I agree that the interface is not the most intuitive... I feel a bit lost. However, there will be numerous UI mods coming out very soon that, hopefully, will address some of the usability issues.
Curse is up and running with their AOC site. I will be trying out some UI Mods once some promising ones surface. More on this as it develops.
Also, I read somewhere that turning off the UI in a city can raise your FPS by 20+... so a minimalistic UI will be nice for running around town. We may see some of that soon.