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How to get UI designer window for AJAX

I want to start AJAX coding but also want to be able to design user interface in a designer window (like in MS Visual Studio) by dragging widgets onto the work area. Is there any tool that would let me do that easily?
Right now I'm using Aptana 3. I've installed jQuery but got lost trying to get jQuery UI. Is there any other way to get what I need?

There are no ajax/widget/js libraries out there that will have their own component designer, and you can stop searching for free ones, there are none.
There is one that most people know about, and it's called Sencha Architect, for the super awesome Sencha ExtJS library. Beautiful widgets, outstanding designer app, brilliant documentation. And such things of course come with a price tag.
If you are willing to make an investment:
Sencha ExtJS: http://www.sencha.com/products/extjs/
Store for ExtJS: http://www.sencha.com/store/architect/
Sencha Architect: http://www.sencha.com/products/architect/
Store for Architect: http://www.sencha.com/store/architect/
Other than this one, I've not seen any component/UI designer application for any js/ajax library.

jQuery: Plain HTML/CSS with core jQuery or jQuery UI for a blog?

I'm about to implement a blog, and I'm pretty sure I want to go with jQuery, because I really like it.
However, when I last did jQuery, I just did plain HTML/CSS and then improved the user experience with what jQuery has to offer. Meanwhile, jQuery UI has been released, and it looks like a full-fledged user interface framework like Ext JS.
Can I benefit from jQuery UI with a rather simple website like this, or is it more geared towards web applications like GMail?
jQuery UI is quite large and seems to have lots and lots of CSS in their skins. I'm a bit worried that I would have to write/adjust tons of CSS to make the blog look like I want it to. If I did plain HTML/CSS, I would have fine-grained control over the appereance.
Edit: I'll stress again that I'm specifically wondering whether jQuery UI is intended for and useful for a simple website like a blog. It is no doubt useful for more sophisticated web applications.
Edit 2: Thanks for all your answers, too bad I couldn't accept more than one. By now I realised that jQuery UI is not like I expected a full-fledged web application framework, but rather a bunch of useful utilities on top of jQuery. I think I'll use it, if only for Draggable, Droppable and Selectable.

You don't necessarily need to write loads of CSS if you don't like the supplied styles.
The jQuery UI ThemeRoller is a very good web-based GUI for customising the look of the widgets. It then allows you to download your own customised (and minified) .css and .js files containing just the widgets you need.
I suggest that you should have a play with that first and see if you can make the demo widgets look how you'd like them before making any decision.

You can have both... I have! Where I am using widgets (datepicker) etc, I use jquery ui, besides visit : http://jqueryui.com/themeroller/ and you can customize the colours quite easily. The UI themes are recommended strongly if you use the widgets as the widgets rely on the css defined therein to move things around, for display and selection, handling rezise of widgets.
You can always build your site using html + css then add the ui theme later, as you said it will increase the user experience greatly... besides we always end up using 1 or 2 features then extend or find other suitable plugins.

As always, the answer is 'it depends'.
More specifically though, it depends on what kind of a UI you're planning on. If you find yourself coding functionality that's already there in jq UI go ahead and use it. They've got a handy theme roller plugin which will allow you to customize the skin to perfectly match the look of your site, so that is a non issue.
You might also want to include it all through a CDN (offered by google or MS) so that your site doesn't get slow downloading the (relatively) heavy initial payload.

Which is your favourite javascript modal plugin?

I'm trying to choose a JavaScript modal plugin to use it on a web site.
I used to use nyroModal (without making any research on this topic) but they have updated it recently and all of the API has changed and, apparently, some of the functionallity of previous version has been lost.
So, I think that this is time to start thinking about whether nyroModal is the right plugin to choose.
I see this question: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/756342/whats-your-favorite-jquery-modal-plugin but I'm not asking for a jQuery plugin, but a JavaScript plugin. The one that you prefer.
This is the functionallity I need:
Launch the modal using an anchor
Launch the modal manually and specify its content
Ability to customize all its content
Ability to attach callbacks on specific modal events
Updated documentation
Thank you!

I think most of the best modal layers are built using a particular framework (i.e. jQuery, mootools, dojo, etc).
By the way, I used several times highslide and it's very powerful!! No frameworks needed :)

I am a mootools fan, and this plugin is my favorite at the moment. It does modal for images, videos, and etc. http://iaian7.com/webcode/mediaboxAdvanced
if you are looking for something similar to what facebook as. David Walsh has a modal plugin called LightBox and its great. http://davidwalsh.name/facebook-lightbox
Both of these plugins are based off Mootools framework.

Redbox Alternative?

I am building an app and want to have a lot of the site forms come up in a box over the screen with the background darkened out. I have seen redbox on github and it seems to do what I need it to do but I see that it hasnt been updated since 2007. Is there a new way to go about this? Any alternatives to redbox?
Thanks for your ideas!

Look at overlay effect in jQuery tools - a pretty nice library with a lots of demos. This is a collection of modern user-interface components such as tabs, tooltips, overlay, scrollable and so on. Single JavaScript file weighs only 5.72 Kb.
There is another pretty nice box plugin: jquery fancybox. It can display images, video, flash, html-content. Packed js weighs 15Kb. Very cool stuff.

we used facebox for popup the implementation and how to use popup on ajax subpages also explained http://www.spritle.com/blogs/?p=564. The ui for facebox is already given.Redbox development is stopped I think. I suggest to go for some other solution like thickbox, lightbox or any other solution if you want to apply your own style for your popup.But, in my opinion facebox is better.

How do jQuery modal box plugins compare?

There is a huge number of jQuery modal box plugins out there. Jitter lists 20 of them in this response (Modal windows plugin to rails).
Which one do you use and why? If you use different ones in different cases, how can they be broken down categorically by use-case?

I pick what I want based on its primary use. The fact that you can use a lightbox variant to show a dialog box, doesn't make it a good candidate in my mind.
Generally if I need to show photos or another iframed web page, I use a lightbox variant. Two that we have used at our studio and been happy with are:
Slimbox 2 (Just photos)
Colorbox (Pretty much any type of content)
For dialog type behavior, I highly recommend using jQuery UI's dialog. It is in active development, and is super customizable.
[rant] Whatever you do please don't use SimpleModal unless you need its special type of callbacks. Otherwise, when you try to hook into an onClose callback, you'll find yourself having to perform the actual closing of the box. Just my two cents on that one. :) I just know it has come up a few times here in SO, and it just feels awkward to use IMO [/rant]

I use Colorbox, it is because it is recommended alternative in non-maintained thickbox.
Basically it allows iframe, so image, flash etc are all okay. Also it is incentive for me to upgrade jQuery to 1.3.2 :-)

JQuery UI Dialog with a "plugin" to support iframes:
http://elijahmanor.com/post/jQuery-UI-Dialog-w-Resizable-iFrame.aspx
I use it because it's included in JQueryUI and uses the jquery ui theme you use, which makes for a consistent UI with little cost