It's vital to outline 'what' you're designing. There are certainly design patterns and guidelines for a variety of platforms but also for a variety of audiences. If you're talking about designing for the web Yahoo has one of the most comprehensive and open collections of patterns out there: (http://developer.yahoo.com/ypatterns/) otherwise it really depends on what you're trying to design. You're best served searching for patterns and going from there - the Wroblewski form design book is a great example of drilling down to specific tasks/elements for insight.