Month: October 2019

“If I could reveal anything that is hidden from us, at least in modern cultures, it would be to reveal something that we’ve forgotten, that we used to know as well as we knew our names. And that is that we live in a competent universe, that we are part of a brilliant planet, and that we are surrounded by genius.”

This 2009 TED talk opening statement belongs to the biologist, author, innovation consultant and self-titled “nature nerd” Janine Benyus, who gave this talk titled “Biomimicry in Action” and has done significant work in the field of biomimicry. As Benyus has stated, biomimicry reminds us of the fact that we all know naturally, yet many of us are not aware of today.

Nowadays, there are a lot of discussions about product and service design, architecture, and new designs that are sustainable and functional. The question of what should be a reference for designs that can adapt to severe changes, create awareness, and create a robust framework is still on the table. What is clear is that such designs require excellent inspiration and modified facts. The main question is why are we going in all different directions despite the fact that mother nature is there to inspire us?

Biomimicry, a nature-inspired design approach

Man, a creature with intellect, even if it is unintentional, has created significant sustainability problems for future generations – not too far from today. However, thankfully, specific solutions to each of these global challenges are all around us. If we are willing and ready to see, biomimicry, which comes from such a lean and staggering movement, is an approach that seeks sustainable solutions to human-made challenges by imitating the patterns and strategies of nature that have been tested in time. Its purpose is to create products – processes and policies – new ways of life – that are well adapted to life on earth in the long term.

In short, the basis of biomimicry, which is a nature-inspired design approach, lies in the idea that nature has already solved many of the problems we are facing today. Through scientific research, we have come to know that animals, plants, and microbes are excellent engineers. So, after billions of years of research and development failures became fossils, how can we deny the fact that what surrounds us today is ‘the secret to survival’?

“I think the biggest innovations of the 21st century will be at the intersection of biology and technology. A new era is beginning”.

Steve Jobs

Two basic missions of biomimicry

• Experience: The concept of inspiration from nature as a whole comes with the experience of “evolution over a million years.” Various forces of nature have tested solutions developed for multiple processes of nature. By adding our research to this experience, we can achieve a perfect design solution.

• Sustainability: Design based on biomimicry inspires solutions that are adaptable, visually compatible, and energy-efficient. Eventually, nature has also redesigned its processes for the same problem. Its reference is that this process, which is imitated over time, is effectively present. Nature has also optimized resource consumption in its natural processes. Thus, sustainability is ingrained in the development of designs from nature.

“Biomimicry is the conscious emulation on nature’s genius.” 

Janine Benyus

Four brilliant examples of biomimicry

Let’s embody the subject with four examples designed with biomimicry and converted into a product:

1. Velcro

In 1941, after returning from his hunting trip in the Alps, the Swiss engineer George de Mestral noticed that his dog was covered with burdock burrs. Mestral examined one of these burrs with a microscope to discover that it had a simple hook design which made it easily lock on to furs and socks. After working on it for many years, he finally invented the velcro (or velcro tape), and in September 1955 he patented his invention. According to Benyus, this product is probably the most famous and commercially successful example of biomimicry.

2. Dew collection bottle

The Namibian beetle which lives in the desert collects drinking water from fog, which hit his raised shell and flows into its mouth. Designed by Pak Kitae from Seoul National University of Technology, the “Dew Bank Bottle” mimics the Namibian insects’ water gathering system. The product condenses the dew in the morning and stores it in its chamber.

3. The mind of the hive manages the honeycomb

The bees are hardworking and quite agile animals. Despite limited brainpower, individuals can sense what the colony needs, and instinctively get to work. On the other hand, the problem with complicated human-made systems such as electricity grid is that separate divisions are unable to communicate and interact with each other.

Continue reading “Biomimicry: A sustainable world already exists”

TL;DR: It’s even better when our clients have an in-house UX team. Yes, that’s right, because we know that the more the merrier. We know that diversity creates value. And we know that resource allocation requires flexibility. 

Building a diverse team 

The secret to building digital products is simple, having strong product teams. Culturally diverse, cross-functional teams are leading the hottest startups today. It’s a fact, and that’s for a reason. 

We all try to get feedback from external reviewers, even in our daily struggles. What do you think about this dress? Do you think I crossed a line? We intrinsically are inclined to gather feedback to move forward before making a decision, and applying the same logic into product development totally makes sense. Who would stand against the value of getting direct feedback or guidance from experts? After all, that’s why mentorship is so valuable, and that’s why astrology never loses its touch. 

In our case, as a team of UX experts, we strive to bring our unique experience to the table while collaborating with in-house product teams. In a sense, our collective memory is a repository for those who seek to find a relevant solution-set regarding their project. Being consultants, we work on multiple projects across several industries, which eventually unlocks a great opportunity; rapid testing of our solutions and fine-tuning every aspect of our work in a relatively short amount of time compared to an in-house team. Therefore, as practitioners, who “have been there before”,  we are able to catalyze a reaction fairly quickly than a product-specific team.  

On-demand talent

There is a universal constraint affecting all of our jobs. Limited resources vs. unlimited wants. To deal with the dilemma, we all make a decision about resolution. We either work on a large number of tasks while foregoing some level of details or spend time on a small number of tasks by simply disregarding the rest of the workload. So, as a result, we have trouble managing this trade-off and end up feeling that we’re not functioning properly. 

The same conundrum is also valid for a product team as well. The volume of items in a backlog can quickly reach alarming levels, requiring an expansion of the talent to deal with it. Yet, it might not be feasible growing headcount to handle work, because bringing talent without thoroughly considering the consequences might paralyze a team for a couple of reasons. 

• First, it’s not easy to find the talent, period. Without spending an enormous amount of effort on talent acquisition, you’re not going to be able to form a team, coming from a relevant background to take care of your problems. You need someone who “has been there before.”

• Second, you probably need a temporary solution to carry the work forward. You do not want to set anything on a stone if you do want to get financially tied up. That’s why interim teams come in handy to alleviate the pain stemming from an overfilled backlog. 

In other words, we shorten the time needed to find talent and soften the blow on your talent acquisition activities for a simple fact: we’re talented, we are relevant, and we’re only there as long as you need us. 

The vast spectrum of UX skills

From initial launch to late maturity stages, each milestone in a product’s lifecycle demands a different set of skills in order to meet user needs while growing the business. In fact, this the same reasoning behind the low ratio of founder CEOs we come across today. Creating a vision and defining a product strategy leaves its place to being profitable and cutting costs in the later stages of a business. As a natural outcome of this process, a need for new skillset gradually emerges. Similarly, the UX expertise you need changes in time while working on an idea. Instead of having high turnover rates to fill out gaps in skills, elite teams could come in to play to give a hand.

We are on a mission to understand users and find intricate ways to solve their problems, and the methods we utilize to do so are largely diversified. It would not be rational to expect all the necessary skills from a candidate or an embedded team. To cope with a skill deficiency or basically extend the level of UX maturity in a product team, external teams with flexible business models like DaaS can provide unique value as temporary remedies. 

In reality?

How about in reality? We’re more than happy to state that: it all checks out!

We’re working with Hepsiburada and their UX team over a year now. We’re iterating, testing and optimizing together to find the “right” solutions for “our” users. 

We’re a long-term partner of Arçelik, pioneering the future of home appliances for more than three years. And we’re doing it not only being an extension of the team but also working as an individual unit with autonomy thanks to DaaS and the vision brought forward by Arçelik.

There are also countless case studies and examples in the past that show how we were able to create value together working with in-house teams, joining our forces to understand users. 

It’s not in-house teams vs. digital studios any more. If you ask us, it was never the case in fact.  Let’s keep continue building diverse, cross-functional teams to give “our” users a voice and find the solutions that no one single-handedly would be able to do otherwise.