photoshop, illustrator, and sketch 3 (from bohemian coding) are the industry standard for designing ui

I recommend practicing hotkeys.

Tool Hotkeys:
V – Select
A – Direct Select
Q – Lasso Tool
P – Pen
T – Type
M – Rectangle
L – Ellipse
C – Scissors
R – Rotate (hold shift to maintain 45 degree increments)
O – Mirror (hold shift to maintain 180 degree increments)
G – Gradient
H – Hand Tool (or hold space bar while dragging screen)
Z – Zoom In/Out , Alt + (mouse scroll) – Zoom In/Out

Useful Hotkeys:
Ctrl + Alt + N – New Document
Ctrl + S – Save , Ctrl + Shift + S – Save As
Ctrl + Q – Quit
Ctrl + Z – Undo/Redo Multiple Times
Ctrl + 0(zero) – Fit to Screen
Shift + (while moving object) – Maintains Alignment
Alt (while moving object) – Duplicate Object
Shift + Alt (while moving object) – Duplicate Object While Maintaining Alignment
Ctrl + A – Select All
Ctrl + Shift + .(period) – Increase Type Size , Ctrl + Shift + ,(comma) – Decrease Type Size
Ctrl + Shift + L or C or R – Left-align, Center-align, Right-align Type (cursor must be inside text box)
Ctrl + ; - Show / Hide Guides
Ctrl + R – Show/Hide Ruler
Ctrl + U – Turn On/Off Smart Guides
F – Free Roam Layout (click multiple times to cycle through the different layout options)
Alt + ↑ or ↓ or ← or → –Adjust Tracking, Kerning, and Leading of Type (while text is highlighted)
Ctrl + G – Group , Ctrl + Shift+ G – Ungroup
Ctrl + [ or ] – Bring Object Up or Down One Layer at a Time
Ctrl + Shift + [ or ] – Bring Object to Front/Send Object to Back
Ctrl + F – Paste in Front (after copying, this will duplicate the image in the exact same place)
Ctrl + D – Repeat Last Copy or Move (helps maintain consistent spacing)

This post was edited by ericswanson_19 on Mar 30 2015 07:55am

I'm just gonna add in that Sketch is indeed pretty awesome. I only started using it a few weeks ago but its pretty powerful and really streamlines the process.

What do you suggest for windows users?

PS/AI is still generally the way to go.

I personally like Sketch for the web side of things, generating css and what not, which granted is easy enough to just do by hand, but saving time is always good.

If web is something you want it for, I can suggest Brackets as a great coding tool where you can bring in PSD's and it will slice and give html/css for you. It's a little wonky to figure out but it's quite powerful.

Not for use in web.
I'm actually wanting to learn for video game design.

Ah, I personally just use PS/AI for the rare occasions I do video game UI/UX, but that's not really my specialization. But for any field of design those 2 will certainly get you by.

Here's something I came up with in photoshop alone in roughly 30 minutes.
Just wanna know if you guys think i'm heading on the right path;
(The text is just labeling, didn't spend any time on the text at all)

I don't think the outer glow is really needed, and I believe you should do the shading on the outlines by hand not bevel and emboss I'm a scrub though, so.

Thanks!
Theres no outer glow on anything though.
And yeah i could probably make it better if i do by hand"