Repository navigation
PHP 8.5 Release and Future Design Proposal #1578
Description
Names and Contact Details
Link to mockup/prototype
https://carloseguerrasilva.github.io/phpnewdocs/
Rationale (300-600 words)
Hi everyone!
Since I’m out of time, I’d like to use the visibility of this contest to share an idea, not just about the PHP 8.5 website, but about PHP as a whole.
Personally, I don’t think PHP needs a specific redesign tied to a release. The current website works fine and could probably stay the same for decades and still serve its purpose. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t good reasons to make a change.
PHP is a powerful and versatile language. It’s now very secure and ready for large-scale projects, but that’s not how many people see it, especially newer generations.
In recent years, PHP’s popularity has dropped compared to the rise of other ecosystems like JavaScript (Node, TypeScript, React, Vue, NextJS, and so on). Maybe it looks like a trend, but it’s been a steady decline for a while.
Part of this comes from PHP’s image. The idea that PHP is “insecure,” “old,” or “outdated” is still common, even though that’s no longer true. Any language can be insecure with bad practices, but changing that general perception is hard. Regular updates and the growth of modern frameworks have helped, but there’s still more that can be done.
One small but meaningful step could be refreshing the official website. Not just for looks, but to better reflect the modern, solid language PHP really is. Throughout this issue, I’ll be adding comments to better explain some key points of the design. This is my proposal.
Of course, it’s far from perfect the goal is to gather as much feedback as possible to understand what direction to take if this moves forward.
License
- I confirm, and agree.
Activity
CarlosEGuerraSilva commentedon Nov 2, 2025
PHP has a very distinctive color scheme. Some recent design ideas include the well-known purple along with blur or glass effects. While that can look nice, I think instead of changing the colors or design language, the best approach is to harmonize the existing palette.
For this demo, I used a color palette generated with Material You, using PHP’s branding color as the seed. Personally, I think the latest iteration of Material does a great job defining clear color roles and generating consistent variants for both light and dark themes.
The current website has an issue with color consistency. There seems to be a dark theme (with a dark background and dark search modal) but most of the main content, like blog posts, manual pages, examples, and even the PHP 8.4 release page, mostly use a light theme.
While this can be good for readability, it creates some confusion in how the content is presented. The simplest solution would be to properly support both themes and let users choose whichever they feel more comfortable with.
CarlosEGuerraSilva commentedon Nov 2, 2025
Core elements
Navigation bar:
Footer:
CarlosEGuerraSilva commentedon Nov 2, 2025
Landing page - Hero section
The first element is the classic featured announcement, in this case highlighting the PHP 8.5 release. Whether it’s a major release or an event, the goal is to show something relevant without taking attention away from the main CTAs.
Next comes the PHP title with a short tagline that highlights a key strength. In this case, “The Engine of the Internet”, which is true since PHP powers a huge number of websites. After that, a short paragraph introducing PHP in a clear way.
Then come the CTAs. The current page shows buttons for the new version and for downloading. Since new releases can also be highlighted in the main banner or navbar, the idea here is to focus on encouraging downloads and directing users to the documentation, the first step for newcomers to the language.
A small “Hello World” snippet is also included, ready to copy. This could be replaced by a slightly more complete snippet showing common operators, or even by an image version.
Final decoration: the start of a sphere symbolizing the internet, tying in with the title.
CarlosEGuerraSilva commentedon Nov 2, 2025
Next section: What’s new in PHP 8.5
Note
This section comes right after the hero, not only to highlight the new features of the release but also to reinforce the idea of PHP’s continuous growth, giving a sense of “something new.” Each item links directly to the detailed documentation of the feature, which also improves the experience for developers already using the language.
At the end of the section, it’s good to include deprecations and major changes, along with links to the migration guide or release notes, both are expected and useful interactions.
If that still doesn’t feel strong enough, the section could instead focus on key reasons to stay up to date with the latest releases, supported by illustrations to create more visual impact.
CarlosEGuerraSilva commentedon Nov 2, 2025
News section
Right now, this section takes up most of the homepage and mainly lists release announcements. It would help to include a small label or icon to quickly identify the type of post, release, event, or general notice and to limit the number of visible items. A direct link to a dedicated news page with better filtering options would improve usability.
CarlosEGuerraSilva commentedon Nov 2, 2025
Community section
CarlosEGuerraSilva commentedon Nov 2, 2025
Acknowledgments section
This section could stand out more, especially for those supporting the project. A background image or a card-style layout could help give it stronger visual emphasis.
Final CTA
It should be directly tied to the main CTA at the top, creating a consistent navigation flow.
CarlosEGuerraSilva commentedon Nov 3, 2025
Documentation
Current situation:
How do we get to Getting Started from the homepage?
Navbar > “Documentation” > Select a language > View the index and choose “Getting Started” > Select “Introduction” (or one extra step if the Getting Started index is clicked first) > Done.
Why is it so many clicks away?
Proposed solutions:
CarlosEGuerraSilva commentedon Nov 3, 2025
Documentation improvement proposal
Main changes
Version selector:
Sidebar navigation:
Article progress aside:
Main content:
pronskiy commentedon Nov 5, 2025
@CarlosEGuerraSilva, thank you for working on this design. Unfortunately, it was submitted after the application period had ended, so it wasn’t considered. Still, we encourage you to join the implementation discussion at #1592. You clearly have a lot of great ideas.
CarlosEGuerraSilva commentedon Nov 5, 2025
There are a few details I haven’t covered yet in this issue. Regarding this proposal, should I mention it during the discussion along with the missing details, or talk about how we’ll approach the ideas there?