Matplotlib Documentation Working Group

A regular sync meeting to discuss documentation
Everyone is welcome to contribute to conversations.

https://numfocus-org.zoom.us/j/83834096272?pwd=NU9zU0pJV0lXd1ZCNEVLN1RVc0poUT09#success

5/16/2025

• Jerome

  • Survey to go out before school, at a conference
  • Timeline for SciPy, September for US school, or november for PyData NYC
  • Draft new survey questions as PR, add Tammy as co-author

• Interactivity Guide

  • Kyle going to be at SciPy
  • Tutorial from Hannah as skeleton to start, get ideas from

• Logo guide

  • https://matplotlib.org/devdocs/#about-us
  • https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib/tree/main/doc/project

• Pranav & Anton

  • https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib/pull/27937
  • want to sort out GCContext object first b/c would make 27937 easier
    • next step is to write proposal PR

5/2/2025

Survey timeline

• Getting questions as draft on GitHub for repo
• Alexandra and Francisco to review
• Aiming for sharing by SciPy (Jul 8-14) and PyCon NYC (November)

SciPy

https://www.scipy2025.scipy.org/sprints
https://ti.to/scipy/scipy2025

Interactivity guide

• Stageable in components for the work
  • Chunks and scaffolding for this content

4/18/2025

Jerome

Documentation work to consider

• Logo usage guide
  • Numfocus trademark guidelines
• Add survey information and upload folder of materials from 2020 survey
  • Pull request from current 2020
  • CSV → anonymize the information, remove anythign that could be identifying
• [Doc]: document "out-of-the-box" interactivity
  • Pull together the interactivity tools as a tutorial for making a dashboard
    • Add a box as an example → definitions and then smaller features that build
  • Out of the box interactivity, tutorials to demonstrate how to use the functionality
• Improve install guidance
  • Suggestions to improve based on current skillset as technical writer

3/21/2025

• alexandra: refreshing matplotlib skills (shout out for contributing ease)

2/7/2025

• impromptu new contributor meeting
  • software developer, c++/Python, open cv user

9/6/2024

• Jerome is primarily drafting questions

  • has 9, potentially maintainers suggest 10th
  • scales will be broken down into descriptive/context , so 1 has shared meaning etc
  • working on the descriptions for answers

• Tammy is primarily on the justification

• helpful: one to five, temperature gauge, how do you feel about the docs? sentiment

• value: short response, when do you use the docs? -> helping folks, building something, studying, sharing, etc, other: open response, substance

• hannah follow up w/ scientific Python about plausible downloads

next steps

• once survey is approved, figure out distribution channels
  • social media:
    • linked in - ask projects/numfocus to share out
    • reddit
    • banner on webpage
    • other social media: insta/ticktok/bluesky/X (mastodon?)
    • possibly pydata nyc

List of questions and available responses

1. How often do you use the Matplotlib documentation?
   Scale of 1-5
2. How helpful has the Matplotlib documentation been for your tasks?
   Scale of 1-5
3. What is the value of Matplotlib documentation for your tasks?
   Selection: summary options
4. What resources do you use to supplement your experience with Matplotlib documentation?
   Rank choice responses
5. What would you like to see change in Matplotlib’s documentation?
   Table response
6. What is your background for using Matplotlib?
   Selection: expertise and use case contexts
7. When you arrive at your intended documentation page for Matplotlib, how likely are you to go to another page?
   Scale of 1-5
8. How would you organize the importance of the following documentation categories for Matplotlib?
   Rank choice responses
9. Thank you for completing the survey! Any additional feedback is welcome!
   Short response, open
10. Open to suggestions

8/23/2024

• deciding how to make public/scope of involvement
• design study - what do folks get out of our docs/API, what do they want out of the docs/API
  • https://dscout.com/people-nerds/how-to-design-a-ux-research-survey
• move from describing the audience to audience expectations/reasoning

For next meeting:

• questions + justifications for questions
• broader study goals

8/9/2024

attending: @story645, @melissawm , @Tgmiller5, @jeromefv

Notes

• access to analytics: https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib/issues/28696
• new user survey
  • Jerome and Tammy will discuss old survey - construction/design/roll-out/engagement/etc.

7/26/2024

• Tammy - My name is Tammy and I am a software tester. My interest is working with data analytics in which I have experience from my past two jobs.