It may be my low-res settings, but when I try to design ships, it is very difficult to see the whole ship. Technically, this is because there is no fill light in space: all of your light comes from a single source with nothing to diffract it, so areas in shadow are completely black (rather than just dark, as on Earth, where natural reflected light fills in the shadows). Changing the gamma correction isn't much help, since the contrast is so strong that the light areas become too washed out.

It would be good to either have the option to turn on a fill light or rotate the main light source, or both, in the ship designer. This might also be nice in the various viewers (like the shipyard and the 'details' view), but it is really needed in the designer.