Database Design for Mere Mortals™: A Hands-On Guide to Relational Database Design, Second Edition

Interviewing Users

The first part of the interview process involves conducting user interviews. The interviews focus on these four issues:

1. The types of data users are currently using

2. How users are currently using their data

3. The collection of samples you assembled during the first two steps of the analysis

4. The types of information users require for their daily work

Because these issues are both data-centric and information-centric, you must be certain that you understand and always keep in mind the difference between data and information. Recall from Chapter 3 that data are the values you store in the database, and information is data that you process in a manner that makes it meaningful and useful to you when you work with it or view ...