This starts from the outset of a project, where you begin by defining who your target audience is and then try to understand what that audience wants and how they want to work.

Two broad categories of usability methods exist: those that gather data about the behavior of actual users and those that can be applied even without users present.

Real Data From Real Users
Traditional design training has emphasized mastering principles of good design and gaining experience to create excellent designs. But this is not enough.

Skilled designers will usually create better designs than nondesigners, but no matter how experienced you are, you’re bound to make some mistakes and have some false expectations about the users.

The only way to be sure is to gather information from actual users, and this can be accomplished by various means, such as focus groups, interviews, and usability testing.

In the User’s Absence
Why wouldn’t you gather information from users for every design decision? In very small web projects, you may not have the budget to do usability testing, and on some projects, you’ll find it’s incredibly difficult to arrange to meet your target audience.

Even on projects where you can do some user testing, it’s never possible to test every single design decision that you make.

In these circumstances, you’ll have to estimate how usable your design is, based on previous experience, models of user behavior, and widely agreed upon design principles.

Even when you can reach users, you’ll find that talking to them is much more constructive when you’ve done some planning ahead of time based on what you expect might be an appropriate design for them.

Various paper-and-pencil techniques can help you work out designs from a user-centered perspective, and we’ll cover these throughout the book as well.

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