Second Usability Commandment: Know your audience's goals

The second commandment of usability, after know your audience,  is to know what your audience's goals are. What have they come to you to accomplish?

Too many businesses think about their internal process at the expense of customer focus. During requirements gathering for one project I worked on, I asked a group of product managers to write down what was the most important thing for their users to accomplish. One typical answer was, "The most important thing for our users to do is to sign up for a demonstration."

Now, I don't know your business, but I guarantee your users do not wake up in the morning and open up your company website with a big smile, saying to themselves, "Today I need to sign up for something!" The answer I got should have been customer focused, along the lines of "My users need a widget that has X, Y and Z features, from a vendor with a good reputation."

The usability method to document user goals is called task analysis. Once you know your users' tasks, it's up to you to match them to your business process. If they believe a demo is a good way to meet their goals, users will happily sign up.