Designing Interfaces 
Jennifer Tidwell, a UI designer at a major mathematical/scientific software company, has written what is, in my opinion, the book on UI Design Patterns. This book is a fantastic resource for quickly and easily replicating standardized experiences for your software’s user interface. It also doesn’t hurt that Jennifer pulls a number of examples from Visual Studio 
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Possibly Related Posts:
- Uneven distribution
- Neal Stephenson Novel, Anathem, Coming in September
- Making Things Happen
- Design of Everyday Things
- Don’t Make Me Think
Also – check out http://ui-patterns.com – a great resource for UI patterns on the web.