The theory goes like this: Ages ago, a bacteria capable of creating food from air and light found its way into another cellular species. The organisms co-evolved, reinforcing each other, eventually resulting in algae, moss, and eventually becoming the unstoppable machines we now call plants.
In the design world, we come across similar systems. Material Design, iOS, Bootstrap, FontAwesome — they’re woven into the fabric existing brand styles, co-benefitting each other to result in the beautiful, intelligent machines that reinforce each other in a massive library of apps and services.
Why are blended systems important for designers?
Western thinking biases us towards over-isolating systems and components: Of course, our neural system is totally separate from our endocrine system! Of course, history is cleanly divided into separate periods of time! Duh.
Or not? The more we learn about the natural world, the more blending we find between natural systems. Horizontal gene transfer, the microbiome, the fungal root networks of trees, and co-evolution theories (like avacados and mammoths).
Design systems are subject to similar blending: Material Design, Apple Design, Fluent Design, branding and style guides, content guidelines, and so on, all mixing together to create a final meta-system. And you have functional frameworks, like chemistry, Mathematica, and Latex.
At a higher level, you have business divisions and product acquisitions. All of these examples require two systems to blend together, just like the chloroplasts and cells.
But actually going about blending these systems is an interesting design challenge, and one that the chloroplast has mastered. So let’s see what we can learn from it.
The Wisdom of the Chloroplast
Chloroplasts maintain separate genomes than the host cell.
What this means for design (WFMFD): There will always be a certain level of separation between the systems. A Material Design system will still be identified as a Material Design-based system, no matter what modifications are made to it. And a brand system will be a brand, no matter what Material Design is applied to it.
These genomes communicate with each other.
WTMFD: Cells evolve and chloroplasts evolve. Meanwhile, the chemical ocean between them is in constant flux, steadily changing in response to inputs. For design, this means that both sides of a blended system may change over time, and the Designer must keep an eye out for these changes.
Transplanted chloroplasts trigger immune defenses in host plants.
WTMFD: Blended design systems may have conflicting components, for which decisions must be made as to what remains. If you’re inheriting a startup with a design system built for platform, then you may face a decision of completely remaking it, carefully replacing one part at a time, or letting it exist as-is.
Chloroplasts can change shape easier than host cells.
WTMFD: Be ready for unexpected changes introduced by other design systems. If Apple decides to quit using App notifications, you’ll have to adapt your experience.
What can we take away from all this?
Natural systems can help us look at designed systems through a different lens. We can identify key characteristics, and look for things that we might have originally missed.
And most importantly, we can gain an appreciation for the beautiful systems of order nature has built up over hundreds of millions of years.
Parallels in geopolitics & elsewhere
It’s hard not to draw parallels here with the continuous struggles of geopolitics – between nations, unions, states, regions, and cities. The USSR, Catalonia, the Cherokee, the State of Jefferson. What might political science be able to learn from the governance of chloroplasts and host cells?
