Improve the Django Homepage

[anonymous]

I tried introducing Django to a few colleagues of mine but they were put off by the homepage design and the getting started guide. I think the homepage could be improved a lot - it currently lacks focus and doesn't really give a good first impression.

The core features of Django (displayed below the "Meet Django" box) are half hidden. They could be the key focus (showing off why Django is awesome) or at least be displayed more prominently, perhaps with an icon.

Try and view the Django homepage with a fresh set of eyes, imagining that this is the first visit. The immediate focus is drawn to the "download" button, the rest is a mass of text. The tutorial is a small hyperlink not emphasised in any way. There is too much information squeezed into the homepage.

The getting started guide could also be improved. The homepage states that Django helps you write web applications quickly and with less code, but it takes 3 pages until you write your first view. I'm not really sure how to improve this but it also seems like a wall of text with too much information squeezed into it.

[Aymeric Augustin]

The developers of Django ​are aware that the website could use an update. I haven't followed the latest news, but this is definitely on the radar.

However, Trac isn't the right medium for this discussion: design-by-committee is a well-known recipe for disasters. Therefore I will close this ticket.

Thanks for your feedback!

[Idan Gazit]

We've got a very active redesign effort underway—we've selected a team, and we're working with them daily on revamping djangoproject.com. I don't have a forecast for when we'll relaunch; but I suspect that it will be in the next three or four months. Such are the constraints with volunteer projects.

This sort of effort doesn't fare well when thousands of community members each try to take their own paintbrush to the bikeshed, which is why we aren't publicizing our work as we go. We're focused on delivering a better experience for our target audiences, and one of those audiences are new users—exactly like the ones you are trying to introduce to Django. We have them in mind when it comes to everything about the site—content, IA, and visual design.