Biomimicry & Design Thinking

Humans are considered the most evolved species due to our ability to think (or so we think). However there is so much to learn from nature and other species that there is an entire stream dedicated to the same called Biomimicry. Biomimicry understands how species adapt and function in certain conditions which has been emulated to solve complex problems for us. 

Image credit : Roche, 2016

The head of a bullet train is shaped like a beak to eliminate a tunnel boom and be more efficient, delivery pods/advanced logistic maps are inspired by honeybees, velcro was designed from Budrock plant and so on. There is a golden/divine ratio of 1.618 which governs balance in structures to the frequency of a galaxy !!

So how does biomimicry relate to design thinking ? Let's break down the basic elements of design thinking - Empathise, Ideate & Iterate. To empathise is to understand the users, their pain points, alternatives used etc. This in the biomimicry world is expanded to all species - understand how the species function and what their challenges are. A biomimicry ideate would then be to brainstorm how the species' over come their challenges, extract learnings from those and map how we could apply them to solve similar problems.

It's not just physical products that have benefited from this, but even advance computing algorithms too. Here are some fascinating complex systems/alogrithms which were designed from biomimicry:

• Data driven behavioural model derived from bacteria
• Search engine optimization inspired by Arboreal Ant trails
• Machine learning inspired by insects' nervous system

Upon reading about so many facets of biomimicry and its direct applications to product/design thinking, couldn't agree more to the following quote:

Nature will teach us many lessons if we take the time to visit her classroom.
— Donald L. Hicks