Biomimicry application in UI UX
Biomimicry defines as the science and art of emulating Nature’s best biological ideas to solve human problems. For billions of years nature—animals, plants, and even microbes—has been solving many of the problems we are still dealing with today. Each has found what works, what is appropriate, and what lasts.
Biomimicry and biomimetics come from the Greek words bios, meaning life, and mimesis, also meaning to imitate. Scientist and author Janine Benyus popularized the term biomimicry in her 1997 book Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature. Benyus believes that most of the problems that have ever existed have already been solved by nature. Benyus suggests shifting one's perspective from learning about nature to learning from nature as a way to solve human problems. Sustainability issues are among those that can be addressed by applying the biomimicry process to a project. Utilizing an integrated design process can help open up opportunities to identify biological solutions to building problems and include the perspective of nature in the design process—as it is likely that nature already offers a solution.
Humans have always looked to nature for inspiration to solve problems. Leonardo da Vinci applied biomimicry to the study of birds in the hope of enabling human flight. He very closely observed the anatomy and flight of birds, and made numerous notes and sketches of his observations and countless sketches of proposed "flying machines". Although he was not successful with his own flying machine, his ideas lived on and were the source of inspiration for the Wright Brothers, who were also inspired by their observations of pigeons in flight. They finally did succeed in creating and flying the first airplane in 1903.
Recent success stories exist in terms of how biomimicry can be applied to building design. While buildings serve to protect us from nature's extremes, this does not mean that they do not have anything to learn from the biological world. In fact, nature regularly builds structures with functionality that human-built structures could usefully emulate. Biomimetic research, science, and applications continue to grow and are already influencing the next generation of building products and systems as well as whole building designs.
For example, photovoltaic systems, which harvest solar energy, are a first step at mimicking the way a leaf harvests energy. Research is underway to create solar cells that more closely resemble nature. These cells are water-gel-based—essentially artificial leaves—that couple plant chlorophyll with carbon materials, ultimately resulting in a more flexible and cost-effective solar cell.
A photovoltaic system collects energy from the sun, which was inspired by the way leaves harvest sunlight as part of photosynthesis.
The bumpy surface of a lotus leaf (computer graphic close up view below-left) acts as a self-cleaning mechanism allowing dirt to be cleansed off the surface naturally by water, for instance, during a rain shower. Even the smallest of breezes on the plant causes a subtle shift in the angle of the plant allowing gravity to remove the dirt without the plant having to expend any energy. This same idea has been applied to the design of new building materials such as paints, tiles, textiles, and glass that reduce the need for detergents and labor and also reduces maintenance and material replacement costs.
Damage to an organism naturally elicits a healing response. Bone is also known to detect damage to itself and can heal within range of its initial strength. This same concept has been applied to synthetic material design and contributed to the development of a self-healing polymer for use as building materials. Tiny capsules containing a healing agent are embedded in the polymer. When the material is damaged, the capsules rupture and release the healing agent, which repairs the cracks. The self-repairing capabilities of materials can contribute to reduced maintenance and material replacements costs as well as increased durability. Self-repairing materials can also be made lighter, resulting in reduced embodied energy and greenhouse gas production.
Inspired by biological systems that heal themselves when damaged, a self-healing polymer, created at the Beckman Institute, University of Illinois is being applied to the development of a structural polymeric building material, such as cladding, with the ability to self-heal cracks.
How would nature solve green building challenges?
How does life make things?
How does life make the most of things?
How does life make things disappear into systems?
This tool outlines guidance using the following steps to apply the tool effectively and systematically to the creative process. Below are listed the basic steps in that process.
Identify—Develop a Design Brief of the human need.
Translate—Biologize the question; ask the design brief from Nature's perspective.
Ask "How does Nature do this function?" "How does Nature NOT do this function?"
Discover—Look for the champions in nature who answer/resolve your challenges.
Abstract—Find the repeating patterns and processes within nature that achieve success.
Emulate—Develop ideas and solutions based on the natural models.
(Nature as measure is embedded in the evaluate step of the Biomimicry Design Spiral.)
Evaluate—How does your design align against your design brief and Life's Principles, the successful principles of nature?
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