Well creating good user interfaces is not about putting in particular controls, it's about making the interface very usable for what the user wants to accomplish, and there is no magic formula for this.
There are some concepts you could keep in mind. A good user interface should at least:
- Make it clear what the user should do next.
- Allow the user to accomplish this with a minimum of interaction.
- Get out of the user's way when not needed.
If you look at the above, you may notice that too much focus on particular controls can actually lead to poor interfaces as some things are used for the flash factor and can become obnoxious.
With that said, there are some usability metrics that you could use as a rough guide, and that should help someone with a more functional mindset. You can google those, but here's a page with some that should get you started:
http://www.measuringusability.com/blog/essential-metrics.php
A while ago, I read a book called "The Humane Interface" which I thought had some good ideas on UIs. It's an older book, but I think much of what it had to say still rings true to this day.
Finally, go online and check out some web sites. Heaven knows the web is the perfect medium for how NOT TO design a user interface. Even big companies display shocking incompetence when designing what should be the most straight-forward of sites. See what the bad sites are and why you dislike them. See what the good sites are and why you like them. Sure these are web sites, but they still require interactivity and are therefore relevant.