This is a lot more readable and approachable - nice work! Cool to see that the designers managed to stick to the green template while making it work for a bunch of different content types. Thanks for the update!
Yeah, there's a lot of whitespace - I'm not the biggest fan of all that padding on the blog / archive dates template, or the L-R padding on the home page, but I hear "more space" is all the rage :)
Mostly I noticed the difference in the Docs. The elements are called out more explicitly and it's easier to find things on the docs, which have considerably less whitespace:
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.7/intro/tutorial01/
We migrated from trac to jira a couple years ago and it actually wasn't that bad. So glad that we did. Trac works fine for little tiny projects (although these days I would just use github or bitbucket issue tracking). Jira really shines on larger projects though.
It's always difficult and probably unfair to express an opinion right after having seen the redesign.
As with any complete overhaul that keeps close to nothing from the previous version, it's very hard to improve the experience without losing any sense of identity. In this case, the Bootstrap vibe is quite prominent.
It does makes sense for the documentation, but the main page is less appealing. I'm not a developer, but the previous design actually got me intrigued by the framework and encouraged me to look deeper.
I guess a redesign was probably needed. I just hope it's a design they will iterate over.
Funny how, even after a redesign, I can still recognize the layout of the docs after occasionally looking at them a few times a year :) https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.7/
This is an important point I think. People have been referring to these docs for years and got very comfortable with the layout. I'm glad they kept this part so similar.
I liked, have only two criticisms:
Content seems sparse, maybe due to line-height and/or font-size.
I also get a "too much green" feeling in my eyes.
The overall change was positive, imo.
It is possible, and not too difficult in fact, to write a single codebase that runs under both Python 2 and Python 3. Which is what Django has done. The same code runs the same under 2.7 or 3.3 or 3.4.
This is a pretty comprehensive guide. It does rely on the future lib, which is a wrapper around six and a few others to make it easier, but you can also just write your own minimal lib for things that need to have:
if py2:
pass # Py2 specific line here
else:
pass # Py3 stuff here
I think Django has chosen the approach of having their own minimal compatibility layer, iirc.
It's amazing what a facelift can do to the perception of a project. There are some really great projects that look abandoned or the docs are really difficult to use that prohibit me from giving them a fair shake.
This isn't as crazy as it might seem - using a modern home page design proves that someone has been investing time in the project since that design became popular.
Using the "trend-du-jour" for a homepage quickly communicates to viewers that the project is alive & active. It's a much more accessible signal than mailing list or commit history (although those are clearer, more accurate signals of project health).
No matter what web stack I end up using down the road, I will always have a special place in my heart for Django. It taught me the fundamentals of MVC in web app context, and in some ways got me a job that led to many good things in my life.
Redesign looks nice, the old site was beginning to look dated.
I'm colorblind and some links on the documentation https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.7/ don't look different enough from normal text. Mostly I'm having a hard time identifying links that aren't underlined.
I'm not colour blind, but I had to look at them for a moment to see they were even different colours, man that's a subtle difference.
Are you Red/Green colour blind? Personally I would have picked a colour closer to the green used in other places of the site to highlight links, but I suddenly became curious as to whether or not that would be any better for you.
Not that I can do anything about it, I'm just really nosy about it since you mentioned it.
It must just be me, but it feels that the site is optimized for mobile browsing. There is very little content and my eyes have to move massively just to read the page. I actually prefer the old layout. :/
Documentation websites actually have some pretty good use-cases to being scalable to mobile, either because people will view documentation on a tablet or phone while developing, or due to people using smaller browser widths when developing to be able to display their IDE or terminal windows next to the documentation windows.
Well, the nice thing about mobile first is that the benefits extend to smaller browser widths as well. And just because you don't find a method appealing to use doesn't mean it's not a valid use case. I, for one, like to have all my documentation offline in ePub on a tablet, but that doesn't mean I assume it's the best method for everyone else (or even anyone else).
Plus, though it amy be an unintended consequence, mobile first shouldn't at all hurt the desktop experience, just make sure that mobile is not an afterthought once the design patterns are engrained and it's too late to modify a responsive experience.
It seems there's a range of opinions on this - no surprise. I find myself frequently, though not exclusively, using my phone (current, iPhone 6+) or tablet for docs while I use my laptop for coding. I know others who do this too. It's all anecdotal, but I don't think of having good mobile support on a docs site as being an edge case.
Also, I work a lot in Django, and love the new site.
This is a very interesting redesign, and it shocks me that they chose to do it. On the one hand, this update is beautiful with a tasteful front page and familiar-yet-fresh documentation pages. On the other hand, the old design was also fantastic.
Despite kicking around for just under 10 years, the old Django look never felt old, ugly, or clunky. It had a clean, thoughtful layout with good color contrast and an unmistakable Django identity. To me, it never gained the "cruft" that similarly-aged designs seem to take on. It always felt modern.
Loving the new design, but I would have never guessed that there were plans to ditch the old one.
I'd personally disagree, if only because the actual text space columns were so thin that it made everything I was reading feel very, very busy. It took me weeks to get comfortable regularly going to their documentation instead of looking at SE, even though their documentation was very, very good.
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[ 3.8 ms ] story [ 152 ms ] threadOn the other hand, I feel like I am going to miss old design - is there archive somewhere?
$ x-www-browser /usr/share/doc/python-django-doc/html/index.html
:)
Mostly I noticed the difference in the Docs. The elements are called out more explicitly and it's easier to find things on the docs, which have considerably less whitespace: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.7/intro/tutorial01/
http://ibin.co/1kret3oW7caZ illustrates whitespace wastage in the blog
Edit: Added an illustration
there is no such thing. Think more whitespace equals more focus around the content and less clutter.
I didn't fell comfortable with the new one, looks too bright to my eyes.
There was something very warm and reassuring about the old colors and I feel there was more information filled.
How about getting rid of Trac now? There's really no worse issue tracker...
It's always difficult and probably unfair to express an opinion right after having seen the redesign.
As with any complete overhaul that keeps close to nothing from the previous version, it's very hard to improve the experience without losing any sense of identity. In this case, the Bootstrap vibe is quite prominent.
It does makes sense for the documentation, but the main page is less appealing. I'm not a developer, but the previous design actually got me intrigued by the framework and encouraged me to look deeper.
I guess a redesign was probably needed. I just hope it's a design they will iterate over.
After so many years it's going to take a while to get used to but first impression is that it looks nice and readable. Code snippets look much better.
Memory?
I know that Django 1.6+ can be used with Python 3.4 but is Django 1.7.1 written in Python 2.7 or 3.4?
It is possible, and not too difficult in fact, to write a single codebase that runs under both Python 2 and Python 3. Which is what Django has done. The same code runs the same under 2.7 or 3.3 or 3.4.
Are there any guidelines or "best practices" for writing code for both 2.7 and 3.4?
This is a pretty comprehensive guide. It does rely on the future lib, which is a wrapper around six and a few others to make it easier, but you can also just write your own minimal lib for things that need to have:
I think Django has chosen the approach of having their own minimal compatibility layer, iirc.https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.7/topics/python3/
I think that is a great feature, but it's going to confuse beginners. The first three results for the query 'models' are links to source code.
Maybe the search results could be tagged with a type icon and name (Documentation, Tutorial, Source...) in addition to the document excerpt.
Using the "trend-du-jour" for a homepage quickly communicates to viewers that the project is alive & active. It's a much more accessible signal than mailing list or commit history (although those are clearer, more accurate signals of project health).
Redesign looks nice, the old site was beginning to look dated.
Are you Red/Green colour blind? Personally I would have picked a colour closer to the green used in other places of the site to highlight links, but I suddenly became curious as to whether or not that would be any better for you.
Not that I can do anything about it, I'm just really nosy about it since you mentioned it.
Smaller browser widths I agree
But using a phone/tablet to navigate the docs? Might as well use notepad for coding too, since the objective is to suffer.
Plus, though it amy be an unintended consequence, mobile first shouldn't at all hurt the desktop experience, just make sure that mobile is not an afterthought once the design patterns are engrained and it's too late to modify a responsive experience.
Also, I work a lot in Django, and love the new site.
Despite kicking around for just under 10 years, the old Django look never felt old, ugly, or clunky. It had a clean, thoughtful layout with good color contrast and an unmistakable Django identity. To me, it never gained the "cruft" that similarly-aged designs seem to take on. It always felt modern.
Loving the new design, but I would have never guessed that there were plans to ditch the old one.