Once you have identified who your users are, you need to gather data from them. The data you are gathering includes verifying your user profiles, as well as getting details on their current and future task flows. To provide the critical data needed for interface design, task descriptions must be built by talking to and observing users who do the work the system is targeted to support, not from talking to managers, marketing representatives, trainers, and so on. There are several methods you can use to gather data. Three are described below.

1. Bringing Users in: asking them questions about their work.
2. Role playing: role playing will yield some additional and more realistic information than just asking them questions about how they would interact with a real customer.
3. Field Studies: going to the users’ workplace and observing real users.