Simple Web UI tool for non UI people

Question

I've recently had an upswing in the number of people looking for web applications that look good too. I'm not much of a design guy though.

I need a tool that isn't as complex as Photoshop or Stylevision but will still help me to create a nice clean web UI (like stackoverflow for example) that can be then be integrated into a ASP.NET master page etc. So no inline css; resources need to be separate.

All of the customers are looking for something web 2.0 style so that would be the target. Flash etc is not required. Canned themes would probably be okay too.

Anyone else doing the one man army thing?

UPDATE: Good suggestions below for raw material but what tools are people using? Expressions, an Adobe product? This there a good free editor?

Answer 1

I use CSS themes available int he internet. You can check this question which has list off free css themes.

Search for web 2.0 icons in the internet and you will get lot of free icons packs which you can use in your applications.

Answer 2

If I want to do simple logos, buttons etc. I usually use Adobe Fireworks to create graphics

Answer 3

I think this really starts with your research and experience. There's nothing quite like learning good UI design by first creating bad UIs. I mean the UIs that make perfect sense to you when you design and test them and that your users keep screwing up or calling you every day to be re-trained. I've been personally responsible for some user interfaces that I think are terrible now but I look back on them as valuable lessons of what mistakes not to make.

If you listen to the early stackoverflow podcasts Jeff talks a lot about what inspired the UI here. Effectively it came from inspiration from other websites, both good and bad ones.

I also recommend some reading such as Best Practices for Form Design by Luke Wroblewski and The Non-Designer's Design Book by Robin Williams

Answer 4

Simple vector graphics apps can do a pretty good job of what you're thinking of. They use primitives like rectangles and give you basic control of manipulation, without being a huge pain to deal with pixels themselves. They also obviously have text and image placement so that works as well,

I can suggest Adobe Fireworks, Adobe InDesign, Microsoft Visio, or Omni Group OmniGraffle.