Gather user requirements by using all available resources

The more communication and info exchange you have with the potential users of the application or what have you, the better the development team’s understanding of what the user’s requirements are! In other words the greater the amount of information that can be communicated and exchanged between developers and users, the higher the probability of a successful user experience.

So, how do I gather requirements?

Successful projects (with a good user experience) require at least four to five different sources of information. Also, remember not to rely too heavily on user intermediaries. Here are some ways to gather requirements (Please note there may be some more ways also, that are not listed here)

• Customer support lines
• Customer surveys
• Interviews
• Bulletin boards
• Sales folks
• User groups
• Trade show experiences
• Focus groups
• Etc.

Gathering good user requirements will help to build good user stories. Moreover, they will help to figure out what is good acceptance criteria for a particular user story.

Please read my other posts to get a full picture of User Experience Design (UX) Good Luck!