The Interaction Design Process

For the business, you need to know who your customers are. How are they going to select your product? What are the criteria they use? Are there specific requirements that they have as business over and above what is needed for their userbase? All these things need to be understood.

As a business yourself, how are you going to make money from your product or service. If designing the perfect product is going to ruin your business then you'll have to make some compromises in the design. For example, visitors to your website probably hate advertising - but if that what pays for the site it has to be part of the design despite that.

How long is it going to take to turn the design into real live product? Sometimes being there first is more important than getting everything perfect. But not always, and there are plenty of counter examples. But knowing whether you're in a sprint or a marathon is vital if the design is going to fit your business model. You designer has to know.

And finally, what is your competition doing? How are you going to differentiate yourself? Are you competing on price, on quality, on brand? Again, knowing what your intentions are allows your designer to design accordingly.