Jeniffer Tidwell has written a useful list of common patterns that helps provide literary solutions within Interface Design.
Her list isn’t intended as a step-by-step guide on creating an interface, but as general techniques intended to help you solve design problems.
…patterns are structural and behavioral features that improve the “habitability” of something — a user interface, a Web site, an object-oriented program, or even a building. They make things more usable, easier to understand, or more beautiful; they make tools more ready-to-hand.
The Website has since changed and is now located to her book site
http://designinginterfaces.com
[Update: 10/6/2006:] The UPA Usability Body of Knowledge (BOK) website have a page on design patterns and related links.