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OCaml.org Reboot: User-Centric Design & Content

Thibaut Mattio

Principal Software Engineer

Posted on Mon, 02 May 2022

Tarides is pleased to announce the launch of the updated community site, ocaml.org.

Over the past year and a half, we have supported and collaborated with members of the OCaml community on the creation of an updated community website. We are proud to present new features and improvements that will benefit both existing and new generations of OCaml users.

Features

Some of the quality-of-life improvements that users can expect from this update include:

The Road So Far

We have worked hard to address concrete requirements from users and provide solutions for the new website. The 2020 OCaml Community Survey highlighted several areas to improve, resulting in new features and content being added.

The survey concluded that the original site lacked easily accessible package documentation, and that job applicants and employers had a difficult time connecting. To address this, we decided early on to include both a job board and a fully-incorporated package documentation page. The job board now provides a place where job seekers can discover opportunities in OCaml, and employers can look for applicants. The package documentation page allows users to find, explore, and compare documentation all conveniently located in one place. Additionally, the team wanted to improve site navigation. This included ensuring easy pathfinding between related topics, together with a focus on improving overall accessibility, allowing successful navigation within the site.

Taking the perspective of different users of the site inspired the creation of brand-new content like Success Stories that highlight ways professionals, academics, and others use OCaml to solve hard problems, create impact, and foster collaboration. It also inspired the new area for tutorials and guides, as well as the OCaml playground, both aimed at making learning OCaml easier and more engaging.

Looking Ahead

There is still plenty of room for improvement and new ideas, and now is a great time for the community to be more involved. We’d like everyone in the community to participate in improving the site and we have created a contribution guide to make the process easier. Please reach out on the issue tracker with ideas and suggestions. We are especially looking for people to help maintain and run the website, and improve the content and general user-experience to help grow our community even more!

To learn more about the reboot and how to get involved please read the original Discuss post.

Open-Source Development

Tarides champions open-source development. We create and maintain key features of the OCaml language in collaboration with the OCaml community. To learn more about how you can support our open-source work, discover our page on GitHub.

Explore Commercial Opportunities

We are always happy to discuss commercial opportunities around OCaml. We provide core services, including training, tailor-made tools, and secure solutions. Tarides can help your teams realise their vision