Accessibility vs. Skeuomorphism...

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OK. I made it more awesome and legible in fauxtoshoop. I think this should be used as the default with a 2010 style option for ppl who like the original. I made the panic button better too:

For those who do not know Propellerhead Reason (now Reason Studios), you might want to look it up.
When it came out in 2000 the pseudo realistic GUI (even with dangling cabels at the backsite of Devices that you could plug in where ever you desired) was a big help for Musicians that came from a real studio with real hardware to adapt to Musik produced and mixed in a Computer.

And while I love the huge SSL mixing console of Reason, I find the more "computerlike" Mixer in Studio One a better option to work with. Less charme, but better usability.
All the devices here are more 2D than 3D in design, but still there are Buttons to push and turn if something alike exist in the real world as well. I for one would not like to miss these familar appearances from my past.

Regarding Pianoteqs UI, things are different. The only thing a player touches and moves are the keys. All the rest (the inner workings) are for the Engineers and later the tuners. No need to show an icon of a felted hammer to adjust hammer hardness. So you keep the GUI technical.

But there are still these small hints that bring up visions of carefully shaped, laquered and polished Wood. A faint echo of the real live Piano that was the inspiration of the model. Maybe that is just me, being toched inside by these little details.
The Image of the "real" piano in a given Room. The soft curve above the "Middle Window" that holds the name of the selected piano in its original writing above the moving Pedals in a shape that mimics real ones.

Nothing of that is "usefull" and can be omitted. And yet... Music is an Art!
I think our virtual Instruments should be pieces of Art as well, just like their counterparts.

I respect the aesthetic choice and appreciation of visual cues. I had an injury also so it's a little more complicated than just magnification...

I appreciate the suggestion to map the magnifier to one of my mouse buttons. Just useful in general for graphics stuff.

I'm an Ableton user who likes the compactness. I like the ability to scale it easily so when I'm playing music with people I can share relevant information.

I use a lot of modeled instruments simultaneously and they all compete for space. They all want to be pretty and push the realness factor of the experience.

It's OK but clunky when I'm plugged into my external monitor, but when I need to go somewhere to play, I just have a laptop screen.

I think there should be the options for:
- compact for DAW users on laptops (and the iOS!). Compact, not shrunk and illegible.
- high contrast for folks who have vision issues or need to see things from a distance
- Dark mode for performers, night time, and folks with injury related vision sensitivity.
- Enlarging the guitar fretboard so it's actually visible from guitar playing distance and having a chart-style option in black and white.
- Floating scaleable chord window with alternative chord interpretations.

While I think aesthetics are important (I'm an artist and luthier I don't think they should come before accessibility and functionality for all.

The architect Michael Graves became a proponent of accessible architecture after he suffered a spinal injury that prevented him from entering his own structures. I think designers have a greater obligation than artists to make their work accessible.

My flat design was a joke making fun of my 80s/90s roots, but I do think neumorphism has merits for its enhanced visual cues, while simultaneously keeping relevant information easily visible.

Everyone is different so options are nice. That's why keeping things modular is important with graphic design.

https://www.nngroup.com/articles/visual...ssibility/

High contrast and dark modes are fine, but please keep the faders and don't replace them with numbers! I find it much quicker to evaluate settings by looking at a series of faders than a list of numbers, don't you? Of course, numbers should appear when precise adjustments are needed, but please keep the graphics—I love them!

+1 for some new skins or alternative graphic layouts. Some opportunity to alter colour might be nice, rather than it changing according to which pack you're using.

The default is ok but it looks a bit old-fashioned to me and, as the OP suggests, is quite wasteful with screen real estate.

I'd love to have the master volume displayed all the time, rather than it disappearing when you adjust the effects or mics.

+1000 for an enlarged chord detector display! It's one of the things I find most useful and it's absolutely tiny and off to one side of the keyboard.

Maybe a more visual metronome too? I've recently found that I really like a visual cue with a metronome, like a pulsing light or something. No doubt some would see it as the decline of musical civilisation but it would help me.

I've also learned what skeuomorphism is so thank you for the educational aspect of this thread.