Java AWT/SWT/Swing: How to plan a GUI?

Question

I\'ve already realized some applications with a small graphical user interface. Nothing complex, but I\'ve encountered several problems that components aren\'t displayed or

Answer 1

Apart from tools discussion, just some ideas and thoughts

1. Before you touch the keyboard, draw the GUI elements on paper. Like the classic storyboard used for video production. If you have customers, use the hand-drawn (!) designs to communicate the ideas (.. just read, that you already plan on paper)
2. Plan to implement a model-view-controller (MVC) or model-view-presenter pattern
3. Databinding is a great technique to consider. It guarantees synchronisation between your model (data) and the view (GUI) and offers input validation, on-the-fly conversion and many more useful things (Provided the link for JFace databinding, but I'm sure, there are other frameworks for Swing/AWT as well)