3 Things Detective Stories Taught Me About Context Gathering in Design
People love detective stories, including me. I love it when the detectives are faced with crime cases, gather clues, and eventually solve the cases. It always triggers curiosity, provides suspense, and builds anticipation which makes it hard to resist.
It invites the audience to think. It’s almost impossible to read or watch the stories without guessing how the crime is done and who the culprit is.
There is this sense of satisfaction each time we get to see how the cases end. I think that’s why detective stories are still so popular to this day.
Now, we might never really think of it, but for me, what the detective does is super relatable with what we do as designers, especially when it comes to context gathering or gathering clues, don’t you think?
The question is, how on earth does it relate to context gathering in the design process?
I talked to Jehan Amanda who is in charge of leading the design team for Traveloka Mart. We talked about how the seemingly fictional story can actually take place in designers’ day-to-day work. And here are my takeaways from the conversation.
1. Context gathering is not just “ticking another box” in the design process
When faced with crime cases, gathering clues becomes essential to bring the detective closer to uncover the culprit behind it. It’s not a step a detective can skip.
It also needs to be done right. Detectives need to consider a lot of perspectives before they come up with a conclusion. Otherwise, they can end up pointing fingers at the wrong person and accusing them for doing something they never do.
If you like anime, you might have heard of Kogoro Mouri from Detective Conan. He’s one of the main characters in the anime who works as an independent detective. When he’s hired to solve a case, most of the time, he ends up with the wrong conclusion because he fails to consider other perspectives. When that happens, Conan comes in to save the day.
It’s the same for us. Context gathering will affect all design decisions that follow. By not doing it right, we risk losing valuable resources because we might not solve the right problem.
We might also end up with half-baked insights or just a summary of what everyone already knows. So, never ever perform it just for the sake of doing it.
2. Context guides you in identifying gap of knowledge that will help you throughout a project
When a crime case arises, people are usually puzzled. They are faced with a problem, but have no clue of how it’s done and who is behind it. There’s a gap of knowledge that prevents them from reaching a conclusion.
If you’re a fan of Agatha Christie, you might know that one of her books, Death on the Nile, just got turned into a movie. The story revolves around a group of people who are involved in a crime scene on a boat on the Nile.
In the story, we can see how Hercule Poirot — the detective who happens to be on the boat — is also puzzled when the crime happens. However, he begins to talk to everyone, gathering clues to figure out who the culprit and what their motive is. He’s trying to bridge the gap of knowledge.
That process somehow resembles context gathering in design. We’re often faced with a problem, and to solve the problem, we need to understand it first. Context gathering helps us with it. Only when we understand the problem can we define what success looks like and how to bridge the gap between the two.
3. Clear context provides mature insights that people might not have realized yet
When a crime happens, there must be victims. The detectives, in turn, come to help them by gathering clues and evidence. They observe the surroundings, talk to witnesses, discuss with their partners, enlighten people with new insights, all sorts of things that can lead them to solve the case. That’s what they do so the victims get the justice they deserve.
As designers, we do that, too. Our job is to enlighten the stakeholders with new knowledge and opportunities that can possibly tackle the problem we have at hand. And it can only be done by doing research and design that are informed by the right context that adds value.
This can also be the answer to the long-standing question of how designers can get a seat at “the table”. Proving that the hours we put into our work results in something that fulfills the users’ needs and eases their pain will get us recognized as business partners that care about the business as much as the other stakeholders do.
While we might not gather clues to solve a mystery or catch a murderer, our work as designers is equally exciting. We get to solve problems people might not think of with the help of technology. What makes good detectives is what also makes good designers. Context gathering is to designers as clues gathering to detectives. When you think about it, we’re not that different in that sense.
Reflecting on what the stories have to offer, we as designers need to treat context gathering seriously. It is not to be treated as just another step in the design process. Remember, incorrect context leads to incorrect conclusions of what to solve and to build.
We don’t want that, do we?
