Index page updates (#1631)

* Shortened descriptions in the user guide index

* Formatting and minor tweaks to user guide descriptions

* Added links to external projects

* Added introductory paragraph for User Guides

* Updated introductory paragraph of the getting started guide

* Fixed link to Live Data guide

* Minor edit to user guide introduction

* Removed empty examples/examples.py

* Updated examples/README.md

* Removed mybinder badge from README

README.md

@@ -5,7 +5,6 @@
 [![holoviewsDocs](http://buildbot.holoviews.org:8010/png?builder=website)](http://buildbot.holoviews.org:8010/waterfall)
 [![Coveralls](https://img.shields.io/coveralls/ioam/holoviews.svg)](https://coveralls.io/r/ioam/holoviews)
 [![Gitter](https://badges.gitter.im/Join%20Chat.svg)](https://gitter.im/ioam/holoviews?utm_source=badge&utm_medium=badge&utm_campaign=pr-badge&utm_content=badge)
-[![MyBinder](http://mybinder.org/badge.svg)](http://mybinder.org/repo/ioam/holoviews-contrib)
 
 # HoloViews <img src="http://assets.holoviews.org/logo/holoviews_color_icon_500x500.png" alt="HoloViews logo" height="40px" align="right" />
 

doc/getting_started/index.rst

@@ -1,13 +1,25 @@
 Welcome to HoloViews!
 _____________________
 
-This 'Getting Started' guide aims to get you using HoloViews productively as quickly as possible. It is designed as an entrypoint for new users that will introduce the core concepts necessary to get you working productively with your own data. We recommend reading this guide in order if you wish to get an overview of what is offered by HoloViews. For detailed documentation, please consult our `User Guide <../user_guide/index.html>`_ which we will link to from the appropriate sections of this guide.
+This 'Getting Started' guide aims to get you using HoloViews
+productively as quickly as possible. It is designed as an entrypoint for
+new users that will introduce the core concepts necessary to get you
+working productively with your own data. We recommend reading this guide
+in order if you wish to get an overview of what is offered by HoloViews.
+
+For detailed documentation, please consult our `User Guide
+<../user_guide/index.html>`_ which we will link to from the appropriate
+sections of this guide. An overview of some interesting HoloViews
+examples can be found in our `Gallery <../gallery/index.html>`_ and if
+you are looking for a specific component (or wish to view the available
+range of primitives), see our `Reference Gallery
+<../reference/index.html>`_.
 
 * `Introduction <Introduction.html>`_
 * `Customization <Customization.html>`_
 * `Tabular Datasets <Tabular_Datasets.html>`_
 * `Gridded Datasets <Gridded_Datasets.html>`_
-* `Live Data <Live_Data>`_
+* `Live Data <Live_Data.html>`_
 
 .. toctree::
     :titlesonly:

doc/user_guide/index.rst

@@ -1,6 +1,13 @@
 User Guide
 __________
 
+The User Guide is the primary resource documenting key concepts that
+will help you use HoloViews in your work. For newcomers, a gentle
+introduction to HoloViews can be found in our `Getting Started <../getting_started/index.html>`_
+guide and an overview of some interesting HoloViews examples can be
+found in our `Gallery <../gallery/index.html>`_. If you are looking for a specific component
+(or wish to view the available range of primitives), see our
+`Reference Gallery <../reference/index.html>`_.
 
 Core guides
 -----------
@@ -9,69 +16,46 @@ These user guides provide detailed explanation of some of the core
 concepts in HoloViews:
 
 * `Annotating your Data <Annotating_Data.html>`_
-  How to wrap your data in Element and annotate it with additional
-  metadata to explore and visualize it effectively.
+   Core concepts when annotating your data with semantic metadata.
 
 * `Composing Elements <Composing_Elements.html>`_
-  Composing your wrapped data into ``Overlay`` and ``Layout``
-  collections with the ``+`` and ``*`` operators.
+   Composing your data into layouts and overlays with the ``+`` and ``*`` operators.
 
 * `Customizing Plots <Customizing_Plots.html>`_
-  Applying plot, style and normalization options to control the look
-  and feel of the plotting.
+   Controlling the look and feel of the visual representation.
 
 * `Dimensioned Containers <Dimensioned_Containers.html>`_
-  Declaring multi-dimensional containers to animate and facet your
-  data flexibly. Learn about ``HoloMap``, ``NdOverlay``, ``GridSpace``
-  and ``NdLayout`` types and how to use them effectively with the
-  corresponding ``.layout``, ``.overlay`` and ``.grid`` method.
+   Multi-dimensional containers for animating and faceting your data flexibly.
 
 * `Building Composite Objects <Building_Composite_Objects.html>`_
-  How to build and work with complex composite objects.
+   How to build and work with nested composite objects.
 
 * `Live Data <Live_Data.html>`_
-  Introducing ``DynamicMap`` to lazily declare data and generate
-  complex interactive visualizations.
+   Lazily generate data on the fly and generate engaging interactive visualizations.
 
 * `Tabular Datasets <Tabular_Datasets.html>`_
-  Loading and wrapping tabular datasets in HoloViews using NumPy,
-  pandas and dask and flexibly exploring the dataset using selection,
-  grouping and aggregation.
+   Explore tabular data with `NumPy <http://www.numpy.org/>`_, `pandas <http://pandas.pydata.org/>`_ and `dask <http://dask.pydata.org/>`_.
 
 * `Gridded Datasets <Gridded_Datasets.html>`_
-  Loading and wrapping gridded dataset in HoloViews using NumPy and
-  XArray to flexibly explore and visualize labelled n-dimensional
-  arrays.
+   Explore gridded data (n-dimensional arrays) with `NumPy <http://www.numpy.org/>`_ and `XArray <http://xarray.pydata.org/>`_.
 
 * `Indexing and Selecting Data <Indexing_and_Selecting_Data.html>`_
-  Effectively indexing and selecting subsets of the data on the
-  different HoloViews datastructures.
+   Select and index subsets of your data with HoloViews.
 
 * `Transforming Elements <Transforming_Elements.html>`_
-  Applying and declaring ``Operations`` that transform your allowing
-  you to define the building blocks of a data analysis pipeline and
-  quickly explore and visualize the effect of different parameters on
-  your data.
+   Apply operations to your data that can be used to build data analysis pipelines
 
 * `Responding to Events <Responding_to_Events.html>`_
-  Effectively using ``Streams`` to dynamically control and drive your
-  visualizations by responding to user defined events such as custom
-  widgets or from the commandline or notebook.
+   Allow your visualizations to respond to Python events using the 'streams' system.
 
 * `Custom Interactivity <Custom_Interactivity.html>`_
-  Using linked ``Streams`` to respond to events generated by
-  interacting with a bokeh plot, e.g. by responding to mouse position,
-  mouse taps, selections or the current axis range.
+   Use `Bokeh <bokeh.pydata.org>`_ and 'linked streams' to directly interact with your visualizations.
 
 * `Data Processing Pipelines <Data_Pipelines.html>`_
-  Chaining different operations to build complex and lazy data
-  analysis pipelines, which can drive interactive plots in a notebook
-  or in a deployed dashboard.
+   Chain operations to build sophisticated, interactive and lazy data analysis pipelines.
 
 * `Working with large data <Large_Data.html>`_
-  Leveraging datashader support in HoloViews to effectively and
-  interactively explore and visualize millions or even billions of
-  datapoints.
+   Leverage datashader to interactively explore billions of datapoints.
 
 
 Supplementary guides
@@ -80,34 +64,25 @@ Supplementary guides
 These guides provide detail about specific additional features in HoloViews:
 
 * `Plotting with Bokeh <Plotting_with_Bokeh.html>`_
-  The basics of plotting with bokeh including details about plot tools
-  and backend specific styling options and working with bokeh models
-  more directly.
+   Styling options and unique `Bokeh <bokeh.pydata.org>`_ features such as plot tools and using bokeh models directly.
 
 * `Deploying Bokeh Apps <Deploying_Bokeh_Apps.html>`_
-  Instructions on how to declare and deploy bokeh apps using HoloViews
-  in various scenarios, e.g. from scripts, from the commandline and
-  within the notebook.
+   Using `bokeh server <http://bokeh.pydata.org/en/latest/docs/user_guide/server.html>`_ using scripts and notebooks.
 
 * `Plotting with matplotlib <Plotting_with_Matplotlib.html>`_
-  The basics of plotting with matplotlib highlighting core differences
-  in styling and controlling the layout of matplotlib figures.
+   Styling options and unique Matplotlib features such as GIF/MP4 support.
 
 * `Plotting with plotly <Plotting_with_Plotly.html>`_
-  The basics of plotting with plotly focusing on 3D plotting, one of
-  the main strengths of plotly.
+   Styling options and unique plotly features, focusing on 3D plotting.
 
 * `Working with renderers and plots <Plots_and_Renderers.html>`_
-  Using HoloViews Renderer and Plot classes directly to access and
-  manipulate your visualizations directly.
+   Using the ``Renderer`` and ``Plot`` classes for access to the plotting machinery.
 
 * `Exporting and Archiving <Exporting_and_Archiving.html>`_
-  Using HoloViews to archive both your data and visualization from the
-  notebook.
+   Archive both your data and visualization in scripts and notebooks.
 
-* `Continuous Coordinates <Continuous_Coordinates.html>`_ Details on
-  how continuous coordinates are handled in HoloViews specifically
-  focusing on the difference between ``Image`` and other ``Raster`` types.
+* `Continuous Coordinates <Continuous_Coordinates.html>`_
+   How continuous coordinates are handled, specifically focusing on ``Image`` and ``Raster`` types.
 
 
 .. toctree::

examples/README.md

@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+# Examples
+
+This directory contains all the notebooks built as part of the
+[holoviews.org](http://holoviews.org) website.
+
+## Directory structure
+
+* ``assets``: Files used by the examples.
+* ``gallery``: Examples shown on the [gallery page](http://holoviews.org/gallery/index.html).
+* ``getting_started``: Notebooks used in the [getting started](http://holoviews.org/getting_started/index.html) guide.
+* `reference`: Notebooks shown in the website [reference gallery](http://holoviews.org/reference/index.html)
+* ``topics``: Notebooks shown in the [showcase](http://holoviews.org/reference/showcase/index.html)
+
+## Contributing to examples
+
+If you have improvements to suggest regarding the existing set of
+notebooks, please tell us on [gitter](https://gitter.im/ioam/holoviews)
+or submit a pull request. We are happy to consider user submissions for
+``/topics`` so if you have an interesting notebook using HoloViews that
+isn't too long and about a domain not already in ``/topics``, please
+consider submitting a PR.
+
+Lastly, if you find a particular notebook that does not seem to be
+working, please file an
+[issue](https://github.com/ioam/holoviews/issues).