Design Patterns

Creating Your Own Design Patterns

Hi all - I am a UX designer whose recently been given responsibility for getting our design pattern library up to speed. Can anyone recommend a researched based design patter library - similar to the usability.gov publication - but newer and more comprehensive. Looking to spend some money, or get what I can for free. Any leads would be much appreciated!!

Best practices for designing Terms and Conditions/Customer Agreement Interactions

I'm looking for any research or information on best practices for designing interactions where users have to accept some legal terms and conditions.  For instance - what are the advantages/disadvantages of presenting terms to the side of the main form vs. below or in a pop-up?  Or - if the terms are going to be in a scrolling window, are there any guidelines about how big that window should be?  How many lines should show at once relative to length of the whole agreement?

Web Form Design Patterns: Sign-up and Purchase

I am creating a signup process for a paid-for service and am looking for best practices.  I've found  the following web resources but would like to understand the design patterns in a more structured manner. Can anyone recommend better reference material?

http://patterntap.com/tap/collection/forms

http://www.smileycat.com/design_elements/registration_forms/index.php?page=1

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/07/04/web-form-design-patterns-sign-up-forms/

Thanks!