I think you should take it one step further and along with listen to their needs...

iamdave on May 10, 2010 | parent | context | favorite | on: Unity: a lightweight netbook interface for Ubuntu

I think you should take it one step further and along with listen to their needs, put them in front of a computer, and WATCH what they're doing. Find out what their quirks are, how they expect the software to work and build on that.