I found some UI elements that could do better with some small adjustments.
Better UI means better new-players-retention rate.
I don't think new players aren't fond of pouring over tutorials to know the basics of the game. So keeping it as quick as possible for them to learn will lead to better retention rates.

Here are some things with the UI that can be improved:

1. The ship upgrade icon
I think I spent nearly 5-10+ minutes to search that icon.

2. The add/delete fleets icon
The '-' and '+' symbol is very small and I think an icon of a single ship doesn't represent the function of adding or deleting a fleet.

3. Intimation
There were certain situation in which I accidentally had no crew in my ships and set that fleet on a trade route. It said preparing for trade route and took some time. I logged off and came the next day to find it was there the whole time. Then after a lot of time found that I had no crew in my ships. Also it seems a ship with less than 15 crew doesn't move (I'm not sure about this but this once happened to me). I had to find all these things on my own. It would be great if these were intimated to me by the game,

4. Ship Market - Ship Trait Description
On hovering the ship trait, a description of that trait would be nice to have (Like how its possible when I check my ships in my fleet)

5. Hard to find help files
What the hell is a plantation ?
How the hell does the CRX work ?
What is a ship trait ?
There are things like this that have no help files or are hard to find because I haven't found them yet.

There are just my views. Some other player might have a different view.

First, Welcome to the forums. It is great pleasure to see newcomers to come with such meaningful posts as their first one. Such players are very much needed.

Secondly, I want to inform you that our current UI condition is a result of pressing priorities. It is not neglected. In fact, it is within our plans to improve it in the near future as much as possible. An entirely new skin is what we mostly need.

So, I think that posts like yours, under the characteristic of newcomer are mostly welcome. We will review your suggestions and try to implement what fits as soon as possible.

Thank you!

A quick fix that can be made for the fleets icon and the upgrade icon is: I think in the first game tutorial for the create a fleet mission and upgrade missions, it says to click on "Create new fleet" and "Click on upgrade" or something along those lines. There you could show a picture of that icon so that players know exactly what to look for.

Hi Davy Flint, welcome

Good suggestions