Whether you are assessing usability of a site or designing a site, there are always times you get stuck wondering if there is a better way to design a menu, a search form, or almost anything else.

Pattern libraries are often used by development teams to reuse code and to provide consistency across multiple sites or products. Yahoo! even publishes their pattern library so people creating Yahoo! stores and such can make use of their code and designs.

In the pattern library at Welie.com, Interaction Design Pattern Library - Welie.com, you get patterns from a variety of different sources that Martijn van Welie at Phillips Design has collected.

Each pattern is shown as a solution to a problem and there are sections on when, how, and why to use the pattern. There are also additional examples.

Unless a particular pattern is clearly marked as free for you to use, consider all of these simply inspiration.

Labels: interface, tools