I almost always begin design by talking with users. Initially, my goal is simply to collect people's stories. I believe that the stories people tell about what they do and how they do it contain information vital to designing good interfaces. Stories reveal what people like about their work, what they hate about it, what works well, what sorts of things are real problems. But although stories can contain a lot of valuable information, I believe that it is the process of collecting stories, rather than the content they contain, that is their most valuable contribution to design.
Stories are a natural way of beginning dialog with users.
The system conserved energy by automatically turning off lights during hours when employees were not expected to be present. One weekend, an employee, accompanied by his six year old daughter, stopped by to finish up some work. Suddenly, the lights go out. The computer turned off the lights. No, I told you, the computer turned off the lights.