The hotel refreshment-rooms were comfortable, and Mr. Fogg and Aouda, installing themselves at a table, were abundantly served on diminutive plates by negroes of darkest hue. After breakfast, Mr. Fogg, accompanied by Aouda, started for the English consulate to have his passport visaed. As he was going out, he met Passepartout, who asked him if it would not be well, before taking the train, to purchase some dozens of Enfield rifles and Colt’s revolvers. He had been listening to stories of attacks upon the trains by the Sioux and Pawnees. Mr. Fogg thought it a useless precaution, but told him to do as he thought best, and went on to the consulate.

He had not proceeded two hundred steps, however, when, “by the greatest chance in the world,” he met Fix. The detective seemed wholly taken by surprise. What! Had Mr. Fogg and himself crossed the Pacific together, and not met on the steamer! At least Fix felt honoured to behold once more the gentleman to whom he owed so much, and, as his business recalled him to Europe, he should be delighted to continue the journey in such pleasant company.

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Occasionally, a piece of rusty iron, showing through the forest-mould, advertised that the rail and the ties still remained. In one place, a ten-inch tree, bursting through at a connection, had lifted the end of a rail clearly into view. The tie had evidently followed the rail, held to it by the spike long enough for its bed to be filled with gravel and rotten leaves, so that now the crumbling, rotten timber thrust itself up at a curious slant. Old as the road was, it was manifest that it had been of the mono-rail type.

An old man and a boy travelled along this runway. They moved slowly, for the old man was very old, a touch of palsy made his movements tremulous, and he leaned heavily upon his staff. A rude skull-cap of goat-skin protected his head from the sun. From beneath this fell a scant fringe of stained and dirty-white hair. A visor, ingeniously made from a large leaf, shielded his eyes, and from under this he peered at the way of his feet on the trail. His beard, which should have been snow-white but which showed the same weather-wear and camp-stain as his hair, fell nearly to his waist in a great tangled mass. About his chest and shoulders hung a single, mangy garment of goat-skin. His arms and legs, withered and skinny, betokened extreme age, as well as did their sunburn and scars and scratches betoken long years of exposure to the elements.

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In some instances, to the quick, observant eye, those linear marks, as in a veritable engraving, but afford the ground for far other delineations. These are hieroglyphical; that is, if you call those mysterious cyphers on the walls of pyramids hieroglyphics, then that is the proper word to use in the present connexion. By my retentive memory of the hieroglyphics upon one Sperm Whale in particular, I was much struck with a plate representing the old Indian characters chiselled on the famous hieroglyphic palisades on the banks of the Upper Mississippi. Like those mystic rocks, too, the mystic-marked whale remains undecipherable.

This allusion to the Indian rocks reminds me of another thing. Besides all the other phenomena which the exterior of the Sperm Whale presents, he not seldom displays the back, and more especially his flanks, effaced in great part of the regular linear appearance, by reason of numerous rude scratches, altogether of an irregular, random aspect. I should say that those New England rocks on the sea-coast, which Agassiz imagines to bear the marks of violent scraping contact with vast floating icebergs—I should say, that those rocks must not a little resemble the Sperm Whale in this particular. It also seems to me that such scratches in the whale are probably made by hostile contact with other whales; for I have most remarked them in the large, full-grown bulls of the species.

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Did you think of designers? Me neither. But you should have. It is not a joke. I’m serious.

Design students from The Art Institute of Seattle recently rubbed elbows with NASA’s finest as part of the Micro-g Neutral Buoyancy Experiment Design Competition (Micro-g NExT) at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in late April. There, they tested their entry against prototypes made by engineers from Cornell, Columbia, and other prestigious institutions. And they were the only design students in the room.

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The architects collaborated with interior design firm FX Studio par Clairoux to come up with a concept that highlighted the horizontal nature of the prairie-style architecture. At each end of the structure, covered terraces extend the roof line and adding usable square footage.

One of the terraces houses an outdoor kitchen, a fireplace, a dining room, a lounge area, and a spa, slightly hidden by cedar shutters and vegetation.

In keeping with the original house, they mixed stone, masonry, and wood on this particular terrace, including the warm cedar ceiling.

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We invited Jane Portman, the UI/UX designer behind UI Breakfast, to talk about how—and why—productized consulting works, and 6 steps to follow when setting up your first product. Watch Jane’s full talk below, or read on for our short recap.

Those are the benefits of productized consulting for your clients, but what are the benefits for you? First, it makes you easy to hire. It also completely eliminates the need for you to create proposals. Setting these rules shifts the power of balance from you being just a freelancer/hired hand to you becoming a consultant bringing value to the business.

Step 1: Understand the benefits of productized consulting

Jane began by asking us to put ourselves in our client’s shoes and discussed the reasons why clients might be fearful of hiring designers. They might be unsure of the cost. They might be afraid that the project’s scope will spin out of control. They might be unsure of whether you know what you’re doing.

So, as empathetic designers, it’s important to design your productized consulting offers with that in mind. Set up a fixed price and specific scope of your work. Describe the benefits of your product, and enforce those with social proof by including quotes from past clients. Get into detail describing the process and your deliverables.

“Productized consulting enables you to finally set your own rules for client work.”

For Jane’s 5 other steps to set up your first product, watch the video above!

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Puzzle is a collection of tiles that turn simple geometric shapes into an infinite array of puzzle-like patterns on your walls and floors. Depending on how they’re laid out and what colors are used, the results can be simple tone-on-tone or a more dramatic, graphic pattern. Solid tiles can be mixed in to produce moments of calm or the bolder, geometric ones can become what looks like abstracted maps.

The collection includes eight chromatic families where neutral colours represent the Northern Isles of Faroe, Gotland, Aland, Anglesey and Skye and the warmer, brighter shades are associated with the Mediterranean Islands of Creta, Milos and Murano. Within each of these families, there is a composition of six graphic patterns in three colors, a set of two symmetrical patterns in two colors called Edge, and three solid color variations.

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We’ve all been there. Sometimes no amount of coffee, walks around the block, or cat videos can help you shake the feeling that it’s just not happening. And that’s a terrible feeling to have—especially if you’ve got a rapidly approaching deadline and a client who keeps asking how things are going.

Let’s take a look at why designer’s block happens and how to overcome it.

Where does designer’s block come from?

Designers constantly use 2 parts of the brain: the prefrontal cortex and the cerebral cortex.

Your ability to make smart decisions comes from your prefrontal cortex, while your creativity and creative thinking come from your cerebral cortex.

When you design (or tackle tricky UX problems), your brain works hard to make sure you’re the best damn designer you can be.

Although it’s a little different, think about these parts of your brain as muscles. Imagine going to the gym every day and doing the same exercise—you’d get tired and stiff, things would start to slow down a little, and eventually your body would say no more.

When you’re hit with designer’s block, there’s a good chance that’s the reason. You’ve done such an amazing job, for such a long time, that you might just need a break.

“Designer’s block can hit when you’ve been doing the same thing for too long.”

If you’re finding that your main block is creativity, then something (somewhere) is probably causing you stress. Because our limbic system manages our fight or flight response, stress causes your body (and brain) to keep you safe. When your limbic system is active, energy is taken away from the cerebral cortex, the creative part of your brain, for this very reason.

On the other hand, if you’re struggling to make decent decisions (which could be anything from color and font choices, to finishing user workflows), then decision fatigue is probably starting to set in. Decision fatigue happens when your prefrontal cortex is constantly making decisions for a long period of time. You’ve probably felt this before when you’ve come out of a long brainstorming session, or after you’ve been asked to solve a complex problem. This is another common cause for designer’s block because as designers, we’re constantly making decisions.

So how do we overcome designer’s block?

Arguably the best way to start overcoming designers block is this: Spend a few minutes finding out how you’re feeling and where the the issue truly lies.

Sometimes you’ll notice that it’s your decision-making that’s acting as a barrier. And if that’s the case, there are a few quick fixes that’ll quickly get you back on track.

When creativity is your barrier, take a more mindful approach to tackling the issue. Sometimes, it can be a little tricky to do, but we’ll get there together.

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“You shouldn’t do product design without product testing.” These guidelines aren’t just for teams already building products. They’re also for anyone who’s just starting to think about new product ideas and ways to validate them.

While there are multiple things to keep in mind when planning and conducting a product testing, here’s a simple list that can help you focus:

1. Start testing the very first week of the project
2. Do more than ‘just’ usability testing
3. 5 users per target group
4. Do it more than once
5. Take care of the details

1. Start testing the very first week of the project

As an agency, we start new projects with a short discovery/research phase followed by a design sprint. Sprints are great when kicking off new initiatives, testing new product ideas and features, etc. We end the workshop by creating a medium-fidelity prototype that we then test with users. We want to validate the direction we’re heading right at the start.

Can you imagine how rewarding that is? There was almost nothing a couple a days ago—now there’s a concept, a business case, and actual feedback from real customers.

What a great way to start a project.

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