I've only used Curses, neither of the modules you mention, but Curses::UI seems to be a complete solution, and Curses::Widgets looks like a bunch of individual add on stuff. If this is your first Curses project, and you want something simple, it seems you'd probably be better off using Curses::UI. It might have the added advantage of preventing you from spending weeks adding more useless-but-neat-looking bells and whistles.