LarryA
Given what I see in publications, design books and sites that some professionals call 'good' or 'cutting edge' design I have see far worse issues in approachability/usability/readability than using Comic Sans.
Stylin' with CSS by Charles Wyke-Smith - its mainly a (good) CSS book but gives enough hints at good design so you don't go overboard.
Handcrafted CSS by Dan Cederholm with Ethan Marcotte - again CSS tutorial with emphasis on good design with CSS.
Once you get the handle on those (or before hand) check out the great examples in CSS Zen Garden. ( http://www.csszengarden.com/ ) Something you can pick apart and analyze. The cool thing about ZenGarden is the HTML is always the exact same file it's the CSS and graphics that make the designs different.
Beware web design books that concentrate purely on web design - some of them are trying to be too artsy and cutting edge, look inside the book before buying... also some may be specific for templates in WordPress, Joomla or some other CMS.
In some situations you may be data rich but function poor. Like embedded devices where you have a limited instruction set, 128bytes of RAM, but access to megs of ROM for program/data.
for OOP I've liked PHP Objects, Patterns and Practice by Matt Zandstra
Some Classic Computing Non-Fiction (circa 80s and earlier): * Soul of a New Machine - Tracy Kidder * Fire in the Valley - Paul Freiberger and Michael Swaine * Hackers - Steve Levy * Commodore: A Company on the Edge - Brian Bagnall (get the second edition) * The Psychology of Computer Programming by Gerald M. Weinberg - for being written in 1971 (with an updated edition in 98) it is very interesting and still relevant. * Coders at Work: Reflections on the Craft of Programming by Peter Seibel - interviews of many luminary programmers, how they got stated and what they have done.
There are also tutorials on-line on doing buttons and such for inkscape/illustrator.
Other than that I get up, take a break, I deserve it.
"BBS: The Documentary" and "Get Lamp" by Jason Scott are a couple great hacker docs, about BBSs and Interactive Fiction Games (though I would have to say they have a more Apple/wintel PC bent over other computers, but still historically interesting). Both have many great interviews with BBS and interactive fiction luminaries.
Tilt - The Battle to Save Pinball, this one covers the trials and tribualtions of Pinball 2000 the development of a digital/analog pinball hybrid. There's also The History of Pinball, its not as fancy but it's interesting.
The King of Kong is slightly entertaining about the world of Donkey Kong high scores and a peek into competitive arcade game competitions.
Revolution OS - About Linux/GNU kinda dry but interesting interviews.
Deathbed Vigil...and other tales of digital angst. Documents the last days of Commodore when it went bankrupt in 1994. I think mainly interesting to Commodore fans or folks who enjoyed seeing commodore fail...
And the "Apple plans to have [that feature] in a future version" is a long standing practice... in a future version they will implement it, and then in a later version they will get it fixed so it is usable, etc.
From experience, I'd wait till FCP X.2 or something... when they actually get stuff complete and working.
Many NPOs can't afford having their staff "surf the net all the time." Those that have the most opportunity are usually managers or higher up which need to network more than support staff. So in that respect that cuts the number of participants quite a bit.
NPOs aren't the same, I went to a NP software development conference, I was from a private NP doing community services with state and fed monies. Many of the others were community/social/political NPOs that are more geared for advocacy, etc. So finding a common thread can be a challenge... and many NPs are in competition for similar funding or causes.
Of the social networks I've seen that mixes well is the forums etc. on TechSoup, the draw is everyone needs tech support and Tech soup has donated software/hardware for NPOs. I've seen others, like one on Ning but that fizzled when the costs went up - NPOs are really tight with their budgets.
Sounds like you want a path of least resistance, then look at what similar services are running on top of, if they pull off the features you desire those platforms would be something to take note of.
Next talk to the people who will be doing the work, see what they think, show them examples ("this is the magic I want on my site, can we pull it off with platform X? and can we do better by also implementing feature Y?") They know their tools and see behind the magic, they can tell you how they could pull it off with their tricks (some might even start their gears turning and give suggestions). Those that can see it and build upon it could be what you are looking for. Of course you want a team so get second and third opinions to build a consensus.
Don't call it a design issue, call it a technical or usability issue, show "technically" this font would not be good, see how it relates to menus, accents, etc. Illustrate the problems with menus, etc. and how you would have to have custom code for all this, in comparison to a non italic font.
A mock up helps, generate a comparison with standard fonts at real-world resolutions.
Thirdly, you should try to share their enthusiasm, grab some of their other materials and see what their standard designs have to offer that you could implement, then approach them and say "you know if I implemented this alternate font, color scheme, theme, or logo we could create an effect that better ties this into your business."
Though as a techie supporting Macs at work for over 20 years, Apple has its flaws, sometimes it doesn't all work quite right. But for the staff - they normally don't see that, which is what works well for Apple.
Every time I hear a debate it boils down to issues of cost and compatibility - And that is always from people who don't use Macs or used them very little. All of that doesn't make the Mac people less wanting to get their stuff done by moving to Windows.
Do they enter bulk records more than one-ofs then have it so they can bulk-enter a group of records, etc. If you were told to do the entry what would you want to make your life easier.
As a programmer we think of the computer and how it reacts when running our code, it also helps to think of the user and how they react when using the UI.
Of course I know a couple of the problems with this - frameworks and IDEs, some of which don't give the programmer easy access to custom interface elements (or by using such tools the programmer is never aware of other ways to implement a UI).
After that moment I started looking for ways to do what 'I' wanted the computer to do instead of just what I was told the computer could do... and was then happily exploring stuff beyond what the teachers knew (which was not too much either, back then).
The eat your own dogfood axiom is a good method for starting out. Post about your app on places where it is relevant, how it has helped bring about alignment of the planets and increased your bowling scores, etc. If it is highly interactive and fun to use or watch it being used, make a youtube video on "Get Ninja (insert category of app) Skillz With Easy App X"
If it is crowd sourced thing maybe run a contest to gather content/interest, don't have to blow ten grand on it, only a few hundred and some well placed shout-outs about the contest.
I myself like to look at videos and screenshots of apps (ohhh... shiny stuff!) You have a site with screenshots??
Heres a link for you... http://www.ageekstour.com/prologue.html
Oh and make sure to check out some bookstores, the computers and programming sections of stores in the area are usually quite... satisfying. :-)