This paper reports on the user-centered design methodology and techniques used for the elicitation of user requirements and how these requirements informed the first phase of the user interface design for a Cross-Language Information Retrieval System. We describe a set of factors involved in analysis of the data collected and, finally discuss the implications for user interface design based on the findings. Categories and Subject Descriptors H.3.3 [Information Search and Retrieval]; H.5.2 [User Interfaces]; I.2.7 [Natural Language Processing] General Terms: Design, Human Factors, Languages.