It takes up a small fraction of the screen. This means it requires a lot of up/down navigation to use.
It's sorted by most recently crafted, which sort of makes sense but is often more of a hindrance than a convenience. If you haven't crafted an item in a while, you have guess roughly how many other items you've crafted in the meantime, or press down/up until you spot it.
Since 1) some icons are pretty similar (e.g. some sort of red ball/circle/blob), and 2) some icons aren't obvious if you haven't seen them in a while (these are all imaginary sci-fi space items, after all), this can also involve a lot of guessing and backtracking.
There's a way to filter by type of item, but I've never found that to be convenient in any situation.
As a small mercy, it is nice that the crafting UI shows you which items are craftable with currently available resources.
As a small mercy, it is nice that the crafting UI shows you which items are craftable with currently available resources.