question for you (web) design people

[bazookaman]

how do you display your web work? As in, for an interview...in your portfolio? Yes, yes. I know, your work is available online, but most people don't have a computer right there in the conference room to fire up your site. So how do you include your web design stuff?

[M A V I C]

It's been a while since I've been to a job interview... but either they looked at it in a conference room with a computer, or we met in their office and looked at it there. One company simply asked me to show them one site that was most applicable to the work I would do with them.

Other times they look at it before the interview. I think that must always be the case. Doesn't make sense to have an interview without seeing the portfolio first.

At one company many years ago we used to build what amounted to a sales deck in Director and use that, bringing our own computer & projector if needed. I suppose one would do that with Flash these days.

One time I was asked to showcase my work at an event and I just put screenshots of my work on a nice backdrop and into iPhoto, then did a slideshow from that. I've also put local versions on the built-in OS X web server and run them off that if I wasn't sure about having net access.

[mattkime]

depends upon your strength, if its visual design then a printed portfolio might be appropriate

[Seacrest]

If I were a visual designer, I'd probably not let prospective employers see "live" sites. Because many people probably worked on them, there is lots of potential for glitches or browser anomalies (beyond your control) to be attributed to you.

If there's no computer, I'd print out pages of screen shots.
Otherwise, some kind of electronic portfolio sounds good.

[DRR]

I bring my own computer. No worrying about whether they have the right versions of Flash installed on their conference room (or office computer,) no questions about how the CSS will render, no surprises period. Walk in with your show. Don't depend on anyone or anything else in an interview or New Biz pitch. Ever.

[JoeM]

It's been 8 yrs since I showed any sites in an interview but like some above said, in a number of forms.

1- submitted links before interview (sometimes never checked so I always had the following ready)
2- screenshots in dedicated web area of online portfolio
3- screenshots in Director presentation
4- site burned to CD and carried to interview

I never included screenshots in my physical portfolio and didn't own a laptop. Most interviewers never viewed the stuff they asked for prior to the interview and only started looking at the interview, in my presence.

[bazookaman]

hmmm. No one has ever asked me to present my portfolio BEFORE the interview. But now that you say that, it makes perfect sense. Of course, i ALWAYS tell them its available online to view before the interview but I don't think anyone ever does. I've used a Director/Flash presentation before but I found that if there is a computer, than an online site works out better, if there isn't a computer, its a moot point. For me, I use screen shots. I was just wondering what other people did.

[M A V I C]

bazookaman wrote:
hmmm. No one has ever asked me to present my portfolio BEFORE the interview.

Wow. It's been years since my last interview, but back then I used to have a two page resume. Page 1 was the standard stuff, Page 2 was a full list of URLs to review. Most job posts requested this.

I'm really blown away that many wouldn't want a perspective employer to see live sites as they could have problems. If they could have been edited, I can see that. But as far as browser issues... those should be solved already.

[DRR]

M A V I C wrote:
[quote=bazookaman]
hmmm. No one has ever asked me to present my portfolio BEFORE the interview.

Wow. It's been years since my last interview, but back then I used to have a two page resume. Page 1 was the standard stuff, Page 2 was a full list of URLs to review. Most job posts requested this.

I'm really blown away that many wouldn't want a perspective employer to see live sites as they could have problems. If they could have been edited, I can see that. But as far as browser issues... those should be solved already.
not that they could have problems - more that the client computer could have problems. What if their monitor was waaay out of calibration? What if something that was supposed to be neutral gray was green? You can't account for this and when you are presenting your own work you wan to present it correctly.

I was in a new biz pitch once showing off a simple site i had done. The css font stack was Georgia, TNR, Serif. The client computer had neither georgia nor TNR. The site came up with some gawdawful serif. So now despite the fact that i had spec'ed my font stack as well as could be expected, the fact that this computer was in the maybe two percent of machines that have neither georgia nor TNR, reflected poorly on my work.

And that's why it will never happen again.

[M A V I C]

DRR wrote:
[quote=M A V I C]
[quote=bazookaman]
hmmm. No one has ever asked me to present my portfolio BEFORE the interview.

Wow. It's been years since my last interview, but back then I used to have a two page resume. Page 1 was the standard stuff, Page 2 was a full list of URLs to review. Most job posts requested this.

I'm really blown away that many wouldn't want a perspective employer to see live sites as they could have problems. If they could have been edited, I can see that. But as far as browser issues... those should be solved already.
not that they could have problems - more that the client computer could have problems. What if their monitor was waaay out of calibration? What if something that was supposed to be neutral gray was green? You can't account for this and when you are presenting your own work you wan to present it correctly.

I was in a new biz pitch once showing off a simple site i had done. The css font stack was Georgia, TNR, Serif. The client computer had neither georgia nor TNR. The site came up with some gawdawful serif. So now despite the fact that i had spec'ed my font stack as well as could be expected, the fact that this computer was in the maybe two percent of machines that have neither georgia nor TNR, reflected poorly on my work.

And that's why it will never happen again.
I still take the chance. Honestly, with clients and perspective clients I've found whatever problems occur tend to come out to my benefit.

If it's a color issue, they either wont notice because they're used to horrible colors or if they do I'll occasionally adjust their monitor so it looks nicer. I had one client who had their LCD set to a non native resolution and I pointed it out, changed it then asked if the new settings were ok with them. They said they thought their monitor was going bad and were thinking about buying a new one and were very thankful I fixed it.

One client used IE6 until a couple weeks ago. It caused some issues which he had noticed elsewhere. He wasn't sure what the deal was, and he wanted tabs too. So I installed IE8. His other problems were now solved and he didn't have to deal with my png fix anymore.

As far as your TNR issue goes, did they not have any variation of times? I will put TNR, and just plain "Times" in there. If such a problem arrises, I will generally know the chances. Like in your case it being 2%. So I would ask them about similar problems they've had and point out that it's really a problem with their machine, and fix it.

The only bad side effect I've found from working this way is I occasionally get tech support calls.

Problems likes this are inherent with the web. My take is I should already build in fixes, or know that it's such a small % that it doesn't matter. Generally I track browser stats for a couple months before making any changes. Sometimes I drop IE6 support and tell the client "only 5% of your visitors use this and it will save you xx% on development costs." I've never had a client that thinks all their customer's computers are just like theirs... especially after I present them the data to the contrary.