As we can probably expect the next Fallout game to be built using the DX9 Gamebryo/Skyrim engine, it looks like we'll have Skyrim's horrible UI to look forward to unless Obsidian does some ridiculous tweaking. From Gamasutra:

After spending a couple of hours with the game, there's no other way for me to say it: Skyrim is one of the worst PC ports I have ever had the displeasure of playing. Though many issues will likely be fixed and improved as time goes on, and undoubtedly mods by more enterprising gamers will help additional problems, the release state of Skyrim is, frankly, inexcusable. "Appalling" is not a word I use too lightly to describe a game, but it's the only one that fits here.

After Fallout 3's interface left me with a bad taste in my mouth, I wasn't expecting Skyrim's interface to astound - indeed, preview footage lead me to believe that it was a classic case of Bethesda once again trading in functionality for looks. Fair enough, that's nothing new. I can struggle through the UI, even if it's a bit wonky, until someone comes out with a replacement. Unfortunately, Skyrim's PC user interface is quite possibly the clunkiest and most difficult I have ever seen in a game made after the DOS era. I have played games from 1985 that were infinitely more usable than Skyrim; that a modern game makes so many elementary mistakes suggests a certain kind of malevolence, not simple laziness.

...

Bomb the QA Department

One final damning point about Skyrim's PC port - it's horribly, pathetically optimized, and has major compatibility issues. Right from the bat, I knew that something was wrong when my high-end system was getting framerates in the low 20s from time to time, and when performance did not improve upon lowering the graphics options. Things became even more suspicious when I realized that there was no rhyme or reason for any of the framerate drops - whether I was outside in the overworld, the terrain stretching into the distance, or inside a tiny shop the size of a prison cell, the game's framerate fluctuates all over the place. There's no question about this: Skyrim is badly optimized.

...

"Mods will fix it" is a phrase commonly uttered when Bethesda games are mentioned, and it's certainly true that their often-buggy and occasionally-broken games have been substantially improved by their extremely dedicated fan community - I probably would not have got through Fallout: New Vegas or Oblivion if it wasn't for the countless hours fans spent overhauling the game's interface and fixing the bugs Bethesda refused to officially acknowledge. Even so, Skyrim's PC release is a new low for Bethesda - it's not that the PC version was a low priority for them, it's that it was no priority at all.

Bethesda's QA Department has dropped the ball again, just like with RAGE. We know you think the PC is too hard to develop on Pete, but come on.

Be sure to click here and read the rest of the Gamasutra article, as it's just too ridiculous to ignore.