Getting ideas: biomimicry and user-centred design
Great ideas rarely appear from nowhere. Designers use deliberate strategies — copying nature and studying real users — to spark them.
Part of your national curriculum
- Design: Use a variety of approaches to generate creative ideas, including biomimicry and user-centred design
Lesson overview
What you'll learn in this lesson
Use a variety of approaches to generate creative ideas, including biomimicry and user-centred design
Key learning points
- • Biomimicry
- • User-centred design
- • Other idea-generation tools
This lesson at a glance
- 25 minutes
- 17 parts to scroll through
- 3 quick checks
- Marked quiz at the end
- Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses
Words to know
Scroll down — the lesson carries on below
Watch & discover
Part 1 of 17
Visual introductionPicture this
Getting ideas: biomimicry and user-centred design
Great ideas rarely appear from nowhere. Designers use deliberate strategies — copying nature and studying real users — to spark them.
In a nutshell
Use a variety of approaches to generate creative ideas, including biomimicry and user-centred design
Learning cycle
Part 2 of 17
Learning cycle 1 of 2
Part 1 · Biomimicry
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
Explore the idea
Part 3 of 17
Learn
Biomimicry
Biomimicry means borrowing solutions that evolution has already tested. Velcro copied the hooks on burdock seeds; bullet trains copied a kingfisher's beak to cut noise. Looking at how plants and animals solve a problem — gripping, cooling, moving — can unlock ideas that pure imagination misses.
Reset break
Part 4 of 17
Pause
That's sitting 1 of 4 done
Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.
Explore the idea
Part 5 of 17
Learn
User-centred design
This approach starts with the person, not the product. Designers observe or interview real users, note their frustrations, and sketch ideas that solve those specific problems, rather than assuming what people want. A kettle designed for someone with arthritis looks different from a standard one.
Quick check
Part 6 of 17
Quick check
Part 7 of 17
Reset break
Part 8 of 17
Pause
That's sitting 2 of 4 done
Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.
Learning cycle
Part 9 of 17
Learning cycle 2 of 2
Part 2 · Other idea-generation tools
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
Explore the idea
Part 10 of 17
Learn
Other idea-generation tools
Mind maps, mood boards and 'what if' questions widen the pool of ideas before narrowing down. Combining approaches — for example a user-centred brief solved with a biomimetic mechanism — often produces the most inventive designs.
Quick check
Part 11 of 17
Reset break
Part 12 of 17
Pause
That's sitting 3 of 4 done
Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.
Challenge round
Part 13 of 17
Game · Sort it
Which of these are true?
Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.
True
Not true
Challenge round
Part 14 of 17
Game · Fill the gaps
Finish the sentences
Choose the word that belongs in each gap.
____ means borrowing solutions that evolution has already tested.
Combining ____ — for example a user-centred brief solved with a biomimetic mechanism — often produces the most inventive designs.
Challenge round
Part 15 of 17
Game · Recall cards
What is biomimicry?
Card 1 of 3
Mastery quiz
Part 16 of 17
Marked quiz
End of lesson quiz: Getting ideas: biomimicry and user-centred design
3 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.
1. What is biomimicry?
2. User-centred design begins by focusing on…
3. Velcro was inspired by…
Lesson round-up
Part 17 of 17
Lesson round-up
Ready when you are
Quiz score
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Points this lesson
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Best run
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Luna: 0 out of 3 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?
Ask LunaPart 1 of 17 · Watch & discover
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Use a variety of approaches to generate creative ideas, including biomimicry and user-centred design