Multifunctional and domain independent? A meta-analysis of case studies of biologically inspired design. (28th October 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Goel, Ashok K.; Hancock, William
• Is Part Of: Design science. Volume 7(2021)
• Publication Date: 2021-10-28
• Subjects: analogical design -- biologically inspired design -- biomimetics -- biomimicry -- multifunctional design -- problem-driven design -- solution-based design; Design -- Research -- Periodicals; New products -- Management -- Periodicals; Design; Design -- Research; Electronic journals; Periodicals; 658.5752
• DOI: 10.1017/dsj.2021.23
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2053-4701

Abstract

Abstract: Much of the literature on biologically inspired design makes two, often unstated and largely unexamined, assumptions: (i) The process of biologically inspired design is independent of the biological domain, and (ii) the design process leads to multifunctional designs. In this paper, we perform a meta-analysis of 74 case studies of biologically inspired design in the Design Study Library. We begin by noting that biologically inspired design has two core processes: problem-driven design and solution-based design. We find that the first assumption about the domain independence of these design processes is questionable. Our analysis indicates that the problem-driven process of biologically inspired design is more prevalent in some domains, whereas the solution-based design process is more common in other domains. Our analysis also indicates that the solution-based process leads to multifunctional designs more often than the problem-driven process. These findings may have useful implications not only for building information-processing theories of biologically inspired design, but also for developing pedagogical techniques for teaching about the paradigm and computational tools for supporting its practice.