Bioinspiration for Service Design
One of my great pleasures at my former job at a zoo was hosting my friend’s industrial design biomimicry students. I would show them around and call out animal information that might help spark a design project. It’s not as easy as you think to be bioinspired. The complicated answer is that inspiration is learned and takes practice. Nature can be a terrific muse for service design, but finding inspiration takes practice opening one’s senses, understanding connections, and a boatload of curiosity. The tools and methods for seeking bioinspiration are maturing, from the online resource library, asknature, to immersive art and science conferences. Working from home during the pandemic, I observed the wondrous array of birdsong on my patio and the dominant behavior of the city pigeon. So how does a pigeon become a how might we? Knowing how to tap into inspiration reveals deep connections and novel metaphors—just the thing that helps designers innovate. Lately, I've been especially excited about some of the inspiration nature can provide service design. Here are some musings and activities to support a service design practitioner to become bioinspired.
Look for Net Benefit Relationships With Algae?
The fur of a sloth is a complex ecosystem of diverse microorganisms. The sloths have evolved and survived through a mutualistic relationship between moths and algae that live in their fur. When sloths descend to the forest floor to defecate, the moths travel with them and lay eggs in their dung, where their larvae find their sole nutrients. The moths return to find a new sloth to call home. The moths increase the amount of nitrogen in sloth fur, which allows algae to thrive. The sloths then consume the algae to augment their limited diet.
This excellent example of mutualism is akin to how service designers look at value exchanges between employees, customers, and the business, although perhaps with less dung-related models. A designer has a rich opportunity to push the number of relationships and value exchanges by exploring mutualism and visualizing their systems.