Python.org Redesign Request for Proposals • Hacker News Board

Re: Python.org Redesign Request for Proposals

#61

Post by scoot » Wed, May 23, 2012, 10:05 PM UTC

jnoller wrote: post #16

pm wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed, I just read that, so I will follow up further. Is this predicated on feedback you've received or more on what the board feels is appropriate?

Both, actually - we have some real designers on the team to help examine submissions, as well as people versed in IA/UX and accessibility. We (the board) have gotten lots of feedback over the years, and really want to make something more accessible, welcoming and modern. The team vetting the designs is not 100% board members, intentionally so - as I said, we have domain experts as well as psf members, it's a small te…

"we have some real designers on the team"

Problem solved!

Re: Python.org Redesign Request for Proposals

#62

Post by akuchling » Wed, May 23, 2012, 11:26 PM UTC

pbreit wrote: post #47

Might this include some improvements to the dreadfully designed Sphinx?

The RFP says "The proposal may feature a retheming of http://docs.python.org but need not do so," so that depends on how ambitious the proposers are. The focus of the RFP is definitely www.python.org.

Re: Python.org Redesign Request for Proposals

#63

Post by jsprinkles » Wed, May 23, 2012, 11:36 PM UTC

gosub wrote: post #32

One other thing they should improve is the search function in the documentation: http://docs.python.org/ The first relevant result for searching "string concatenation" is around the 20th place. http://docs.python.org/search.html?q=string+concatenation

The documentation for Python is mediocre at best, which is a wart of how documenting Python works. I think the newer Sphynx site is actually a regression from what they had in the Python 2.5 days.

Re: Python.org Redesign Request for Proposals

#64

Post by mnutt » Thu, May 24, 2012, 1:30 AM UTC

patio11 wrote: post #53

krschultz wrote: post #24

A couple years back I was working at Bug Labs and we relied heavily on the Openembedded project. We contributed source code patches as you would expect, but one unique contribution was having our designer make a new logo for Openembedded. You can see it on their website today. This doesn't seem to occur to people very often, but if your company is relying on an open source project, source code patches are not the onl…

Some programmers passionately believe that contributing to OSS is status-increasing, perhaps enough to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. I have yet to meet a designer who believes this. There exist UX paths by which contributing to OSS via code is easy, obviously wanted, and generates warm fuzzies. The fork-and-go experience of adding one marginal feature to a gem for Ruby then sending a pull request feels like ponies a…

I think just as large a part is that it's difficult for multiple designers to contribute to a project in a meaningful way without stepping on each others' toes. Do designers often collaborate in groups of more than two? (Layer Tennis is the only thing that comes to mind)

If I were evaluating a project I would choose a project with a default Github page over a project done in MSPaint just because there's a good chance that the latter was written by a developer who likes the MSPaint logo.

Re: Python.org Redesign Request for Proposals

#65

Post by [deleted] » Thu, May 24, 2012, 5:09 AM UTC

jnoller wrote: post #16

pm wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed, I just read that, so I will follow up further. Is this predicated on feedback you've received or more on what the board feels is appropriate?

Both, actually - we have some real designers on the team to help examine submissions, as well as people versed in IA/UX and accessibility. We (the board) have gotten lots of feedback over the years, and really want to make something more accessible, welcoming and modern. The team vetting the designs is not 100% board members, intentionally so - as I said, we have domain experts as well as psf members, it's a small te…

[deleted]

Re: Python.org Redesign Request for Proposals

#66

Post by jnoller » Thu, May 24, 2012, 1:21 PM UTC

scoot wrote: post #61

jnoller wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both, actually - we have some real designers on the team to help examine submissions, as well as people versed in IA/UX and accessibility. We (the board) have gotten lots of feedback over the years, and really want to make something more accessible, welcoming and modern. The team vetting the designs is not 100% board members, intentionally so - as I said, we have domain experts as well as psf members, it's a small te…

"we have some real designers on the team" Problem solved!

Well, not really :) There's a difference between having designers, accessibility pros and others able to review the proposals and those that have the time to do the work. All of us are volunteers, and our time is limited.