In the development world there is usually a clear cut between code developers and graphical designers. The first usually don't know much what design means or have no clues how to make something look good / usable. Sure IT is so huge that you can't know all (from security, to frameworks, to server handling and design just to name a few), but somehow if you design a product you must have an overview of the whole picture.
What counts for your users is not what counts for you. Sure security is a must, and cannot be left aside, and sure you must have good performances and a correct logic. However what your users will first see is for sure the interface. Also a good interface speedups the work while a badly designed one will slow you down. It is therefore mandatory to invest a lot of time trying things and see how you can improve it. Here a designer should help you at least with the look of it, but could as well help with you the usability side. You must also share the UI design with potential users to hear from their feedback but don't expect that they will provide you the best solution.
A way to work and design is simply to use the old pen & paper to draw / sketch designs and discuss how things are placed. Don't worry about the tech side yet, it is a lot more important to know how it may look like than how to do it at this point.
Some tools may help you try the design, from a plain "photoshop" or to things like http://www.invisionapp.com/ or https://moqups.com/.
However clearly the only way to really test your UI at the end is within the software once everything is nearly working. To be able to change the UI without changing the code means you must somehow separate the look & feel with the functionalities. MVC designs or other simpler separation like templating can be of huge help.
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