Graphical interfaces have to provide usability to users. Many of us have dealt with GUIs that were not well designed; the issue is with either presenting the information in a non-intuitive manner or not providing the tools we need to accomplish a task. Sometimes, the designer of a program never actually uses the program. Often, what makes sense on paper doesn't actually carry over to the final user's interaction.
Some organizations have guidelines for GUI best practices, such as Apple's Human Interface Guidelines (https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/macos/overview/themes/). In Apple's case, they provide directions for designing software for macOS, iOS, the Apple watchOS, and even Apple's tvOS.
Another example is the GNOME desktop environment (https://developer.gnome.org/hig/stable/). Other organizations or products...