<aside> 🚩 It is possible to develop inventive design solutions by looking for analogies in other contexts.
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Drawing an analogy means finding a correspondence between two different things.
In design, analogy is a way to develop new embodiments of functions. It is the means by which one connects a function Requirement to a physical system, technology, or principle (a behaviour) that can provide that function subject to given constraints.
Here are some examples of famous discoveries/inventions that resulted from analogical reasoning.
Velcro, close up.
Analogies are based on two different objects, phenomena, or technologies: a target and a source. The target is a function as defined by a Requirement of your project.
Once the target function has been identified, you then search of existing products, technologies, or biological systems that provide the same function. These are potential sources of analogy.
Next, for each source, you consider whether the source could be used as an actual embodiment for the target function. This will require considering if there’s a way to implement the source technology while satisfying the constraints on the source function. If there is, then you’ve just found a potentially novel embodiment.