When I first started designing applications I would take the current look and feel of a Microsoft app and try and replicate it, keeping the same metaphors. Unless you a full time interaction designer, this approach tends to result in software providing the functionality your created in code to your users but does not always aid them in their process.
Recently I have seen push in the community to drive better GUIs, we are now talking about unit testing the interface and getting user involved from the very first time the screen is created and even talking them through hand drawn diagrams. This best practice of highlighting the GUIs absolute importance in good application adoption has helped me highlight an area of my application development I have sometimes overlooked, or only briefly looked at.
If you are in need of some direction in the GUI design and some of the mistakes to avoid you should read Jakob Nielsens's Top-10 Application-Design Mistakes.
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