Updated UI

[nilsjohan]

After updating back-end software we had to rebuild the forum theme/UI from scratch. The aim at this stage is to keep it as similar as the previous version and later on make further improvements of layout and functionality.

If you find anything that looks or works considerably different from previous version, please report it in this topic. Ideas and suggestions for future improvements are also welcome! 

This new UI looks like less stuff fits into the active area.  On my 1920 x 1080 display the active area only takes about 1/3 of the screen real estate if the window is maximized. The UI does not scale with window resizing. 

Any possibility of including a UI option for those that want to use the site on common desktop screen resolutions?  Making use of available screen real estate would reduce the amount of scrolling when reading through posts.

The active area is of same size as before, but the font sizes have been slightly increased which gives the impression that less content fits. This will soon be fine tuned in order to align with updated versions of other website sections.

I'd be happy with a widescreen option as well. I have a 4K monitor and yeah - again, like Quantum said - a lot of blank space.

While I agree about the bad utilization of screen real estate with a boxed layout such as Piano Street's, it is often considered better for readability with reasonably narrow text columns. It is very common, see for example: https://edition.cnn.com/2018/05/18/health/sharks-like-jazz-over-classical-music-trnd/index.html

Compare with the full width layout on a well-known related website:
https://forum.pianoworld.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/2787098/making-glossy-keys-matte.html

Reading such text on a large 1920x1080 or 4K screen tend to be very similar to watching tennis or playing opus 10 no 1. But that's perhaps a good thing?

Anyway, our plan is to make the user interface more customizable for individual preferences so all your thoughts are carefully considered.

[quantum]

Thanks for the response Nils.

While I do appreciate than some prefer the narrow column look for reading, I suggest an option for those of us that would like to use more real estate on large resolution displays.  Perhaps an optional theme one could switch to in user preferences.

Reading such text on a large 1920x1080 or 4K screen tend to be very similar to watching tennis or playing opus 10 no 1. But that's perhaps a good thing?

Hmm, I do like both of these things so maybe that explains a bit 

[keypeg]

The change that I seem to see is that letters appear bigger and thus easier to read.  I don't know if I'm only imagining it.

While I agree about the bad utilization of screen real estate with a boxed layout such as Piano Street's, it is often considered better for readability with reasonably narrow text columns. It is very common, see for example: https://edition.cnn.com/2018/05/18/health/sharks-like-jazz-over-classical-music-trnd/index.html

Compare with the full width layout on a well-known related website:
https://forum.pianoworld.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/2787098/making-glossy-keys-matte.html

I don't know which of the two is supposed to be better.  I definitely prefer the one on PianoWorld.  Much easier to follow.   One additional reason that probably keeps me away from cnn.