You may have heard about things like “guidelines for user interfaces” – Sometimes I tend to think that there is no such thing as a design guideline for a better user interface because some applications are just plain unusable for a normal human being.
But there are guidelines for almost everything and I wanted to give an overview:
Microsoft:
- Windows XP Guidelines for Applications
- Windows Vista User Experience Guidelines (direct pdf link)
- Office System 2007 User Interface Design Guidelines
- Guidelines for Keyboard User Interface Design
Apple:
- Apple User Experience Guides Overview
- Apple Human Interface Guidelines
- Apple Web Design Guide (oooold)
Linux:
- KDE Standards User Interface Guidelines
- GNOME Human Interface Guidelines
- Motif Style Guide
interesting ones: