Step Right Up: The Adventures Begin

Tom's Blog on GridBagLayout
describes how difficult and frustrating it can be using Layout Managers for the first time.

It's equally frustrating when having got used to one type of layout you are now asked to move to another in the interests of integration with other systems. It should be a doddle,they say. Hmmmm !
Effective Layout Management: Magercise 4: Mini Personal Information Manager GUI is a good intro to designing good GUIs without dragging one into the underlying implementation details too much. More power to those who do understand the underlying implementation details but the 80/20 rule applies
here. 80% of the time when designing GUIs you need not know what's happening under the hood.
The frosting is the first step of the cake design-user appreciation interaction. White frosting works for most cake designs. Pirate ships need a lot more ingenuity. Barbie doll cakes with ants on them send a deep message of integrating the diverse interests of a four year old's friends. And so it is with GUI design.
Designing the GUI is like designing the frosting on the cake.
My very first task was to implemnt a Windows feel to the GUI layer. Sun had proovided the Motif, Metal but I don't recall a Windows look and feel.

Currently Apple are getting a look in Enterprise Application Look and Feel, I feel, ;)