Over at Mambo we are currently planning changes to the User Interface. Most GUI (graphical user interface) screens use icons to graphically represent the function or action a user can take. But choosing the right icon, that has the same meaning across languages and cultures can be a real challenge.

Programmers are not know for their interface design expertise and unless a volunteer, open source project has GUI experts donating their time, creating the perfect GUI can be a hit and miss exercise. I took responsibility for preparing a plan. As a result, I am spending a lot of time reading, studying up, and analysing GUI in action in various applications.