Hi Ned, It occurs to me that the design brief we've been using actually does a pretty good job of answering your questions, and there aren't any big secrets in those plans, so I figure I might as well share it for all to see.
---- djangoproject.com design brief: We're not looking for anything too radical. It's really just about bringing the site up to current industry best practice, and exposing some information that is hidden on the current site. * We need a visual refresh, keeping the same basic Django green-based color scheme. The web design world has moved on a bit since 2005; Django's site should reflect those changes. We say we're a state-of-the-art framework, so our design should reflect that. This means good uses of font faces, adaptive layouts, and so on -- all the things that have emerged in the best of web design over the last couple of years. * It has to maintain a professional image -- no ponies or anything like that. * Provide better pathways for people visiting the site. The site now has multiple audiences, who will each be looking for different information: - First time technical users, looking for technical overviews and tutorials - Long term users looking for documentation, - Users wanting to get involved with contributing code/patches/documentation - Business users considering Django that need a non-technical case The current site doesn't reflect this diverse audience very well, and doesn't provide a clear call to action/next step for most of these visitors * Increase the visibility of the DSF -- which is to say, make the DSF visible at all. The biggest subtask in this is making our sponsors visible. We're not looking to splash advertising over the homepage, but we do need to provide a clear way to say thank you to our sponsors, and invite others to join them. * Ability to keep a consistent design across code.djangoproject.com (http://code.djangoproject.com), docs.djangoproject.com (http://docs.djangoproject.com) and any other sites that we pull into the mix. * Flexibility to add links out to other community resources as we add them -- for example, if we resurrect djangopeople.net (http://djangopeople.net), we would like to be able to link to them somewhere on the site. The current site design doesn't really provide an appropriate place to put this sort of linkage. ---- Yours, Russ Magee %-) On Saturday, 28 April 2012 at 9:53 PM, Ned Batchelder wrote: > Will there be any specific discussion about what's wrong with the current > site? You two seem to agree something needs to be done, but haven't mentioned > anything specific. > > --Ned. > > On 4/28/2012 4:13 AM, Dana Woodman wrote: > > Great to know they're is some interest in it and agreement that it is in > > need :) > > > > I'm very interested in the prospect of redesigning the site and would love > > to chat more about it. I feel like I owe the Django community something for > > all that it has given me (including the job I currently have!). I'd love to > > talk scope and other factors so I have a clear idea of what would be > > involved. > > > > Is this a good forum for this type of discussion or should we get in touch > > elsewhere to talk? You can get in touch with me here: > > http://danawoodman.com/ > > > > -- > > Dana Woodman > > d...@danawoodman.com (mailto:d...@danawoodman.com) > > http://www.danawoodman.com > > > > > > On Saturday, April 28, 2012 at 1:05 AM, Russell Keith-Magee wrote: > > > > > Hi Dana, > > > > > > I completely agree. I've been trying to get a redesign of > > > djangoproject.com (http://djangoproject.com) going for quite some time > > > under the auspices of the Django Foundation. As you can see from the lack > > > of changes, you can see that I haven't been particularly successful :-( > > > > > > The fundamental problem is that we have plenty of coding talent at our > > > disposal, but not as much design talent. That's not to say that there > > > aren't many talented designers in our community -- there are -- it's just > > > that they're all very busy. We've approached several people in the Django > > > design community asking them to help out, and some have even made done > > > some initial work. However, redesign of a high-profile site like > > > djangoproject.com (http://djangoproject.com) is a big job, and nobody has > > > been able to spare the time to bring the job to completion. > > > > > > So - at this point I'm open to any offers. I want to avoid design by > > > committee -- ideally, I would like to pass this off to a single person > > > (or a small group) and give them complete control over design process. > > > I'm not completely sure how to organise who gets this role -- suggestions > > > are welcome. > > > > > > If you (or anyone else) is interested, drop me a line and I can give you > > > the design brief we've been working with. > > > > > > Yours, > > > Russ Magee %-) > > > > > > > > > > > > On Saturday, 28 April 2012 at 3:22 PM, Dana Woodman wrote: > > > > > > > So now that Django is being moved to Git/Github (which is awesome!), > > > > maybe it would be a good time to think about a revamped home page for > > > > the project ala djangoproject.com (http://djangoproject.com) > > > > (http://djangoproject.com)? > > > > > > > > Obviously this is no small undertaking and would be potentially > > > > contentions as to what would be the proper path, but I feel (and I > > > > don't think I'm alone) that djangoproject.com > > > > (http://djangoproject.com) (http://djangoproject.com) could use a bit > > > > of a facelift. > > > > > > > > I have some idea of my own as to how this could be accomplished and I'm > > > > sure there are a ton of others out there with great ideas as well. > > > > Maybe we could open up some discussion on this idea? > > > > > > > > Forgive me if this has been proposed before as I'm new to the group! > > > > > > > > Cheers, > > > > Dana > > > > > > > > -- > > > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > > > > Groups "Django developers" group. > > > > To view this discussion on the web visit > > > > https://groups.google.com/d/msg/django-developers/-/g8ngEnVG_EsJ. > > > > To post to this group, send email to django-developers@googlegroups.com > > > > (mailto:django-developers@googlegroups.com) > > > > (mailto:django-developers@googlegroups.com). > > > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > > > > django-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > > > > (mailto:django-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com) > > > > (mailto:django-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com). > > > > For more options, visit this group at > > > > http://groups.google.com/group/django-developers?hl=en. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > > > "Django developers" group. > > > To post to this group, send email to django-developers@googlegroups.com > > > (mailto:django-developers@googlegroups.com). > > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > > > django-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > > > (mailto:django-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com). > > > For more options, visit this group at > > > http://groups.google.com/group/django-developers?hl=en. > > > > > > > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > > "Django developers" group. > > To post to this group, send email to django-developers@googlegroups.com > > (mailto:django-developers@googlegroups.com). > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > > django-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > > (mailto:django-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com). > > For more options, visit this group at > > http://groups.google.com/group/django-developers?hl=en. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Django developers" group. > To post to this group, send email to django-developers@googlegroups.com > (mailto:django-developers@googlegroups.com). > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > django-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > (mailto:django-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com). > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/django-developers?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Django developers" group. 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