A stacked pattern can accentuate the linear qualities of the room. Stacked tile can draw the eye from wall-to-wall, A diagonal pattern can open things up a bit. Diagonal can fool the eye into thinking a narrow room is less narrow, for example, by drawing the eye from corner-to-corner, which is a longer distance than wall-to-wall. Best bet would be to draw a floor plan, make a few copies of it, then sketch in your proposed tile patterns. Here's a link to the first hit I got. A couple of good comparison photos in slate of a 5' square floor.

Looking at your floorplan, I would lay the floors where they run from the kitchen to the balcony and from the bath to the bedroom window. (All the same direction) Chances are you are not going to have to worry about the direction of your joists if you are doing a glue down or floating installation. Straight answer. Just my $.02

When we redid our long, narrowish galley kitchen and adjacent laundry room we also used 12x24 tiles. I could have gone either way since our surrounding wood floor is on a diagonal. Our tile guys recommended it go lengthwise (bowling alley) saying that is how they would lay hardwood in the room. I laid tile out both ways and agreed with them. I think the only time you get the "it makes the room look wider" is when it's laid on the diagonal. Can you lay some tile out in both directions next to the hardwood? Personally, I think it looks better going in the same direction as the wood floor, but it's really a personal preference. BTW, our tile is laid in a 3/4 offset pattern like in your last picture.

Perpendicular from the DOOR. The last photo in your latest post shows the planks sitting perpendicular (running "across" the threshold) is the less attractive way to do this. The OTHER thing to take into consideration is DIRECTION OF NATURAL LIGHT. Assuming your home has the same type of windows/natural lighting, you want to run the planks in the same direction as the source of natural light (windows). That means the long beams of light will be the same direction as the long length of the floor planks. Your last photo shows the OPPOSITE to what I'm pointing out. I would run the long length of the plank from the DOOR to the bottom of the stairs (the opposite to what your last photo shows). Going back to your original plans, that means the LONG LENGTH of the plank will start at the door and run AWAY to the back of the home (past the stairs and into the great room). And all the rooms will keep this direction. It will mean the flow of natural lighting is maintained with the direction of the plank - a double bonus.