Www.julialang.org: Simplify the download page so it's less intimidating

Created on 13 Mar 2020  路  12Comments  路  Source: JuliaLang/www.julialang.org

  • The download page is too intimidating for newcomers. Going to the download page you are hit with a complex wall of text and confusing matrices of downloads configurations.

image


  • Let's simplify things for the first half of the page. We can keep the granular matrix of downloads further down the page, but users should be greeted with a simple download page that is not complicated.

  • We should aspire to the following example

image

@logankilpatrick

good first issue help wanted

Most helpful comment

I just made this using a grid:

Screenshot 2020-03-19 at 18 17 29

Sort of thing? The [help] could be a question mark I suppose...

All 12 comments

I just made this using a grid:

Screenshot 2020-03-19 at 18 17 29

Sort of thing? The [help] could be a question mark I suppose...

Nice!! maybe a one click button for the standard option would be good? (if we're going with something similar to VS Code). I guess that button could wrap the symbol so that if you click on it you get the most recent stable release that is most likely to correspond to your platform.

Personal preference would also be for the icons to be smaller, maybe 70% of the size you show 馃槃

Yeah Looks good, but the icons are kinda massive and their not all the same size. Is there a better linux photo? It's weird seeing a B&W penguin :)

For the windows one can we use a B&W or color version like this:
image

Can we just detect the running system and present just a single button? I know that is done for other projects.

I don't think we should present a single button because there have been several times when I've wanted to download e.g. linux binaries for WSL. Having them all present makes it very user friendly to quickly grab and test the binaries you want.

I mean obviously the other ones shouldn't be hidden, but we can present a main one. The regular user probably wants that one.

Here is an example: https://ngrok.com/download

I avoided color just because it would be a bit inconsistent- with some in color and others not. (I didn't bother to size everything accurately at this stage... :))

Here's a mono linux logo that looks much better

I would also move the (.exe) and (.dmg) down to the links, since we are also planning to provide (.zip) for Windows.

I would then move (help) next to the OS.

The help should probably called Installation notes or something. They are probably not needed by most users - so I would personally move them to the end of the table in their own row.

The installation notes could also just be moved to the Julia manual.

I also like detecting the default platform and offering that ngrok like install and run instructions. Can be a separate PR if we ever get there.

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