I think when you progress a lev certain things should automaticly go up depending on your class like in dungeons and dragons and baldurs gate (i use those as reference alot).It would make level progression more exiting.
I really hope that levelling can be made entirely invisible myself. Though there should be an option to check your progress, I would prefer to have my stats improve seamlessly, like in real-life - suddenly you notice that you can lift something you couldn't before, or that you can run faster.