As all Bitshares followers should know by now, @BillButler posted a renewal to his Worker Proposal for continued work on the user interface.
https://steemit.com/bitshares/@billbutler/bitshares-gui-worker-proposal-renewal
For the record, I voted for the first proposal and have already voted for the second. I support the work being done and applaud Bill for stepping up and doing a great job filling the void.
I had already left a relatively long comment, and then received a well thought out response from 
"I personally think that an independent Worker Proposal would be best suited to be laser focused on JUST the design and user interaction/flow through the site. This should involved multiple rounds of completely fresh design mock-ups; voting from the community (similar to a 99designs approach); and THEN work with the development team (perhaps you and your team) to integrate the winning design with the backend code."
I'll try to clear up my original statements, but I also want to reiterate that while Bill and his team have done a very good job, I continue to believe that the actual design continues to be secondary to bug fixes, and when elements of the 'design' are updated, it's very incremental.
I've worked at a design agency and I've also worked with engineers and programmers. It was always a little cringe-worthy when the engineers built out the interface for their masterful creation. It's usually very "matter of fact" without much concern for form, because they know exactly WTF it can do, where stuff is, and how well it's coded.... without regard for simplified, clean usability and best/modern design practices.
Guess which category Bitshares falls into?
Yes, the "programmer-designed" category. It's as functional as it can be, but it hasn't truly uplifted its look and feel to that of a modern application. It looks and feels like you are inside a blockchain.... which you are of course, but it doesn't really reinforce its position as a next-level, super capable blockchain application.
Before you think I'm hating on Bitshares.... that's entirely not the case. I'm a big cheerleader and fan, and as someone who knew about it before it existed as Bitshares, and finally bought into it at its previous all-time-highs of $0.40 back in the June/July run, all the way down to $0.04ish, and back up to its recent ATH. I'm no whale, or tadpole, but definitely holding for longer term value. I believe.
Now, on to my clarifications for
"I tend to agree in general, however what you're talking about is a V E R Y big effort, a total redesign."
While I agree it is a pretty big effort, it's not like we need to redesign hundreds of pages. A talented designer or small group of designers could be helped to understand the platform, the core functions of each section/page, and go at it for 2 weeks in Photoshop. There are so many UX/UI frameworks and starter graphical elements available to jump start -- every designer has a "toolkit." 3-4 weeks (more or less), a few rounds of feedback among the project team, and we could have slick new designs to work with.
Perhaps the feedback loop could be more informal and "centralized" with Bill, but he could certainly the gauge community for feedback before making decisions on the design.
"To create a quality UI/UX for a product that meets users needs requires first to identify your target user audience"
Sure, gotta know who you are selling to.... but I think we can all agree there are some basics that don't require us to go all "ivy league" on this. Look at any modern, end-user SaaS company for inspiration. A good interactive designer would have the experience and gut/intuition about the design after understanding the intentions of each page/section.
Our users? Well, they range from newbies in crypto to heavyweights; day traders to no-traders. The "whale power" that 
If Bitshares is to be an industry leading DEX in the coming year(s) when DEX's are going to be a HOT topic and big deal, then it needs to be designed so any halfway web-savvy individual can intuitively create an account, easily fund their account, and feel empowered to navigate around.
On-page contextual tool-tips and/or video tutorials that walk-through explanations of each page would also boost user confidence and undestanding.
My comment:
Not so much in the Exchange itself, as that is fairly on par with others, but in the REST of the Bitshares experience.
Bitshares is so much more than just an exchange. It's a blockchain, a cryptocurrency / crypto asset, a wallet, a "citizen's portal" into the community (voting, etc.), and an exchange.
The actual Exchange tab (from main top navigation) is only one section of the site. In that section, it already looks, feels, and functions kinda like you'd expect it to.... assuming you've been in a centralized exchange/trading environment before. Trading View charts will be a great addition when they are added. While I think some good styling can and should be applied to this section, the REST of the "Bitshares experience" encompasses all the other sections and user interaction with the platform.
1/2 rant, 1/2 response... done.