Users are becoming more UI-conscious than ever before, so the time to act is now. Good user experience goes beyond simply "clean" and "readable" -- making your users happy results in buzz, repeat business and repeat visits, higher conversation rates, and a warm fuzzy sense of well-being (for both of you).

Plus, it never hurts to crush the competition in the looks and user-friendliness departments.

Better yet, instead of 45 minutes of boring theory you'll learn practical solutions from examples of real projects, redesigned to be more effective (with before & after shots) or designed from scratch. You don't have to be an expert HTML or Photoshop jockey to enjoy learning from this session; all design decisions will be explained in plain, sensible English. There may even be cartoons.

Talking points include:

• Thinking like a user
• Planning user "task paths"
• Finding the focus of a screen / page
• The power of "the grid"
• Using white space and typography to create relationships (kill all those bounding boxes!)
• Making consistency happen
• Using colors and images to emphasize without overpowering
• Simplify, simplify, simplify
• Helping the user flow instead of jerking him around
• Using rich UI techniques, when they can enhance the experience