Doesn't QML make the creation of richer UI implementations feasible? At least this is what is marketed. I haven't tried QML at this point, but that's where I would start if a rich UI were my goal.

http://wiki.maemo.org/QML

QML is part of Qt Quick tools here:
http://qt.nokia.com/products/qt-quick/

There is a decent video there and there is tutorial code that exists that can be used to get started.