[Pydotorg-redesign] Some quick observations and ideas about the current site

[Oktay Safak]

I continued my tour on the current site and made some observations.

I'll try to itemize these observations and ideas that followed them in a
minimum number of words. Feel free to bug me:

- Serif fonts (like Arial, Verdana etc.) are easier to read on screen and
look more modern and elegant. A switch to serif fonts would be nice.

- The "python" image at the center is *too* big, ugly and also unnecessary
IMHO

- Alignment of the Google quote is also ugly, should be centered or
justified

- Text in the content area is flushed to the right border. (I always seem to
reach the horizontal scrollbar) A small amount of  right-indent would be
useful.

- It would be nice to have tool-tips on the top and left links. Not needed
by every link but some do (i.e. SIGs) Also, it might be a good way to add
some professional/designed look in a bandwidth-savvy way.

- http://www.python.org/topics/learn/ page's "Looking for a particular
Python module or application?" section recommends PyPI as the first choice
but it's not very crowded there yet (188 packages), so a message on the PyPI
page like "the index is still new, there are many many packages not listed
here yet etc." would be good from a marketing POV. A newcomer going there
and saying "only 188 packages?" is *bad* marketing.

- PyPI "tree of packages" page is looks very crowded and ugly. Needs better
style.

- There are many multiple entries in that 188. (i.e. ZODB has 8) Can the
different versions be shown on a new page after a click on the ZODB link?

- The Wiki and the FAQ links should be in either the "Special Topics" on the
left nav-bar or among the top-links.

- http://www.python.org/topics/learn/overview.html has to be improved. And
yes, the invert dictionary example is not very good (trying not to be
impolite here)

- I like the way *private* mailing-lists are hidden in SIGs page and the
public ones are exposed under Community->Mailing Lists and NGs

- I like that the left nav-bar is dynamic while the top nav-bar is static

- Announcements section should be moved into a box on the right, perhaps
with just the most recent one highlighted right below the top nav-bar.

- bread-crumbs would be very nice (I've seen the prototypes by Tim and
Walter)

- The main text area should feature the question "What's Python?" and our
answer and the Google quote. (I know I said this before)

OK, that's enough brainstorming for now.

Regards,

Oktay