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[Python-Dev] Playing with a new theme for the docs

Ethan Furman ethan at stoneleaf.us
Wed Mar 21 20:45:58 CET 2012 
Guido van Rossum wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 7:18 AM, Ned Batchelder <ned at nedbatchelder.com> wrote:
>> The challenge for the maintainer of the docs site is to choose a good design
>> that most people will see.  We're bound to disagree on what that design
>> should be, and I suggest that probably none of us are designer enough to
>> come up with the best one.  Perhaps we could find an interested designer to
>> help?
> 
> I've come to the conclusion that "good design" is not so much a matter
> of finding the "best" of anything (font, spacing rules, colors, icons,
> artowork, etc.). Good design is highly subjective to fashion, and the
> people who are recognized to be the best designers are more often than
> not just those with a strong enough opinion to push their creative
> ideas through. Then other designers, who are not quite as good but
> still have a nose for the latest fashion, copy their ideas and for a
> while anything that hasn't been redesigned looks "old-fashioned".
> 
> (Before you say something about limitations of old technology, note
> how often designers go back to older styles and manage to make them
> look fashionable again.)
> 
> If you want something that attracts attention through controversy, get
> one of those initial thought leaders. If you want something that looks
> "current" today but which will probably be out of style next year, use
> one of the style-following designers. If you want something that is
> maximally useful, get a scientist with an ounce of style sense to do
> your design... Oh hey, Georg *is* a scientist! And he's got more than
> an ounce of style. So just let him do it and let's not try to
> micromanage things. (I had to speak up about the low contrast because
> Georg has young eyes and may not realize that this issue exists for
> older Pythonistas.)

+1000
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