Insurance, Abbott Nutrition, Lane Bryant, Owens Corning, PVS Chemicals, and the International Association of Administrative Professionals. 

Natural Learning

My set of 8 simple tools for powerful thinking, learning, writing, and presenting. It all started when I discovered  mindmapping and taught it to my kids as a way to write papers for school. Then I started teaching others. 

I have taught these techniques to kids individually, to an entire accelerated 6th grade class, to marketing departments as a way to collaboratively capture meeting notes, and to small adult learning groups within the companies I've worked. I promise you will surprise yourself if you unlock you or your kids abilities with these fun, natural, and effective tools. 

Principles Prism

I developed this as a tool to ensure all of the self-development areas of my life were getting regular focused attention. One main principle per week, paired with a different secondary principle every day. Effort + Growth, Effort + Empathy, Effort + Gratitude. Every week it's a new main principle, moving clockwise around the prism, and forming an 8-week cycle.

Your Life on One Page

Great little tool for perspective and self-reflection. The initial spark was a page I cut from a design magazine in 2003. I finally tried it in 2017 on a 3-hour plane ride. It worked so well I have to share it. 

FITNESS TOOLS

Zombie-Proof fitness

Get fit, don't get bit.

This is my strength-biased fitness program with five levels of seven fundamental movements. It's based on three ideas -- that stronger people live longer (true), that achievement levels are motivating to reach, and that pushups are more fun when you're preparing for the zombie apocalyse.
​
​Be Ready When It All Goes Down.

Post-apocalyptic exercise gear

After it all goes down, you'll have to be creative about exercise gear. Pipes, jugs, water, sand, tires, chains, and anything else that might be laying around. 

Tabata music mixes

A Tabata is a form of interval training named after a Japanese speedskating coach. One Tabata is 20 seconds of intensely hard work followed by 10 seconds of rest, repeated non-stop for 8 rounds. Work, rest, work, rest. It only takes 4 minutes, and it's a very efficient, effective, and (I think) fun exercise protocol. 

The trickiest part for me was watching the clock to know when to start and stop, so I built a couple of original music tracks that handle the timing for you. Beats a Gymboss timer hands down. 

Six-weeks, six fundamental movements

For several years I ran a six-week hockey preseason session for middle- and high-school players. It was a modification of my Zombie-Proof fitness program.

The goals:
  • giving players an introduction to safe and effective strength training methods 
  • increase reflexive strength to protect against injuries, especially in shoulders
  • avoid high-risk training methods (like plyometrics, or working players until they collapse from fatigue)
  • improve confidence by challenging the players with baseline standards and a final set of tests
  • improve team cohesion by sharing in challenges, achievements, and fun together

Fano Plane of Dan John's Fundamental Movements

Dan John is one of the Great Teachers. He's a strength coach, multiple record holder, Fulbright Scholar, and all-around fantastic human being. If you've ever done a kettlebell goblet squat, or carried a slosh pipe, or done a round of "get back ups", you have him to thank. 

I had the distinct pleasure of spending an evening with him at a discus camp. Over the course of a couple hours with him and two of his talented student coaches, I presented the Fano Plane as a possibility for a visual model that tied together Dan's thoughts on his six fundamental movements - push, pull, hinge, squat, carry, and groundwork. We worked out the details, and it seemed to hold together.

No model will ever be all-encompassing or perfect, but for simple, effective and balanced exercise programming, this one is still pretty good and useful. ​

Workout dice for Dan John's Fundamental Movements

Sometimes you just want to throw some variety into your workouts, but still cover all the bases. I made a set of dice to do that. 

Moehr Better Years

This is my set of seven proven tools that help you fill your fountain of youth -- Move, Play, Learn, Create, Share, Appreciate, and Rest -- so you can live better, longer.

It's my latest program, still in development. It was inspired as an alternative mindset to what I believe are incorrect and outdated ideas -- that aging is automatically a slow decline, and that youth is simply how you look. 

HOCKEY TOOLS

The Mo Hockey Method

I'm writing a book of many simple but powerful ideas and techniques centered around my hockey coaching philosophy "play hard, play fair, and play so everyone wants to play again next time".

Ice Ace hockey skill achievement program

​I came up with an Ice Ace award in 2009. It was for achieving certain milestones in hockey skill development. I was frustrated that figure skating had clear progressions (must complete X, Y, Z before you get your level 3 patch, etc.) that seemed missing in hockey. I came up with objective skill tests that seemed to benchmark progression levels. The idea was to motivate players to improve, but also to give coaches objective targets for development. 

Bleacher Bubbles

Keep yourself warm with the power of 10,000 magic bubbles!

​I invented these insulating cushions after freezing on the cold metal bleachers at a high school football game. I've sold hundreds at ice rinks with local team logos. They make great fundraisers, and I could teach you how to make and sell them too.

Then I realized they had a much more important humanitarian purpose. Maybe you could help me with that?

Scott's Skate Strap

I invented these with my daughter Megan on a winter trip to Ottawa, Canada. We went to skate on the largest ice rink in the world, the Rideau Canal. After skating the almost 8 kilometer length (and back again, twice), we came up with a cool way to carry our skates. 

Hockey jersey designs

I've played on a lot of hockey teams, and been lucky to design some of the jerseys.

PLAY

Trouble on the High Seas (2006)

In 2003, my son Tim and his best friend Ben started a high school band. Tim on drums, Ben on lead vocals and bass. I was ridiculously lucky and ended up being the guitarist and backing vocalist, mostly because they practiced in our basement and needed someone to fill in. Their friend Jacob joined up on mandolin, and The Fedoras were born. This is our first album, and is the songs we used to play at shows. Bass, guitar, drums, and mandolin - Pirate Punk!

The Tragedy of Admiral King (2008)

This is The Fedoras second album, an epic hour-long rock opera about pirates. We recorded it track-by-track over 2-1/2 years on a Mac laptop. It has 23 songs, 25 volunteer performers, includes a couple dozen different instruments, and it's available on iTunes and Spotify.

Hockeytime! song

This is my song about good sportsmanship and the thrill of playing the sport I love.

Tiny White Lights On My Christmas Tree

This is my song about holiday decorations, family trees, and passing on traditions.

"Bits of Truth" short story

This is my science fiction short story about an artificial intelligence that is trying to be more human, and what it discovers about the nature of memory and truth. ​

"Sunset on Inuksuk Ridge" short story

My mom asked me to read a book on the history of inuksuk, those striking Inuit stacks of rocks that are shaped like people and serve as directional markers. I learned that the name meant "that which acts in place of a human being", and I woke up the next day with this story in my head. ​

Kubb visual instructions

I created this one-pager to explain my favorite lawn game and to give to curious onlookers when my son Andrew and I were playing in local parks. It was then picked up by the Kubb US Nationals to help quickly explain the game, and it's the cause of weekly emails from around the world requesting plans to build my Viking longboat carrying case. 

Gluco-lander

This is a video game based on Lunar Lander that teaches the basic principles of blood sugar management. My son Andrew has Type 1 diabetes, and we thought this would be a fun way to help families understand how it works. We built it together in the MIT kid's programming software, Scratch. Five levels, and two mini-games too!

Gravwell custom game board

Gravwell is a great game. Corey Young is a great game designer. I thought both deserved a great game board. So I made one. 

Penny Hockey

When I was maybe 12, I was at a hockey tournament and saw a couple other kids playing this game. When I had my own kids, I designed a board for us. 

Imagiblocks wooden toy

For a product design class, my lab partner and I developed a wooden toy with a reversible base and seven pieces that fit together in all sorts of different ways. We made two copies, and each kept one. I regretfully don't remember his name, and have no idea if his copy even exists anymore. 

​After 30 years, I think it's time for me to make more of these. 

Safari

Fast, original card game using a normal deck of cards. Initial idea by me, and made playable and fun by my son Tim. Currently deciding if we want to do a custom deck.

White Elephant Unlimited

A fun (and free!) take on the classic gift exchange. Except this time, the sky's the limit!

CREATIVE

Graphic design

I have a degree in Visual Communication Design from The Ohio State University. I was fortunate to study under some exceptional instructors, and for every project I still use the fundamental lessons they taught me - attention to detail in hierarchy, legibility, reproducibility, and craft. 

Writing

I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember. I’ve since moved beyond crayons, and the walls were cleaned decades ago, but putting interesting words on flat surfaces has been a common theme my whole life. Advertising, product naming, teaching, processes, stories, songs...

Illustration

Because sometimes a pencil (or pen, paintbrush, pastel, paper, or even something that doesn't begin with "p") is still the best design tool. 

Photography

It started with a little camera as a Christmas present from my parents. Then it was high school classes with Jack Summers, where I got a 35mm Minolta and learned darkroom techniques. In college it was on to cell animation and classes on film and developing chemistry. Then applying all those lessons to the digital world as Photoshop appeared. Photography has been a joy in my life for over 40 years. 

About me

Hi, I'm Scott. I like to make cool stuff and share it with curious people.

Contact

Reach out if you have questions or just want to make some cool stuff with me! 
scott.moehring@gmail.com