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The first step in the design process is to get a clear idea of what your customers want. This can take some time and patience, especially if your customers aren't technical people by nature.
Have your customers tell you in their own words what they want, and ask lots of questions to clarify your customers' goals for yourself. It's a good idea to rephrase your customers' requests and repeat them back to make sure that you're communicating on the same plane. For example, if your customers say that they want to be able to create reports from a set of data, you need to know: Who will be using the reports? Can they be read-only, or do users need to be able to manipulate the data in the report to present it in new ways? Should the reports be available over a corporate intranet, or will they be printed, or will they be e-mailed? The answers to these kinds of questions will begin to eliminate certain design possibilities and shift your focus to others.
You may have to ask the same question several times in several different ways. It may be helpful to diagram or demonstrate multiple possibilities to your customers and ask them to choose the one that best fits what they have in mind. Keep in mind that your customers probably find the planning and design process difficult, and would rather that you just went away and came back with what they want. Simplifying choices for your customers, while keeping their goals in mind, may make the process easier for everyone.