Software Usability

What would you want to get out of a full day seminar about the Visual Design of software (Web, desktop)?

I’ve been asked to put together a full-day seminar on Visual Design for interaction designers, information architects, usability engineers, etc. The seminar is intended to be more about “advancing” people’s skills rather than getting newbies started.

1. Not so commonly known or undocumented features of common visual components (or how to get the most out of them).
2. What is an “intuitive” layout. What may be intuitive to one person may not be to another.
3. When to use combo box vs. radio buttons.
4. When to use toolbar vs. standard dialog buttons (e.g. bottom right, bottom center, upper right).
5. How to modify/enhance common components.
6. When/if to use a “wizard”.
7. When not to customize a component – when a “common” control fits better.
8. How/when to allow “skinning” of applications.
9. When to allow user customization, when not to and how much?
10. When to use group boxes or how best to group components.
11. When to display, or not, message dialogs (e.g. “OK”, “Yes/No”, etc.)?
12. Alternatives to displaying a message or messages without requiring the user to click “OK” repeatedly.
13. The use of color, when it’s appropriate, when it’s not.

I could go on forever, but I’ll stop there.

I’m curious to find out how it goes…

Usability and Software Architecture: The Forgotten Problems