I agree. I would love to see an overhaul on the UI, and that alone could take care of a lot of XIV's basic issues. I've tried it with the mouse and keyboard, I've tried it with a PS3-cloned gamepad, and it really doesn't seem ideal for either. It seems to me like they attempted to do something that would work for both camps, and ended up not entirely managing to make it work smoothly for either.

For the reasons OP said, it's rough using a mouse and keyboard. But it's also rough using a gamepad, especially in battle trying to press left or right repeatedly to get to desired actions, and with the game as menu-heavy as it is, it's slow navigating with both a pad and a keyboard regardless.