Thanks @Gibier will be very useful for AGD.
I worked my head for several hours but I figured mostly everything out via trial and error over the past few weeks. In a way it was a fun puzzle game I will throw some paragraphs into this thread. If they would be deemed useful.
Understanding the alignments/bounds and how they relate to the different entities was the biggest challenge for me when learning from a blank slate.
Quick Tricks:
-Elements can be stacked on top of each other just have to be mindful of their location in the xml for that is how they will be stacked in game and certain elements can obscure others.
-Digging in the xml you can find the hidden trade button and make a UI for it if you wish.
-You can add images to some things that do not have them by copy and pasting the image part of xml to the area you want an image.
-Control+F is nice
The UI feature is amazing and very powerful as has been stated, it may seem a bit daunting at first, but once a person gets used to it, its very flexible. It really allows for some creative effects as seen in a few of the projects floating around the forums. Give it a try and see what creative design you can come up with! I would suggest making your art first and then learning to fit the xml around that art. Even if a person just starts with a custom chatbox ect.