Optional help baloons and easy access help files that don't overide being able to make changes in the DAW at the same time while still viewing the help files.

Some programs I like the descriptions that pop up as you move your curser....in a more in depth approach hopefully....especially over a row of picture icons

I think audio configuration is an area that could use some improvement. It would be nice if a person could install a DAW and it would run on a decent motherboard with acceptable latency for recording and playback. Maybe the improvements to WASAPI have fixed that. The audio fidelity may not be there for pros, but the functionality would. I suspect for that to work you need microsoft to buy in so the audio drivers could be certified.
 
Along the same lines can configuration of third party audio I/F be improved? Does the DAW industry have a working group? A number of industries have working groups where they develop standards. Is it possible for all DAW SW to use the same configuration for the interface to drivers? It seems like having DAWs use a common configuration standard would be a benefit to users and audio I/F manufacturers. It would be nice if an audio I/F manufacturer could say this is the recommended setup and it would be common across all DAWs, rather than having to specify for each particular DAW.
 
I also like stickman's idea a multi-track recorder view and having that view designed for ease of use.  

I guess Daw's are a little like the Supermarket, everything is there but they keep moving it to different shelves. I use cakewalk and I know it very well but every now and then I have to search on youtube to see a video how its done. You have to be prepared to spend  a long time learning how to us the tools.  So much you have to know. By the way I hate this phrase. "The Creative Process".

bitflipper
Here's an angle no DAW vendor has thought of: reporting.
 
The kind of software I make my living with might seem far removed from DAWs and other audio tools, but there are more similarities than one might assume. It's all about turning numbers into something real, data into information, be it in the form of sales projections or music. In my world, reports are a big part of that process.
 
Here's one example: project reports and track sheets. In the days of tape recorders, what did you find affixed to every reel in the vault? A piece of paper (or multiple papers) showing track listings, run times, routing information, effect settings, microphones used, recording dates and times, artist and engineers' names, and other project notes. In the digital world, even more information could be included, such as virtual instruments and elapsed time spent. Some of that information is currently available from SONAR, but not as a nicely formatted report.
 
Another report users might find useful: virtual instrument listings. These could be for an individual project, a group of related projects, or global to the system. Wouldn't it be great to have a list of every project on disk with a list of which virtual instruments and which patches/libraries were used in each? Somebody hears an old mix of yours and says "I want THAT bass on my record" - no need to rely on memory alone to find out exactly how you got that bass sound eight years ago. If you had a searchable database, it would be trivial to locate which instruments you used for what project, or what your most-used instruments were, or which instruments you've never used.
 
Here's another: routing matrices. Got a warning about a silent bus, but can't figure out why? Got an instance of Kontakt that won't freeze (just happened to me last week)? Getting confused with multiple headphone mixes? Can't figure out why your exported audio sounds different from the project playback? These kinds of questions could be answered in seconds with a graphical routing map. Reports needn't to be on paper.
 
 

But you had to serve your time before you got near any of the faders.
 

I am getting to a point where I can usually figure things out - but truth be told, when I hit a bit of a wall, the first thing I think about is - what am I missing???   That said..
 
Imagine in your Cakewalk user data, a check box that would say 'sure, I'd be glad to try and help'.  Then maybe a few check boxes for maybe strengths like hardware, recording, mixing, mastering etc., and music genres like EDM, Rock, Jazz, Country...    Then...
 
Imagine your stuck - you click on a 'anybody got an idea' button.  Cick on recording, then rock..  Your screen is then prepared to show in a interactive forum.  You may want to be discrete and choose who to share with.  Your help flag shows up to online users who 'like to help' who have a strength in 'recording' and 'rock' might be the genre of choice. They figure 'sure I have some time to share' and click on that flag..  A dialog box starts, and away we go...
 
Since we are helping Cakewalk, and improving their business posture in the world - maybe there could be a few low cost give aways (like a mug or a 20 dollar gift certificate to something in the store).  Nothing to exorbitant but just enough to provide a status of you counted when it was needed.  Maybe at end, a check box on the user as to how helpful it was.
 
Then - maybe - some way to record the image, and key sequence to fix - so that it could be used as an archived example..
 
Then maybe a online live 'PLATINUM' yearly show.   Simple - this is what we learned - who helped..  Who got the MUG.  A lot of folks have been asking for a mug - just sayin...
 
'What am I missing' is taken care of,  a re-use of the example is made available for everyone,  a social status of 'you done good serving others', and a cakewalk mug...
 
At least it would be a neat social experiment, to me. 
 
 

DAWs aren't hard.
 
Some people are just dumb.

Presets. The QuadCurve EQ presets are a good start, as are the project templates and lenses, but more of them, tailored to more genres and types of projects (2-hour narrations, 3-minute guitar pop songs, orchestral pieces, recording, sweetening, mixing, etc). Once the project is open, a whole bunch of track templates for various instruments and vocals would be handy. Basically, any pre-built setups that take advantage of industry standards and best practices, to get the ball rolling. Obviously users would adjust templates and presets to their own taste, and nobody would have to use any of the pre-built stuff, but I think it would make DAWs easier to use if they contained a lot of quick-start stuff. 
 
PS: I know you can make your own templates, but the question is "what would make DAWs easier to use?" Creating a template from scratch is just as hard as working without templates, and almost impossible if you're new at the game.

abacab
 
Maybe a front-end for on-boarding new users could be added.  And after an initial install, you could click on "I'm an expert" and never see any of this sillyness again! 
 

Yes, I think experienced users might me put off by too much changes.
 
Again video editors have Basic and Expert view - all of them.
Seems that developers know they are targeting home users with film cameras - and made things a bit different.
Cameras are just a button to shoot, they expose and focus automatically nowadays - and you have something to pick parts of - so quite different from creating music where recording part is done in daw.
 
What I liked having the first glance in 20 years at video editors 9 months ago - all options available are in front of you, kind of. It was so easy to comprehend. Quite a bit of gui was reserved to present options you have which is really nice when you are new to a tool.
 
Lenses, if having Professional at least with manager, seems quite a good leap forward. Thank you for link.
Plenty good thinking there. Didn't quite get difference from screen sets before.
 
When Steinberg abandon Windows 7, which seems really near by, I'll have a look at Sonar again. Halion 6 was introduced ditching W7, but backed off that when rioting userbase screemed. But would not give an estimate for Cubase at all - so I might be in a dead end sooner than I planned for. I'm not getting a new computer just because of that. Anyway, that's why I keep a good look at Cakewalk camp still. I want products that are alive and maintained.

i like the idea of voice recognition controls, if only one that allows me to say "record" & that activates recording, because my guitar stuff is set up approx 8 feet away from my mouse (and my motherboard doesn't have any room for wifi or bluetooth, because of its "micro" design).  "record!"

Great thread/question to ask ourselves, it really gets you thinking. Id agree with some responses of more "why" integrated within how help screens,  especially when getting started, 
Integrating DAW's for Dummies app into help system would be good, LOL.
I guess someone who's genuinely interested in the recording process is going to invest the time and effort into researching and learning. As referenced article may suggest, more current generations want things yesterday, and provided by a smartphone App with the most work you have to do is subscribe and allow access to your life, LOL. (In my day we had to walk ten miles in 5 feet of snow just to get to the studio, then realize you forgot tape). 
 
Otherwise a more robust and more interactive artificially intelligent help system, with signal analysis capability and a more comprehensive automated history record keeping in a data base. Expanding on mix scenes and lenses and somewhat like Izotope Neutron track assistant, masking tools and history logging taken to next level or 2, not only making certain FX and chain order choices after analyzing a track/project, but also providing additional reference, query capability and information as to why and/or what these choices were based on. Hey, if we can we land a probe on a comet, a million miles away out in space somewhere, why not an artificially intelligent DAW here on earth, LOL? 
I guess in the end after learning all the hows, whys, whens, wheres and "say what's", or having computer tell you what to do, it all still comes down to making something sound good, which may be more of a intuitive gift than something learned. 
 
Otherwise I was helping a friend just getting started to setup a 2 channel Presonus AI, with Studio 1 Artist included, which Im not to familiar with, while it has some intuitive stuff to get started, and he was up recording in minutes after installation, beyond that I found the GUI so frustrating to teach with, so I bought him Sonar Home Studio to learn on (or for me to teach on, LOL), it seems so much easier to learn and teach with Sonar, for what ever reasons. (perhaps my bias and experience with Sonar).
 
Cheers