I've noticed something in some of the commercial remakes/inspired-by versions of X-COM/UFO that aren't in UFO:AI that I'd imagine would be easy to have implemented - simple animation for weapons and inventory items in the equipment description screens. Even something as simple as having a rifle rotating around in a circle slowly in the UFOpedia would add some attraction to the screens, IMO.
I've also seen versions where there are buttons to control it, zoom in and out, etc., although I would think that would mean more coding work.
Then again, I admit I'm not a coder.
What would really be nice would be embedded video clips that play in a loop, perhaps also for research topics in the UFOpedia, although that might be a bit overboard, I don't know.
Just a random thought...