Copy Nature for Design Excellence
Wednesday, November 24th, 2010
Nature has solved some exceptionally hard engineering and design problems in ways that are not only optimal but stunningly beautiful. This is one reason why biomimicry – or emulating nature’s design strategies and patterns – is catching fire. Another reason is because of the excellent work of organizations such as the Biomimicry Institute. Check out their AskNature project and you will find a taxonomy of over 1200 of nature’s design patterns. Each pattern or strategy is summarized and examples of how it is or could be used are given, along with images and comments. You can even contribute new patterns.
This could be an important resource for cognitive designers. While there are likely no patterns that illustrate how to optimize functionality for psychological needs, there could be many that suggest new ways to organize, communicate and adapt that are useful for solving cognitive design problems.
Interested to hear from readers with ideas for how we can use biomimicry in cognitive design.
