How great that you are planning to work with drought-tolerant plants instead of all lawn! Good for you. Best thing to do is to take some photos and measurements, and head to your local nursery. They can help you choose plants for the area, and possibly, even have an affiliated designer work out a graduated plan for you for a nominal sum.

Yes, working with a long term plan layout is best idea. Use large rock as focal points and give structure with trellis or some thing you like and a dry steam of rocks and patio area with pavers and a mix of tall medium and small size plants. Just look for plants in your area that like it dry and do well and put them in the dry bed and patio area for when it does rain it will drain slowly. If you garden at all you could increase plants by dividing your plant every 3 years.

I'd recommend very deep large pots or wine half-barrels with drip irrigation. Water during the drought will get even scarcer this summer and it will be hard to start even low-water plants. Try adding an indoor/outdoor rug for color and a shade structure such as a triangular sail.

Your landscaping will depend on your house facing north or south and if there are any trees shading it. Why don't you look through my drought tolerant boards for some ideas.

Also you might try matching the shapes of landscape to the style of your house. My renderings are broken up into styles so why don't you take a look and see what style your house is and design accordingly.

http://www.houzz.com/projects/579051/renderings-drought-tolerant-california-native