Cristian Pascu wrote a nice blog post on FlairBuilder. It’s an article about the basics of User Interface (UI) design of a website, which will definitely come in handy. Here’s a shortlist.

1. Content layout

Always keep in mind that a clean and consistent layout helps people navigate through your website.

2. Typography

Learn about different font types, sizes and families, to ensure you got the right font for the job.

3. Colors

Clear text is useful, but colors can play an amazing part in guiding a user and manipulating his/her feelings about the use of the application.

4. Technical writing

Think about every part of text you put in your UI. Descriptions may be clear to you, but to someone who sees your application for the first time they may not. It doesn’t really matter if a paragraph is long or short, as long as you can motivate why it is as it is.

5. Error handling

Error messages should always be clear and simple. Don’t overdo, but also don’t underestimate the value of good error reporting. Choose the right style for each type of error users can bump their heads on using your application.

6. Forms

When creating a form, make sure a user can easily navigate through and understand it, by using hints, help messages and default values. Also, make sure forms cannot be falsely or double submitted and make sure you provide the user with the proper warnings and error messages.

7. Keep it light and simple

Don’t overload your pages with all kinds of information. Instead, keep it simple, take the user by the hand and take it one step at a time. It’s usually better to have a process divided into ten simple steps than having two huge and sophisticated steps.

8. Understand your users

Think like a user: what does your application has to offer, what public are you aiming for and how will they respond to the application?

These are some nice things to keep in mind when creating and developing an application. And it goes for webapplications as well as other kinds of applications, like Flex, Flash or even desktop stuff.

For links and a more detailed explanation, read the full article at FlairBuilder.