I love all the new modules that have been released lately including the newbb 2, smartfaq, and a bunch of the other ones, but it seems that with all the new added features that they seem too be too "busy". Is there a way that we can work to make these modules a little more compact?

great idea - busy sites are hard to use. thankfully, because these modules use smarty templates, much of the final design of these applications are customizable by an admin (if they choose to customize the the templates).

But I think the default UI's provided by a module need attention too, since that is what most admins will use. For general users to see how great the XOOPS application system is, it needs to look good. The average user can care less how clean the code is, or how flexible the system is. Their first impression is based on how it looks.

In some cases, the developers can use help in designing a more appealing application. That's where the community can help.

If you, or anyone else in the community, have ideas on how to improve the UI of modules, speak out. I can guarantee that the developers will ask for examples and possible solutions, rather than generalizations, but I can also guarantee they will welcome any offered help.