diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index dae4cd24..6496a9ba 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,9 +1,10 @@
 .cache/*
 __pycache__/*
+venv/*
 node_modules/*
+app/static/bower_components/*
 .coverage
 .idea/*
 *.pyc
 *.py.bak
 *.swp
-app/static/bower_components/
diff --git a/docs/installation/local.md b/docs/installation/local.md
index 09b5b449..7da52524 100644
--- a/docs/installation/local.md
+++ b/docs/installation/local.md
@@ -21,6 +21,10 @@ Running this tool requires installing the nodejs as well as python dependencies.
 ```
 npm install -g bower
 bower install
+pip install virtualenv
+virtualenv venv
+source activate venv # Linux
+venv\Scripts\activate # Windows
 pip install -r requirements.txt
 ```