The understanding of real needs gained in the discover stage of the design process now has to be translated into a requirements specification, which structures the information in an unambiguous form that can be used to develop concepts.

The requirements specification captures the knowledge gained about the users, tasks, and environments; together with the targets for functionality, desirability, profitability and usability.

This translation process will be illustrated with respect to

• Defining tasks and functions
• Lifecycle requirements
• Principles for good requirements
• Structuring the output

The output of the translation process forms the requirements.