The size and layout of user interface components need to be optimally designed in terms of reachability, visibility, clearance, and compatibility in order for efficient and effective use of products. The present study develops an ergonomic design method which optimizes the size and layout of user interface components using adaptive genetic algorithm. The developed design method determines a near-optimal design which maximizes the aggregated score of 4 ergonomic design criteria (reachability, visibility, clearance, and compatibility). The adaptive genetic algorithm used in the present study finds a near-optimum by automatically adjusting the key parameter (probability of mutation) of traditional genetic algorithm according to the characteristic of current solutions. Since the adaptive mechanism partially helps to overcome the local optimality problem, the probability of finding the near-optimum has been substantially improved. To evaluate the effectiveness of the developed design method, the present study applied it to the user interface design for a portable wireless communication radio.