A Good Style Guide Under the Creative Commons?

eldavojohn writes "I've been charged with making a specific user interface style guide for a suite of software by my employer. I'm not quite sure where to start. So I turned to my favorite search engine only to be brutally disappointed with what is out there to help me. I'm a software developer but have not had any formal training in UI design or look and feel. I'm looking for something more than just "keep it simple, stupid." I'm looking more for something that is specific but not technologically dependent. This doesn't have to be a global standard, merely a document that illustrates how one would effectively describe look and feel. Does anyone know of such a guide either created by an organization, government or company for their own uses — possibly one even released under the creative common license?" In addition to just documentation, what other UI advice can Slashdot readers offer in order to ensure quality development?

Comments

Re:Wrong question...

[RobBebop]

Tell your tightwad boss to pick someone more suited to the task - Even the weenies in Marketing can probably do the task better than an engineer (unless you just happen to have a background in technical writing, but it sounds like that doesn't fit into your job description/requirements).

When geeks design a Style Guide, it looks like this. Simple, elegant, uncluttered.

When the weenies in Marketing design a Style Guide, the audience ends up trying to punch a psychedelic virtual monkey. Please don't suggest anything that would put marketing personnel in a position to produce anything that will guide me, thankyouverymuch.