[Darth-Apple]

As a part of my major for finishing up my bachelors degree, I am taking a class through my local community college online for 2D design. I expected, you know, GIMP, photoshop, inkscape, actual graphics design, or at least drawing. Instead, we're doing crafts. Like, 2nd grade style crafts. 

I will say that the beauty in taking classes at the community college and transferring to the university is this: Whatever grade I make has absolutely no impact on my GPA. As long as I make at least a C, I'm okay. It will transfer and nothing else makes a difference. Being that I'm taking calculus 1 and 2 back to back this summer, this design class is definitely low on my priority list. 

But this is, quite literally, the stuff they've made us do. I guess you have to start somewhere. I was never much a fan of crafts, and certainly never expected to have to do them in college.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bm9uxq0e2bxqa...f3REa?dl=0

Pretty trash if you ask me. Definitely barely a C at best.

[Guardian]

High tech stuff!

That's college level stuff these days? Jeez, I need a safe space...

[Harry K.]

Wow, I actually don't remember the last time I did Arts & Crafts? School Year 5/6? (10/11 years old) That's pretty cool however!! I'd love to be sitting gluing shapes on a piece of paper rather than writing an essay on why an Action button is better placed in the top right of a header on a UX perspective. Did they by any chance make you write a paragraph or two on why you placed the shapes in the ways you did? Because that's always what I had to do, it was always about reason, reason, reason! Couldn't just be because it looked nice.

[Guardian]

... rather than writing an essay on why an Action button is better placed in the top right of a header on a UX perspective.

Wait, seriously!? Here's my essay: Because I want it there.

That's crazy.

Did they by any chance make you write a paragraph or two on why you placed the shapes in the ways you did? Because that's always what I had to do, it was always about reason, reason, reason! Couldn't just be because it looked nice.

This is what I would half expect.

[Harry K.]

Yep. Everything needs a reason, statistic or whatever. It's all about cognitive behaviour. Making sure you don't overload the mind with too many options.. Simplicity without expense etc.. It's asif you need to believe that everyone freaks out when given an out of the ordinary placement and you need to make it so obvious it's impossible to mistake. (I'm speaking from a Website perspective as that's what I know) Most big sites nowadays are designed on a "Social engineering" aspect of UI/UX, they have teams of experts that know how the mind works and reacts to certain placements, colors, wording, styles etc.. You can guarantee the smallest change you see on Facebook, or Twitter etc.. there will be loads of articles on why and what it improves/helps.

[Guardian]

I guess that's why they're taking over the web. Maybe we need to apply this social engineering construct to MyBB, and at a much faster rate than they are now. Right now it's just responding to the current standard rather than making the standard.

Still seems like a lot of effort for simple stuff. Sounds similar to the "writing across the curriculum" they apply here. Why do I have to write a 10 oage paper on an equation?

[Darth-Apple]

I agree. And no, they didn't make me write a word. I was shocked. I'll get back to you guys with the grade but I think this one won't be the best. Just look at it. They had unbelievably tight constraints with the assignment so there wasn't a lot i could do, but still...

And yeah I agree. MyBB has always been light years behind the curve from a design perspective. Its advantage is that it is so highly customizable, so people end up simply completely overhauling the design. However, it makes for a decent amount of work making new themes with the default one that they give. Especially with the web being turned over towards the trend of responsive designs.

Honestly I don't half mind. If you're going to have to overhaul the design anyway, it's almost better to start with something simple.