Have you tried doing an automatic map for your UVs? They'll always appear messed up and weird when you first open the editor (if you haven't done any mapping) so if you do an automatic mapping (polygons>CreateUVs>Automatic Mapping) this will give you a good start and you can then cut and sew the pieces together to start making a layout that makes sense and is workable.
(I'm still using Maya 2015 so it might be slightly different for you in 2016)