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This is one of my quest too to discover some kind of pattern, UI guidelines,
or the commonness across the web-stand alone applications. Tilll today, I
haven't got very good answer. Web remains a medium for expressing freedom,
there's hardly any standard which I can derive.

But some of the studies I have done to build my own 'UI Style Guide' is by
looking constantly at 'Yahoo', 'MS Outlook - web access (MS exchange
version)' and some of the online interfaces for Supply Chain Products -
mySAP, etc.

I have appreciated 'Yahoo' UI standards so far the most meaningfull from
Usability perspective. Besides looking at how 'MS outlook - web access' is
designed to have same interaction with that of the 'MS Outlook - standalone'
would be a lot insiteful for your purpose. I am sure if you look at these
applications, you will surely get answers to what you have asked. You are
right, web interfaces mostly try creating a 'Home' because that is very
important to establish navigation and a sense of 'where am I(?) feeling',
under the shadow of browsers own nevigation and controls.

There is not one place where I found all the answers about Do's and Don'ts
in the web interface. Some of the people have tried doing it, SAP is the one
- http://www.sapdesignguild.org/. Although it is not an Interface Guidelines
but is a good attempt to define 'UI style Guide'. Hope this will help you.

Do share if you discover anything better in your research.

Pradyot Rai

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