I am an advocate of looking at what makes pieces you find are designed well, and keeping a "scrapbook" (for lack of a better phrase) of those patterns. Then as

I am an advocate of looking at what makes pieces you find are designed well, and keeping a "scrapbook" (for lack of a better phrase) of those patterns. Then as you design you can refer to those scraps for things that worked in UI, design, or just enhanced experience. While I don't advocate copying, I think its always better to stand on the shoulders of giants than to start from nothing.